So we have just been hanging out in the southern Colorado New Mexico border area for the past few weeks. We plan on being here a bit longer and I think it is a much needed weekend.

Weekends are typically considered days off. Days off from work and the routine of a scheduled life that most of us participate in to make money , raise a family and accomplish goals we set for ourselves. We tend to limit these things to just the work week, Monday through Friday and we pretty much know what we need to do every day and then when the weekend comes we are free to do what we want.

Now we have not been on a set schedule or routine for the last few months other than the routine of getting the camper ready to transit and setting up when we get where we are going. It may seem like all of this has been one big weekend but in discussion it seems we did not think of it this way but more of that we did not get days off, so we are taking a few.

Life in Southern Colorado is relaxed and really from day to day we do not have set or scheduled things we want to do or need to do so these are days off.

I think about my career sometimes in reference to days off. Have I really had them or was it just the perception of not having to go to work or kids going to school or dance class, baseball volunteer events or grocery shopping. Did I really have days off or were they just other days to do the scheduled things that you don’t do during the week. And was work really so structured that I knew what I had to do from day to day? No

Work for the past decade with the exception of the last two years has been a chaotic mess at best. You actually start your day at the end of the previous day thinking of a plan for the next day. Things that did not get done or new things that have come up and the the next morning roles around and overnight some piece of equipment has failed or someone quit or any other number of things that you did not think would have to get done that day. You had a plan remember the day before of what you were going to do today, but that is shot to hell in the first few seconds of getting to work the following day.

Many people will tell you they thrive on the pressure and the chaos, I’m not sure I do any more. I used too, I had most of the answers to anything that could just spontaneously combust and throw a wrench into your well planned day. So in this time it was not a big deal and the pressure did not feel like it was going to be too overbearing to my well planned day so it was not to cumbersome . However I think there has to be another way. I got tired of reacting all the time instead of planning and following through.

But a day off should be just that. Not a day to do all the things you did not get to in your work week but a day off. No plans no expectations no hurry.

The leaves are turning,

The air is crisp,

Thoughts wander to things of imagination,

You can think with a clear mind.

Hmm that cloud looks like an alligator, I’m starting to like weekends!