A Week In The Woods, Back To Work

Last week we spent in Brown County, Indiana, away from our jobs and everyday grinds and just hung out with our adult kids. We ate, we played pool, we walked a trail, we perused crafty shops, we laughed a lot, and we thoroughly enjoyed each others company. It was the vacation we’d been working towards all year.

We had originally planned to spend 5 days in the Upper Peninsula in a house with a great lake in the backyard, but with the Canadian wildfires we thought we should consider other options(turns out the air quality was better up there than where we were…oh well.) Turned out that Brown County was a better option overall, especially for our kids that live in Indianapolis, making their drive a mere hour to Nashville, Indiana, as opposed to the 11-hour drive up to Northern Michigan. Moreso in hindsight since my son was having problems with his car not starting(it was a dead battery, thankfully.)

I told my wife on the last day of our stay that this was the first vacation we’ve taken in years where I wasn’t anxious to get home, and in fact not want to leave a day or two early. That says a lot about how much we enjoyed ourselves, and how much this time away from it all was needed. After the heart scare earlier this year, A LOT of things were put into perspective for me, and the big thing is spending time with those that mean the most to me. Besides my parents, everyone in that house down in the wilds of Brown County are exactly the people I want to spend my time with: my wife and kids and their significant others. The only one missing was Celeste.

When you spend an extended amount of time in fear for your health and future, it puts things in perspective. And looking back on when I was having all of my issues and not wanting to do anything, or feeling I couldn’t, well it all just looks like time wasted to me. It’s time I can’t get back, so from this point on I want to make the most of life and not spend a single moment NOT enjoying it or doing things I don’t want to do. I really do feel like a “million bucks”, as the saying goes. I have a heart scan next week to see if my heart has improved from back in April. If I was gaging that on how I feel I’d say it was back at full throttle, but I can’t say that for sure. And September 3rd I go in for a heart cath so they can determine if I need a couple heart stents put it in. I’m good with whatever happens. If I don’t need them, great. If I do, I guess I’ll just feel that much better afterwards.

I guess I’m saying, I’ll do what I have to in order to stick around on this rock for as long as I can. I like it here, despite all the mess we create as humans. I want to spend as much time with my tribe as I can. I want to be an old guy that laughs it up with his adult kids in some not too distant future. I want to buy more records and see more movies and read more books and wax ecstatic about them to anyone who will listen or read my words well into my 60s and 70s. I want to continue to feel good and walk a hulk of a dog daily, even if I don’t feel like it. I’ll do it anyways, because in the end that’s what makes me happy.

I guess that time off put much into perspective for me.

My first day back to work was even pleasant. I was happy to be there, which was never the case before. Before, that Sunday before going back to work after a week off I was usually pretty miserable. Just dreading going back to that 9 to 5, feeling like I wasted my time off. Not this time. I came into a sort of mess, but my mind was straightened out; focused and rested and ready to dig in. It was a busy, chaotic day but it went by fast and I locked in. I walked 3.5 miles just running around the plant, plus another 5 miles after work walking a trail. I was beat and sweaty when I got home, but I felt good.

I can’t recommend vacation enough, folks. It’s a winner.