Vacation
It is hard for Howard or I to take a vacation. In part this is because we know that there is no one else to do the work if we don’t get it done. This is coupled with the fact that doing the work is very important so that we don’t let fans down and so that we can continue to pay our bills. Another large part of the difficulty with vacations is that we love the work itself. I enjoy the challenges of book layout, shipping organization, and writing. Howard loves creating the Schlock comics. We love the sense of accomplishment that comes from doing our work well. But we need vacations and breaks because burnout happens even when you love the work.
Yesterday we spent half the day at Howard’s sister’s house. During that time, neither Howard nor I could check our email. We didn’t stress about things to be done or schedules to be met. We just ate good food, played some games, and visited with good people. It was delightful. Today we were both back at work. Howard coloring comics, me packing and shipping books. But by about noon I fizzled out. I’ve spent large portions of the afternoon staring at nothing in particular while my mind wanders. It comes back eventually, but has no memory of where it has been. This, along with the fact that I’ve fallen asleep twice, leads me to believe that I’m still fending off the bug that knocked me out on Wednesday.
At least the kids had motivation today. They did a pile of cleaning up so that they could set up the Christmas tree. It is up, with lights on, and a section of the middle is decorated in clumps. By the time we got out the decorations, only the shortest people still had any energy to spend on decorating. Perhaps later today I’ll get out the ladder and spread out the decorations more evenly. Or maybe it’ll wait until tomorrow. We’ve still got two more days until our regular schedule resumes.