I need to work on my Stay-Cation skills; this one had some room for improvement.

Since starting at JPL, I hadn’t taken much time off … especially this calendar year.  With the 4th of July landing on a Wednesday, and our bi-weekly off Friday, I had the opportunity to put in for 3 days of vacation, and go 9 days without work.  It used to be that a chance like that meant I would go somewhere and do something.  I walked into this run with one intention … to not do anything.

Honestly, I wanted to enjoy just being home.  That included meeting up with my friends here & there, getting in a lot of World Cup Soccer, cleaning up the yard, being lazy, and more than anything – not spend money.  You know, just let the savings grow while not getting thrown all over the country.

If you saw the post earlier this week, the pup changed my plans .. mostly in the ‘not spend  money’. What is now diagnosed as a degenerative minerialization (aka bone chip) in his front shoulder; he spent a drug induced lazy week of recovery under my watchful eye.  Six days into his recovery, and I can report he is doing pretty well.  Last Sunday, he suffered in pain so badly that he wouldn’t stand up.  Today, he almost never limps, and seems to not have any worries about putting weight on his paws.  He’s still recovering, and should be for a couple more weeks, but things are going pretty good for now.

Watching over the pup made being lazy pretty easy.  The pup slept in his kennel nearly 24/7, stepping out to do his business now and then.  The soccer was good, so it was easy to sit at home and watch him.  Then the weather lent a hand.

We had a freaky heat spell come through this weekend.  The night of the 4th was near perfect; it creeped into the 80s during the day but hovered in the 70s for most the night.  Thursday was no different.  Then someone turned on the heat.  Like, literally it was a switch.  By Thursday night, the 80s were heading upward even after the sun went down.  By 6am Friday morning, it was in the 90s already.  By 10am, it broke 100.  High on Friday was 115 Degrees …. 115!!!!  With the Wednesday low of 65; that means temps were up 50 degrees in 48 hours.

So, that was all the excuse I needed to not get up.  I mean, I still got together a few times with friends – including reciting our favorite line from Jurassic Park 3 until that dead horse  was eaten by talking velociraptor (“Alan”).

But that’s a Staycation for you.  It’s nothing more than a reason to get away from the usual routine of your life.  That and remember why you need the routine.  I got way too lazy this week.