The Big Vake

"Vacation is what you take when you can't take what you've been taking any longer."--Anonymous

So: two weeks off, drawing to a close. No idea what I'm walking into tomorrow (best not think of that until I see it for myself). You're supposed to be bored after so long away from your place of work. I feel like I'm just getting started.

"A vacation is having nothing to do and all day to do it in." --Robert Orben

There was lots to do, of course: there always is. My wife worked her butt off while I was away the first week. Perhaps I should say she worked her butts off, as she is now a non-smoker. Thanks for this in no small part to Alan Carr's EasyWay(R) To Stop Smoking. Wonderful book, this: if you have any urge to quit any habit, not just smoking, you owe it to yourself to read this book. Rather than demonize the smoker, it tackles the underlying addiction from a number of angles. By the time you've finished reading, your attitude towards cigarettes has changed completely--and changing your attitude about it all really does seem to be easier than you'd perhaps imagine, not to mention all that seems to be required!
So Eva's now smoke free. We don't say for how long (something the book taught us), because if you start dwelling on how long it's been since you had a smoke, you're still addicted. (Likewise, substitutes for cigarettes--gum, the patch, etc--often don't work simply because you're perpetuating the addiction.)

Since I got back from my time Up North, a myriad of household chores have beckoned. And I've beckoned right back at most of 'em, with an upraised middle finger. To me, it's amazing that so many retirees go mad with boredom. Give me a bunch of books to read and a Net to surf and I'll soon forget the meaning of the word boredom.

Okay, one book. But what a book. SF readers who, like me, seek to immerse themselves in a world (or better yet, a galaxy) need look no further than PANDORA'S STAR, by Peter F. Hamilton. It takes a while to get up to speed, but I'd expect nothing less in a novel of a thousand pages which is itself only half the story (the companion volume, which I'm diving into tonight, is called JUDAS UNCHAINED). There are throught-provoking ideas galore, every character has lots of backstory, and the worldbuilding is simply phenomenal. There's a first contact scene told from the alien point of view that sends shivers up and down the spine. For that matter, the alien itself is deeply, deeply disturbing--it's hardwired to eliminate any form of life it encounters--and yet Hamilton managed to get me feeling (a little) sympathetic towards it. Great novel.

Tomorrow, I go back to work, back once again on days. I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, I know I'll sleep better. On the other, I went on nights in the first place because I always found myself a day behind; I'm afraid it won't be long before I'm at that point again.
I've resolved that even if (when) that happens, I'm not going to let it affect me so much. That's right, the host of this here Breadbin is something of a hypocrite: I'm always telling everyone to slow down and relax, which would explain my peptic ulcer and general high stress level. The saying is you teach what you have to learn.

I can already recite tomorrow's lesson. Let's do it together, shall we?

"No one needs a vacation more than the person who just had one."
(Anonymous)