Slow down

I took last summer off from work, cashing in my banked 6-8 weeks of vacation time. It was one of the best things I ever did.

This summer, I'm working every day in a business that slows considerably in the summer, and yet it's zipping by at record speed.

Time is moving at the same speed it always has, but it has never felt faster.

I want it to slow down.

Next Friday, I'll leave for a week at Oshkosh, which is usually the highlight of my summer and I suspect it will be again, especially since the rest of the summer has been -- so far -- completely routine and without highlights; certainly without the highlights of a year ago.

I usually try to go back to New England in the summer, but it's beginning to look like there won't be time. But why? I'm not doing anything special, it's boring at work, and yet as I look ahead to August, it feels as though it's spoken for.

I thought when my kids left home, that I'd have a lot more time to do things and go places. But I don't. In fact, we seem to have less time now, or -- more accurately -- less motivation.

When we had the kids at home, we had to do things -- or thought we did -- with them, including heading back to New England for two weeks, which had to include time at the beach. Now, the kids are gone, and, man, do I ever miss the beach.

It's the part of the empty nest I had no idea existed -- the part that if you're not careful, you'll slip into a pattern of frenzied boredom.