Staycation

For the one or two of you out there who aren't familiar with the aforementioned term, a staycation is basically a vacation spent away from work at home. Now, I've had a lot of experience with those kind of vacations over the years, simply because I can't co-ordinate the time and money at the same time. So for the past five years (or is it nine? no wait, it's four, 'cause I actually took a honest-to-good real vacation in '08. don't believe me? check out the year 2008 on this blog, circa late August), all of my vacations have been spent at home, and up until this year, none have been longer than three days.

This year though, things have been radically different. Because I work in the public sector, I don't have to use my vacation time within the calendar year, just like you have to do in your job. I can roll over the days that I earn (currently stands at 1 1/4 days per month, or 15 days per year) into the next year. The only drawback that I have, is that I have a cap of 60 days. In other words, I can carry up to 60 days of vacation time. Problem with that is, if I don't use any of that time and stay at that cap, I can't earn any more time until I get under the cap.

Yes, you can now hurl any insult that you wish to hurl, if only to make yourself feel better. They won't bother me 'cause I've heard them all from my co-workers. So there, nyah.

So what I did for this year, was to plan out mini-staycations for April and May, and one very long one for June. That way, I can earn my accruals and not have to worry about taking time off until, say, October.

And because I'm such a conscientious worker, I actually made sure that all of my vacations were scheduled for an off pay week. That way, no one would have to spend time covering all four of my payrolls plus tuition reimbursement.

So I'm sure you're asking yourself, or rather, asking this blog, "What does all of this big backstory drop have to do with today's post?"

Lots.

For instance, I'm smack dab in the middle of a very nice and very well deserved staycation from work. For those of you who have been following this blog, you know that I've gone through very public phases of burnout over the years, and yet, I haven't really done anything of note to rescue my sanity from that burnout. So I decided way early in the year, to take one actual vacation this year.

June 8th thru the 13th. Four glorious days off with pay, six days off overall. And what have I done so far during my staycation?

First off, I did a lot of exercise, using this infernal contraption:

Yes, I did a boatload of bicycling, mostly around the southern end of town, and as hard as it is to believe, no accidents or wipeouts. However, I did acknowledge the fact that being fat (170lbs) and riding a bike uphill, was not good. In fact, the exact phrase that I used to any passerby I happened to see was this:

It sucks to be fat.

But, and this is a key but, I can outlast my lazy son when it comes to doing anything of consequence, broken body and all. Walking or riding, I'm better than him. End of discussion.

Secondly, I made a serious attempt at cleaning out my den. My den is actually a converted junk room. I'm actually at a lost for words to describe my actual work area, if you can believe that. Anyways, there was soooooooooooooooo much junk in the den that it took me and my wife an hour just to clear out a one and a half foot wide by twenty feet long space for me to use. The eventually goal is to clear out enough of the crap so that I can make it into a proper office for myself. Some day I'll tell everyone how much crap is actually in here, but for now, just take my word this space is very unorganized.

Thirdly, besides finding time to write and schedule a week's worth of blog posts for the first time in months (got it made 'cause I got three upcoming guest blog posts next week for everyone), I was able to make a very serious dent in re-writing an old short story of mine. Funny how when you finally find a ungodly chunk of time to write, it actually becomes fun to do. Imagine that, something that you like doing becomes fun again. I also dug out an old partial short story that I had stashed away on my clipboard and stuck it on my computer, because I got to thinking about writing another quirky horror story, and this one just might do the trick.

Finally, I got to enjoy the luxury of just goofing off for the week. No responsibilities to deal with, no time constraints to work with or work around, not even worrying about having to do any kind of heavy grocery shopping for the week, 'cause I ain't at work. I sat outside, got some serious sun, watched the birds, and basically just emptied my brain and acted like any other brainless twit that one comes across during their daily wanderings. You know the ones I'm talking about, the ones who act stupid 24/7/365. I decided to be one of those. And more importantly, I haven't watched any television this week. How cool is that?

Anyways, I though I would spend a little time rubbing in the fact that I'm on vacation from work this week and I'm enjoying every blessed minute of being off work with pay. In spite of the hard concrete reality that I'm actually paying myself to take time off from work with pay. You know, taxpayer's tax dollars pays the salaries of public employees. I'm a taxpayer, ergo, my tax dollars are paying my salary.

I live you with this witty little ditty from Mungo Jerry: