I had a big day on Saturday. I got a lot accomplished and was able to relax a little.

I picked that day as my summer vacation.

My schedule is usually seven days a week. If there is a day I kind of take it easy, it’s Saturday. It was also the Fourth of July. Considering it was a double day off for most people – I decided to make it my day.

I spent an hour or two finishing up a couple things in the office in the morning, and then whisked my wife away on an adventure. Actually, I went home and ate my Fourth of July hot dogs for lunch, washed down with a couple cold ones, before we ran a couple errands.

There wasn’t much to do on the Fourth of July, so it was a fairly solemn celebration of our Great Nation’s birth around our house. We returned home mid-afternoon. We apparently may have been the only family that didn’t stock up on fireworks, so I did the next best thing. I’ve let a few chores slip by, and I decided it was as good a day as any to get my summer to-do list taken care of. Admittedly, there isn’t much on it. We have some tidying up to do, but we have some work being done on our house, so it’s hard to clean up until that mess is complete. I guess that will have to wait until my next summer vacation.

It was scorching hot, so I gave the dogs an outside bath, so they could dry off while enjoying the sunshine.

I thought back to some of my favorite vacations, and they involved doing little or nothing. I have a couple books to catch up on, and that patio furniture looked comfortable. Here was the problem with that plan: Everything was covered in about a half-inch of pollen and there was miscellaneous debris left over from some recent storms. It was nothing that the leaf blower and garden hose couldn’t fix, and I spent a couple hours doing little or nothing, followed by steaks on the grill and a movie. It might have been my best vacation ever.

My wife is threatening to have us go to see the shores of Lake Superior someday this summer, so I’m going to have to see if I can swing another day off with the boss. And obviously it’s going to have to happen soon, because the way this year is going, I’m betting on an early winter. There could be snow in Superior before summer ends.

So today, it’s back to work, and I’m a day behind. It was worth it though. I might do this more often.

E-mail John at [email protected]

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by John McLoone