Vacations not for everyone

I don’t much care for what most people would call a “vacation.” And –once upon a time– felt a bit of guilt about it. Barb likes to travel so she and her sister frequently vacation together, so it works.

I discovered last week that I am not alone. The story (Yahoo! News) quoted a couple of people who share my lack of enthusiasm for The Vacation.

Nancy Kirk doesn’t consider them worth the effort. So instead of taking vacations, Kirk, 60, who owns an antique quilt and fabric business in Omaha, Neb., works down time into her everyday life — from taking an afternoon nap if she feels like it to occasionally tacking a day onto a business trip for sightseeing.

Jared Wadley, a senior public relations specialist at the University of Michigan news service in Ann Arbor, said he wasn’t interested in vacations even as a child. He not a workaholic, he says, but instead paces himself so that leisure is part of his day-to-day life.

“You have to look at why people take vacations. They want to get away from the office, but I enjoy my work so I don’t want to get away from it.”

There you go. I have three weeks of paid vacation but struggle to take it all. I think I would much prefer stretching those 21 days out into long weekends. If you add in the naturally occurring three-day-weekends… almost every other week would be a short one. Sound good?

Towel Art

Towel ArtI’ve stayed in a few nice hotels so this is not the first time I’ve seen hotel towels folded and arranged in a pleasing manner. But someone in Guest Services here at the Country Inn and Suites (Knoxville) is the Michelangelo of towel folders. I kept using the same towel and wash cloth because I didn’t want to ruin this arrangement. (I did remove one hand cloth before taking this shot)

Then I started wondering how this works from a practical standpoint. Is there just one person who knows how to do this? And he/she races from room to room every day? Or do they require all new hires to learn how to do this? Six weeks of Advanced Towel Sculpture before you move on to Short-Sheeting the Bed?

I’m betting someone on the staff once worked at the Bellagio and was doing rooms one day and decided to have some fun. A supervisor spotted what she had done, called all the other maids in and announced, “Alright ladies… from now on, this is how we fold the towels.”

23+ hours in the air

It took me 5-6 hours to drive from Jefferson City to Nashville and less than 4 hours from Nashville to Knoxville [blue line]. I was feeling noble for making the drive to see my brother…until he related his flight.

Bandar Lampung (Indonesia) to Jakarta – 30 min
Jakarta to Singapore – 90 min
Singapore to Tokyo – 7 hours
Tokyo to Detroit – 11 hours
Detroit to Knoxville – 1 hour and change [larger image]

He’s been doing this for years and usually with three kids in tow. He’s a hard guy to rattle. And if you need to know how to bribe a corrupt third-world customs official, he’s your guy. I’m just hoping I can find my way back to Jefferson City.

Miltenberger Family Reunion

Jan, Lew and MA

I didn’t take a lot of pix on recent trip to Destin because Barb’s brother Chris is a damned fine photographer and snapped about 500 images. I added 20 or 30 to my flickr set.

Someone hired a professional beach photographer to get some family shots. For some reason, all beach photogs have a thing for khaki pants and white shirts. There’s a proof page here (very lo rez) but not for long. I like Chris’s images better.

And I’m never gonna leave, ever again

Saturday: 14 hours of Quality Time with Barb as we (mostly she) drove back from Destin. Sunday: Laundry, dogs, nap, more laundry. Brother-in-law Chris shot 500 pix (which I thinned down to about fifty), but just didn’t get around to posting. Now that the bandwidth is deep and wide, we’ll try to catch up here at smays.com. Like Dorothy said, there’s no place like home.

Mac on the road

I can’t remember who made the first “portable” computer I owned but the bastard must have weighed 15 pounds. Connecting to the web wasn’t an issue in those days because it didn’t exist (in any way that mattered to me). I can’t even remember what I did with the laptop on the road.

This is my first outing with a Mac and I couldn’t be happier. The hotel charged me $10 a day for cable access but I just plugged it in and was up and running. Wifi was very slow at the conference but the Mac found the signal with no fiddling or port futzing.

I’m posting this from the Seattle airport where $8 buys 24 hours of really fast net access. Nobody needs 24 hours but what a great way to pass the time (or do bidness). And, again, so easy. This is the way mobile computing was meant to be.

The Notorious J.E.F.

Jeff McVey is the son of long-time friends Terry and Nancy McVey. Like many young men his age, Jeff has kicked around and tried a few things. His latest is studying martial arts in China. From his MySpace page:

Deborah and I got into China on May 12. … We’ve found our new home at a martial arts academy in a remote mountain village. I’m pretty sure it used to be some sort of industrial complex, and to call our accomidations meager would be a huge understatement. However, we do have a place to live and good food to eat. We live here with about a dozen other students from all over the world.  There are people from America, England, Germany, Indonesia, Scotland, New Zealand, and other countries (I haven’t quite met everyone).  Fortunately, all the students I have met speak English, which makes a nice little oasis in a land where I can’t comunicate with anyone.  So, we’ve been treated quite well, and we start our training tomorrow.  Everything seems a little daunting right now, but at the same time more than a little exciting.

His mom says this is something he has always wanted to do…and he’s doing it. Now, the person I want to meet is his wife, Deborah.

Jeff: “You know, I’ve always wanted to study martial arts in a remote mountain village in China. Whadya say?”

Deborah: “Cool. I’ll go pack.”

Road Trip

Light (no?) posting for a couple of days. Off to Tulsa for a last visit with my brother and his family before they return to Indonesia. Gonna miss ’em. Probably won’t see them again for 2 or 3 years. Next trip will be to enroll Ryan in college. We’ve had some good visits and they’re ready to go “home.”