A short holiday during which Nothing Much was done and it was Glorious
OK, let’s just cut to the chase here. We got to hand-feed Galapagos tortoises and capybaras!
Even in the heat (and the heat was significant), this was a very good time. These are the same capybaras we’ve encountered before. They’re much more accustomed to being around people, much more insistent with the feeding, and much less likely to run away if you move in an unexpected fashion.
This was our first time meeting the tortoises. They don’t move quickly, but they do move insistently and they will corner you if you let them. Not in a threatening way, mind you, just in a “we know you have lettuces and we would like very much to partake of them” sense. They were a bit of a revelation; they demonstrated far more personality than we expected and I would recommend them to anyone who likes spending time with giant, gentle creatures.
I took all my social media off my phone during my time off and it’s making me re-think what I’m doing on Twitter, Facebook, et al. I have more to say on that subject, but it was a nice change of pace, not being fed things designed to make me angry. I’d like to say I’m too clever to fall for it, but I very much am not.
The whole point of taking the time off was…well, it wasn’t the point when I scheduled it, but I needed to defrag. A very large project is winding down and, while it was successful, it could/should have been more successful and that’s down to me not recognizing where fires were burning behind signs that said “everything’s fine!” Frustrating.
So, the goal was just to let some of that tension go and not think about work for a few days. Sadly, two-day weekends are nowhere near sufficient to recharge the batteries anymore. An entire day was spent, wasted really, just being horizontal and not doing much of anything because I just didn’t have it in me to do much of anything. You know that feeling when you think you’re squandering your precious time off by not doing the dozens of things you’ve been putting off? Yeah, very much that. It was necessary, but still…
So we did a lot of exploring on the other days. We’ve been eating at home almost every night for months, so we found some decent places to eat. This is the sort of thing we used to do quite a bit in the before-times, but money doesn’t go as far as it used to. It feels very luxurious today, even if the places we’re going are “pizza by the slice” and “Vietnamese sandwiches.” And, to be fair, they were very good so they were luxurious.
When I sat down to right this, I was imagining more of a travelogue but it wasn’t that kind of a vacation. This was a disconnect/retreat/recharge thing and we are so fortunate to live in a place that’s more than a little disconnected. That helped. So did shutting myself off from work and from my immediate distractions.
Which is a long way of saying ‘We really didn’t do much, but that was what I needed.”
We did go out and about Saturday and Sunday and it got a bit surreal. You might be aware that it has been warm in the American southwest of late. “Warm” in this case meaning “weeks on end with high temperatures over 100 F and no rain at all.” On our way home on Sunday, we came through San Marcos which is only 20 miles north of here. We drove through a flash flood, the kind that covers streets in a foot or more of water and turns traffic lights into blinking red beacons.
Did we get any rain at home? No, no we did not. There were traces of heavy rain as close at 5 miles north of our house, but when we got home, there was nothing. I am certain that there’s a metaphor lurking in there somewhere, but I’m not sure what it is.
So…that’s it? Yeah, that’s about it. Sometimes you have to dig through a box to realize there’s not as much in it as you thought, but at least you cleaned the box out. Or something. In the words of Sr. Cardgage: “I dunno.”
-RK