August 7, 1992
Dear Everyone:
Definition of a Vacation:
Something you can't wait to go
away on and which, once you're there, you can hardly wait to get home
from.
Seriously, I think everyone had a good time in
Ashland in
spite of the heat wave that hit town the same week we did.
(Why am I always surprised by the
heat? The last time it was cold
in Ashland in the summer was in 1988. I
know this because that's the date on the sweatshirt that I desperately
bought when we arrived and discovered that the temperatures were in the
upper 60’s.)
Still, when you've spent all that time and money
getting there, you don't really want to spend all of your time holed up
in your (air-conditioned) hotel room, even when it's a hotel as charming
as the “Cleopatra”.
Speaking of "spending", “Jeannie” gets the Smart
Shopper Award for finding the little fruit-shaped, battery-powered fans
that operated wherever and whenever you wanted.
Mine looks like a Naval Orange.
As is usual with vacations, I spent both more and
less money than I had anticipated. Of
course, I never dreamed that my only pair of sandals would choose to
disintegrate on me the instant we arrived in Ashland.
I managed to patch them together
for a little while, but it became necessary to find a new pair.
That was an unexpected expense,
as was the orange-fan (on which I have received numerous compliments
from my co-workers).
On the other hand, I didn't spend nearly as much on
food as I had anticipated, due in part to the "complimentary breakfast"
tickets handed out at the hotel. And
as for the usual souvenirs that one feels
compelled to acquire:
I swore that I would buy no more
coffee mugs. My mug tree at home
is overflowing and there's no more room in my drawer it work.
Besides, how many mugs can you
drink out of at any one given time?
I also balked at buying anymore English teapots.
I have at least four at home
(that I know of) and no less than five that work, although one is
severely cracked and currently serving time as a planter.
And I swore that I would absolutely, positively not
get any more T-shirts. So I only
bought 3.
In all, I came away from Ashland with over $100
still in my pocket. This lasted
until Monday morning, when I was still, technically, on Vacation,
resting up after the trip home. I
was watching Murder, She Wrote
on the VCR, while running numerous loads of laundry when the VCR
suddenly refused to play anymore. It
also refused to let go of
Angela Lansbury.
Luckily, this was a rerun and I
already knew who the murderer was.
Nevertheless, it was necessary to make a quick trip
to the friendly neighborhood VCR Outpatient Clinic down the street to a)
extricate the ensnared tape and b) get the belts replaced, heads
cleaned, etc., which pretty much took care of most of my cash residue.
On Tuesday, I went back to work and spent the
morning digging through a week’s backlog of mail and computer-notes and
phone calls to be returned. By
afternoon, all hell had broken loose.
In other words, situation normal.
Political commentary for the week:
Getting ready for work one
morning this week, I heard someone on CNN report, "President Bush is
attacking Clinton's economic plan". All I could think of was:
Talk about the
pot
calling the kettle black!
Love, as always,
Pete
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