Vacation Fever

Maui is one of my favorite places to go on vacation, but I can only handle it for a week at most before I start going bonkers. I used to think it was Island Fever which came about because the place is relatively small. That never really made sense to me as San Diego is effectively the same size, an island surrounded by the Pacific, Los Angeles, the desert and Mexico.

Earlier this week, wife kitteh and I got back from a week in Mobile, Alabama. Of all the places on the planet, the Deep South is the most "me." I love the people, the culture, the food, the weather, the whole thing. Even in Dixie, I was climbing the walls after a week.

It's not Island Fever, it's Vacation Fever. What I really wanted to do while in Alabama was garden, work on a car, build something, work at the church, anything to be productive.

My mother is 89. She's almost blind, she needs a walker and has a live-in caregiver without whom she could not survive. She's had a real tough time with these arrangements. She's grateful and loves the care she gets, but the fact that she is "useless" these days drives her nuts. I used to dismiss these feelings and ask myself, "Why can't she just kick back and watch TV? This is just the way life is now." I won't be asking that any more. She's got Vacation Fever, too.

Leisure is all well and good. We all need some of it. What we need more than leisure is a purpose.

Some day, I'll be too weak to lift my 17" cast iron skillet and I'll have to watch as someone else fries the chicken. At that point, I might slide into the same despair as mom.