Tuesday, May 23, 2017

A Rehearsal for Holidays

This Monday just passed was Victoria Day, which meant an extra day off, a long weekend. (To be honest, I don’t find any weekend long, and certainly three days don’t constitute length, to my way of measurement. It is longer than a two-day weekend, but only relatively.) There is just a fortnight until my holidays.


I find ‘long’ weekends enjoyable, principally because I don’t have to go to work but my boss still pays me. (There are long weekends in Alberta which do not include paid holidays, and they satisfy neither labour nor management.) They are, however, a bit confusing. There is probably not one such weekend when I don’t think Monday is Sunday. It usually occurs when I listen to the radio. I listen to two stations: CBC 2 and CKUA. Their respective schedules are different on Mondays and Sundays. So at least once every long weekend, I wonder what happened to the regular programming I expected to hear.


I don’t know if the cats recognize that the day is different. I suspect that they understand that some days are different than others. After years of knowing that some days I stay home and other days I go away all day, they probably comprehend that there is a contrast, but I don’t know if they expect one sort eventually to follow the other. One may simply be one kind of day when it arrives, and the next is the other kind, and they accept that. 


In any case, a long weekend is pleasant for the human involved. I get things done. It’s astonishing how much can be accomplished when one doesn’t have to spend eight hours at a job, and several hours on either end dealing with its preparations or effects. I actually achieve some things, things I consider important, if only to me.


And so the long weekend is a preview, as it were, for my holidays, when I will be able to do much more. When the prospect of a great amount of free time looms, rather than the anticipation of a single extra day, one can do things and not feel rushed, knowing that this one task may take up a great portion of one’s hard-earned extra time. There is leisure in a holiday; one’s attitude is very different than the every day. Victoria Day weekend felt good. My holidays, I know, will feel very good.

6 comments:

  1. Whether it's a three day weekend or a two week holiday, the time you have off is appreciated by you, and I'm sure, the cats. I've been retired for a few years now, and with the exception of my volunteer work three days a week at animal shelters, my time is pretty much my own. But it seems that there is never enough time to do everything I need to do. I often wonder how I was able to get everything done when i worked full time.

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  2. I think my girls have known the difference. They weren't as insistent to get things done that they wanted done. I think they could tell that if mom was still home when the sun was shining into the house (I left at 0420 on day shifts) that they were going to have a more leisurely day. And I went to bed later. On midnights, all bets were off. I got into bed at 0840 and left the house at 4:20.pm so there was waiting to be done, they surmised.

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  3. guyz...glad yur dad waz abe bull two N joy de long week oh end.....we noe himz lookin for werd ta vacationz & itz knot two far off.....we noe ewe all N joy havin him home; N vacationz will be awesum for everee one ~~ ♥♥

    don felineoni; if ya wanna few dayz... away....let uz noe ;) ☺☺

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  4. You're probably counting down the hours, let alone the days. :-)

    I was terribly UNproductive during my 10 days off work, unless you count afternoon napping. In that regard, I was VERY productive. I hope your upcoming vacation will be equally "productive", in its/your own way.

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  5. I am sure you and the cats will be well prepared for your upcoming holidays. I enjoy the extra day on a long weekend even if I don't do much. Monday evening of Victoria Day brings fireworks here in Ontario and Hollybreally does not enjoy the noise. We stay home hiding from all the festivities.

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  6. We are much the same here. The addition of one extra day is nice but now great boon while more than one can be quite nice.
    The Dad

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