Hubby’s Staycation!

It’s been an insanely busy work week for me.  And, if you read hubby’s guest post this week, you know that he’s on a staycation.  He took advantage of the fact that he’s got more vacation time than I do this year, to do the following things this week. (I recently started a new job so I didn’t have enough vacation time to join him!)

1. Sleep in late   (as I drag my sorry butt out of bed early to commute 1 ½ hours to my regional office)
2. Float around in our pool with his buddies & our dog   (and call me a couple of times during each day to share weather reports)
3. Watch movies & tv, or play video games   (only on the overcast days….)
4. Hijack my blog   (w/ my permission of course.. .but, don’t you worry…my rebuttal is coming!)
5. A whole lot of nothing    (a staycation is apparently not a “staycation” if there’s any true activity)

 

It’s this last item (#5) that I’d like to spend some time on.

 

Of course I understand that when you use a vacation week it’s supposed to be time to relax, reenergize & get some much needed downtime.  I’m all about downtime and taking a break from work.  In fact, if I’d been able to enjoy a week of staycation with hubby I would have been thrilled.

 

I suppose the challenge for me is that I’m a “do-er” and hubby is a “relaxer”.  I actually have an incredibly difficult time unwinding enough to lie around and do absolutely nothing.  On any given day while we’re watching tv, I am up & down… moving stuff around in the kitchen, paying bills, back & forth form the basement doing laundry and so on.  I always have like 25 things floating around in my brain that make it tough for me to sit still.  Hubby, on the other hand, values his downtime.  And, he’s mastered the art of doing nothing.  He’s even on occasion told me that watching me move around the house with constant activity causes him stress.  I’d like to think this “stress” is just his subconscious making him feel guilty that I’m working and he’s not helping… but I’m sure this is wishful thinking!

 

Anyhow, much like hubby’s declaration that Sundays Are A Day Of Rest, apparently so are staycations.   A few years ago hubby & I scheduled a joint staycation.  I was all excited to get a break from work AND to get a few projects done around the house.  Nothing crazy.. but some projects that had been sitting our on our to do list for a while – tasks that would probably take an hour or two at the most (like organizing the garage so we could actually put a car into it).  And then, hubby rained on my parade and told me that I was “under no circumstances” allowed to “fill our staycation with chores”.  He declared that a staycation is a “week of rest”… just like Sundays.  So that week, while hubby sunned himself by the pool, I did a few projects on my own because I needed to feel like I accomplished something with an entire week off at our house.

 

So, there we were last week.. hubby’s individual staycation was fast approaching and he gave me a reminder declaration… “You know that I have no intention of doing any work/chores while I’m home next week.. right?”.  To which I reply “Why would I expect you to do any work… I know your rules…..”.   And, I begrudgingly accept the fact that he won’t clean up the garage or spackle the bathroom or put up the railing in the basement or, any other things that are on the “to-do list”.  BUT, what I didn’t realize was that he literally meant NO WORK.

 

Me:  “It looks like the light bulb is out in the bathroom…. Could you run out and grab a new bulb this week?”

Hubby:  “Nope… I’m on staycation.  No work!”

 

Me:  “Was it difficult to open the trash cabinet today, since the bin is overflowing onto the floor and needs to be emptied?”

Hubby:  “Nah, it wasn’t that hard, I could probably get a few more things in it.”

 

Me:  “Why is the grill in the middle of the deck still?”  (this is on day 4 of staycation…)

Hubby:  “Because I haven’t gone up there yet to move it”

 

Me: “Are you gonna mow the lawn today.. it’s looking pretty high?”

Hubby:  “Nope, it’s not lawn mowing day…”

Me:  “Doesn’t the lawn sort of dictate lawn mowing day?”

Hubby:  “Nope.. I do”

Me:  “Ok, but we are starting to look like those neighbors, and you’ve been home all week”

Hubby: “I’ll mow the lawn on lawn mowing day”

 

These are just a few examples of “no work” in action over the past week.   I know, once again you are thinking damn.. .she’s a lucky woman!  

 

I will be honest and tell you that although the above conversations are 100% true. That today, on day # 7 of hubby’s staycation, he’s actually accomplished 50% of the above “chores”.

• The light bulb is actually changed (and this is because we happened to have one in the drawer)
• He did actually move the grill to it’s proper place (this probably took all of 2.6 seconds)

 

As for the other 2 items..

• I’m the one who took the trash outside
• And… and our lawn is still incredibly overgrown and desperately awaiting lawn mowing day….

 
So, here’s my open apology to my neighbors.   I’m sorry, dear neighbors, that you need to look at our lawn in this condition…. it was obviously beyond my control as hubby was on a “no work staycation”.    But don’t fret lawn mowing day (which I think is Saturday) is almost here!

 

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