Bill's Bulletin Board
By Bill Rea

I frequently get people in the community asking me if I ever take time off or vacation. I guess my chronic workaholism is a little hard to hide.

Well, this is going to knock the socks off a lot of people, but I did take time off; like six whole days, from the close of business Aug. 11 to the start of business Aug. 18.

Did you miss me? More to the point, did you even know I was gone?

My wife and I have developed a bit of an affection with the Muskoka area, and this was the third year in a row we've taken our annual holiday there, spending six sort of relaxing days on the shores of Lake Joseph and the surrounding area. The fact is it's a very beautiful part of Ontario, with a few interesting sights, lots of peace and quiet and an assortment of wildlife. We were driving one of the backroads one day, and were delayed for a few minutes by a couple of deer who were taking their own sweet time crossing to the other side.

In that space of land and time, I was able to avail

myself in several acts of over-indulgence, including steak, roast beef, beer, swimming, ice cream, paddling canoes, and relaxing. We got in a bit of touring, as well as nine holes of golf (Tiger Woods I ain't) and some reading. I'm within 200 pages of completing Bill Clinton's memoirs, which is recommended reading regardless of what one might think of his politics and habits. I also downloaded some rather pedantic material on the Titanic from the Internet to my laptop, which Beth (somewhat to my surprise) let me take with me, and read through that when I needed a break from Bill and Hillary.

And the time seemed to whip by all too fast.

I don't know if it's the relaxed pace of vacation time, or the onset of old age, but I find that if I'm not working I have a terrible time staying up late. I can maybe make it to 10 o'clock, but I'm out by 11. But don't worry. I'm not one to sleep away my vacation. It takes serious effort to stay in bed past 7 in the morning.

Vacations have changed a lot since I was a kid. My family used to frequent a fishing camp on Lake Nipissing for years. I was enthusiastic about fishing in those days, but as time went by, I found it hard to justify making a sport of forcing a fellow creature fight for its life. You're no damned good as a fisherman if your conscience is going to make you have thoughts like that.

In the early days, the fishing camp didn't even have running water. But things progressed, although as a kid, there was no TV there. My dad once talked about taking a portable set up one year (in the days when there were portable TVs that could be moved about with only moderate risk of hernia). But that was also at the height of Batman's popularity in the '60s, so dear old Dad vetoed that notion in short order.

Like I said, things have changed. Our accommodations this year had lots of running water, like three bathrooms. And there was TV, with satellite dish. There was no Batman, though. About the only station I could confidently find without a lot of time-consuming searching was CNN. Thus, were exposed to all the details of what was going on in the Middle East, Jerry Ford's hospitalization (something I didn't notice a lot of mention of in the papers) and then we almost ODed on the coverage of John Karr being arrested for the murder of JonBenet Ramsay.

And in the middle of it all, we even had a couple of kids to entertain. Our nephew and niece, Jacob and Jenna, joined us for a couple of days, and they even brought their mom and dad (someone had to drive). Among other things, it gave me a chance to sharpen my barbecuing skills a bit (the accommodations came equipped with a barbecue too).

It also provided the motivation for a day-long side trip to Santa's Village in nearby Bracebridge.

Now I have been aware of this operation since before I baited my first fish hook, but it took these two little members of the younger generation to actually get me there. It is a very nice place to take young children, if you can get over the idea of hearing the constant playing of Christmas music in August. Fortunately, I like that music.

I even got to go on one of the kiddie rides for the first time in about 40 years. I would ordinarily have stood down from such activity, but three-year-old Jacob was insistent about who was to accompany him on this contraption. I have learned that when dealing with this young fellow, the path of least resistance is often the path well chosen.

But all good things, including vacations have to come to an end. The arrangement we had

for this particular accommodation was such that we had to clear out by noon Friday. Me, being the kind of guy I am, could see no good reason for Friday not being a regular work day, accepting the fact that it would just be a regular work day that started a little early (oh all right, a lot early) in Muskoka.

So it was that Beth and I were on the road before the sun was even up. I drove her home, unloaded the car, the high-tailed it to the office.

Once there, I learned there had been considerable angry reaction to an editorial that had appeared in print before I went away, another person had issued an anonymous complaint about a story that I had left to be run in my absence and there were a few other problems that had sort of been left for me to deal with when I got back.

Beth often laments the fact that I seem to have trouble relaxing when I'm on vacation, or at any other time for that matter. I have always realized she was right, although that point was highlighted Friday. As I told one of my employers at one stage during the day; "I was up by 5, on the road by 6, in the office by 9 and my blood pressure was elevated by 9:30."

That, quite simply, is the kind of guy I am.

Man, it was good to be back at it.

So, like I asked before; Did you miss me?