I need a vacation.
This is crazy. At five in the morning, EVERY morning, Ruby the Corgi Pup whines me out of the sack. After letting the dogs out, I sit down in front of the computer to answer the email and read the news and finish off what I imagine will be about ten or fifteen minutes of some client’s project.
Two hours later… Yeah: invariably, two hours later, at 7 a.m., I shake off the computer-induced hypnosis, get up, feed the dogs, water the plants, realize it’s too hot to take the animals (or me) for a walk, so fix something to eat and a pot of coffee. Write a blog post while finishing off the coffee. Post it to Twitter and Facebook, which has inexplicably canceled FaM’s feed.
Then work begins. I park in a leather chair with my feet on an ottoman and a computer on my lap, and the only thing that moves is my fingers. Hour after hour goes by.
By noon or 1 p.m., I haven’t moved in four or five hours. Literally have. not. moved. But the brain has gone numb over the clients’ copy.
Get up and fix lunch. If it’s hot, I go swimming, briefly. Then it’s back to the leather chair with my feet on the ottoman and a computer on my lap. Continue working on client stuff until the dogs start to lobby for their dinner, around 6 or 7 p.m. By now I’ve worked almost nonstop for 14 hours. During that time, I’ve barely moved. I’ve had exactly zero exercise, other than walking to the fridge and pulling out some food.
Is it any wonder I’m getting fat again? The wonder is that I haven’t had an embolism by now.
This has got to stop. I have got to get away from the computer.
Ergo, VACATION starts as of today. For the next seven days, I’m not even touching a damn computer.
To keep Funny alive, we’ll enjoy some old posts from back in the Day when Funny was young and lively and I was employed.
Interestingly a week’s worth of classic FaM posts — the site has been in business since 2007, so there are a LOT of classics — reveals how much brighter my mood was in those halcyoon days. And…some of these posts actually are funny! At one point along the line Funny really WAS funny about money.
So you should enjoy them. And with any luck, a week away from Electronica will mellow your humble writer’s mood some.
Watch this space…starting tomorrow.
When you work for long stretches, set an alarm when you sit down for 50 minutes away. Get up and walk around or do something. You might do the math and think that you’re losing ten minutes per hour and start calculating that you’ll have to work that much longer, but I actually think you’d come out the same as you’ll be more productive when you sit back down and you’ll make up the time lost…..and get moving in the process.
In any case, enjoy your time off.
Heh heh heh! I’ve tried that. Alas, it takes a younger mind than mine to REMEMBER to reset the timer! 😀
The truth is, though, that when your mind is refreshed, whether by a series of short breaks or a longer one like a lunch hour or an errand run outside the office, you surely do perform better & more efficiently!
Am on the last page or so of the current client’s magnum opus…hence the break to fiddle with the computer despite myself. And once that’s done, it’s off to the garden shop to pick up some seeds for the winter veggie garden, and maybe even a few flowers to replace the ones that fried over the summer. The weather is BEYOND gorgeous — 68 degrees at 5 this morning!!! — and the hounds and I have already patrolled the neighborhood. I’ll get the bike’s tires fixed, dig the hiking boots out of the closet, and spend as much time outside as possible.
Enjoy your “vacation”….I’m guessing you will be getting a lot accomplished. These computers are “time bandits”…..
Yup. Not convinced they really make our lives “better” in any profound way — on the surface, yes; but in terms of quality and psychological value, maybe not so much.
Ah Funny – I will miss you! But you have earned this vacation so, enjoy! Just remember to give us the play by play when you “return”. I hope you have LOTS of fun adventures to report aka “What I did on my September vacation” by FoM…
🙂
Have no fear…the “Gone Fishin'” posts that will appear should take up the slack.
Enjoy your vacation!
I too have the “resetting the timer” issue. I found an app for my iThing that can repeat timers, which has helped me (if I program it correctly the first time). If I remember correctly it’s called Timer+, and if I remember incorrectly…then it’s not that. I certainly didn’t pay anything for it, though.
Thanks! I’ll check it out!
Enjoy your time off, Funny! I will be taking some time off next week. Woohoo!