Today is one of those glorious summer days that makes all those tourists rolling into town for the holiday weekend want to move here. (Of course, all it’s going to take is another really bad winter, and we’ll be seeing a whole lot of UHauls headed south.)
As one who does live here, I have to say that work really gets in the way of my recreation. But not always. For example, this morning I took some time off for a horseback riding lesson. And last Saturday we went sailing. It’s hard to spend your life staring at a computer screen when the wind conditions are perfect out on the lake.
I’ve found that after a big deadline event, I tend to need a little "down" time. Writing and designing require a lot of concentration and my brain starts to rebel if it doesn’t get to do something different. In fact, the other day James and I were talking about sailing and I pointed out that one reason I like sailing and riding (and gardening now that I think about it) is because they sort of revolve around something that is controlled by natural forces. I mean, you can’t force a sailboat to move if there’s no wind. You can’t really force a horse to do much of anything it doesn’t want to. And it’s the same with plants. If you don’t water them or it doesn’t rain, they die. If it rains a whole lot and you have a zillion slugs, you also have no plants. When you use a computer, you lose that kind of connection with the natural world.
Here in the U.S. that holiday weekend I mentioned contains Independence Day, a day filled with fireworks and picnics. And Monday will be a day off for us working folk. During the fireworks, please keep your pets inside with ID tags on them. Fireworks are fun for us, but scary to many dogs and cats, who often escape on July 4th and end up in shelters (or worse) by July 5th. So here’s to keeping all family members safe…even the furry ones.