So this is the way the vacation ends…not with a bang, but with a whimper. I’m thinking of starting a class-action suit against the weather service for the bait-and-switch number they do on their forecasts. It’s all sunshine and lollipops just beyond the hill, but when the day comes sunshine is as rare as nail file on a British Airways jet. Our two week vacation had, I estimate, 40 to 50 hours of sunshine; some of those hours saw summer-like temperatures though there were very few moments where the heat provoked me to willingly jump into either the pool or lake. In fact, the spousal unit was seen sneaking into the hot tub to warm up.
But warm weather and sunshine doesn’t make a holiday; we did experience some adventure…adventure that only chaos can bring. The first minor adventure was that the small town near where we rented the lakeside cottage had a Ford dealership. We were in the market for a Flex and couldn’t find one we liked. They had a Flex so we popped in on a rainy day, kids in tow. Not the model we wanted, we discovered, but next to it was something we had never seen. “What the heck is this?” I wondered…nice style, features, lines, etc. and not quite as boxy as the Flex. I had never heard of the Taurus-X, much less seen one. Long story short….we bought it. Serendipity, I suppose…but just part of the order that sometimes comes from chaos.
Then there was the storm that snapped the top off a huge pine tree 20m from the rented cottage. Then my camera runs out of juice and I discover I didn’t pack the charger. Then I get a call from our house-minder who says the basement is flooded. So as I’m on the cell phone trying to mitigate, things turn to rat-poop at my spouse’s place of work and, she being the head, she is feverishly making calls; the kids are watching TV; we’re both on the phone…and I’m thinking how is this different from being at home?
Well, for one thing, the kids never getTV time except for a couple of evenings a week….so they’re in kiddy heaven. My wife is only stressed out for, at most, a few hours a day so that’s a vacation for her. And, since I work in a windowless office, I’m overdosing on vitamin D and enjoying the peace and quiet that only a television babysitter can bring. Hey, that’s probably not your idea of a vacation but trust me, it’s the best we can get this year.