Easter Sunday, southwest of Ireland on the north Atlantic, about as far away as I care to get. It has been a delightful change of pace. I am swimming, walking, reading, attending lectures on Maritime history and enjoying the daylights out of the Rotterdam Trio, a violin, cello and piano. Monday is their day off. So far no icebergs, pirates, sea monsters, or land. We did see another ship the other evening.
I asked Cousin Bill how he liked retirement and he said, "retirement is great, but you never get a day off." He was being funny (he was a very fun guy), but there is also a message in this. All of us, need to get away from it all from time to time. It matters not if you are working, or retired, it does the mind and body good to get away from it all for a few days from time to time.
Don't take the burdens with you.
If you are working, tell your work, that you are unavailable. Lie if you have to and tell them you are going someplace where your phone and email won't work.
Leave the family behind, your day to day, minute to minute knowing what is happening to whom, won't change anything that is happening day to day or minute to minute. Your being there emotionally won't do anything but wear on you when you need to be away from it all.
I once replied to an office email with the message, "I am waiting for lunch in Brussels, . . .". Looking back, my reply didn't make much of a difference and it eroded my experience of a city I will probably only visit once.
A legal researcher at the University of California at San Francisco uses an out of office message that reads, "Thank you for contacting me. I am on vacation, I have deleted your message without reading it. If this is important please resend it to me after I return on ____." And she means it.
So where am I today? Someplace in the eastern Atlantic, next stop is Weymouth England in a couple of days. This post was written five weeks ago. Today I am getting away from it all. Sorry to not reply to comments as I usually do. If it is really important please resend the comment after May 12th.
Yes, I get your Uncle Bill.
ReplyDeleteLunch in Brussels is not bad but the legal researcher's out of office reply is great, but how rude to take up that practice for your dear blog mates.
I don't know anything about Weymouth. No doubt I will find out.
I don't know anything about Weymouth, but I will find out.
DeleteI love the idea of not seeing land. Sounds like freedom.
ReplyDeleteA quiet way to go to New York next year.
DeleteFor reason you state is the exact reason I don't even blog when away on vacation. For my vacation is disconnecting from everything. But also sometimes I don't have the access and I never take my laptop.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed having my chromebook, but the WiFi at sea is a pain in the ass.
DeleteThat out of office message is brilliant!
ReplyDeleteI was shocked the first time I received it, but I understood.
DeleteI love that out of office message and may steal it.
ReplyDeleteI don't have too much trouble staying away from work when I'm away from work; we have a good team so nothing gets really out of whack ... though I wouldn't know because I'm on vacation!
Use it.
DeleteGlad you are enjoying your trip so much. I'm having a relaxing day today!
ReplyDeleteAnother nap by the pool this morning.
DeleteThat out of office message is great. Sounds like you are enjoying this relaxing time. Good for you.
ReplyDeleteI find it to be a great way to travel.
DeleteWeymouth... The great Victorian novelist Thomas Hardy renamed it Budmouth in his fiction.
ReplyDeleteThe Romantic South Coast of England.
DeleteI visit an Maritime museum in Oregon.
ReplyDelete