Thursday, February 07, 2008

The Vacation's Over

For twelve days, someone showed me to a dining-room table, another person pulled out my chair and put a napkin in my lap; a third filled my water glass, while another brought me decaf coffee and a fifth took my order; yet another brought pastry.

On the thirteenth day, I poked around to see what was in the fridge and made myself a mug of tea. The party was over, the staff was gone and I was on my own until the next time.

I’d think it was a dream, except for having my room card and baggage tag with reach, and an online thread at the cruise site. Yes, I really was there. I saw some happy Caribbean islands and, mostly, poverty-stricken islands where we wouldn’t consider their standard of living to be living.

“Vacation” is somehow related to the word “vacate.” Get out, scram, empty the place. When I left an answering machine message, it was something like, “I’m away until February 7 and I do not check my messages while I’m on vacation; that’s what vacations are for. So don’t leave any; call me when I get back.” I’ve received some earlier that said, “Just in case you check your machine…” Hey, I’m away and I don’t care, because there’s nothing I can, or want to, do about anything.

So, I’m back and the place has gotten along pretty well without me. I’m not surprised; most homes and jobs can exist without us for a short while. If they can’t, we may be too hands-on for anyone’s good.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

WELCOME BACK............

And back to reality....rainy weekend, possible local flooding, not to disregard the antics of Roger Clemens, Hillary and your brother's use of his snowshovel, so he told me.

He too said ''HI' and will be back after the spring thaw.

February 09, 2008 6:00 AM  

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