At my previous job I rarely took vacations outside of the typical holidays. I was always ‘too busy’.
When I quit - one thing I vowed to do was take more vacations! This weekend I went motorcycle camping in the North Carolina mountains with a local group of the DoD - a group of motorcyclists who hang out on the web, discuss all things motorcycles via email, and occasionally meet up and do some actual riding!
Rule #1: There are no rules.
Rule #0: Go ride.
It was so refreshing to unwind, ride some great roads, make some new friends and drink some good beer! And while many in the group were coding geeks - we never ‘talked shop’ and instead discussed bikes, tires, oil and great roads. (photos here)
Now it is back to reality and my ugly database…
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8 Comments
I have the same problem (re: taking few vacations). My issue, though, is not so much one of being busy (which I am all the time), it’s a matter of not planning ahead. Right now, I pretty much live like a week at a time. I don’t look that far into the future. The idea of planning months ahead for a vacation just seems to foreign to me. As such, when it comes time for everyone else to take vacation, I have not planned anything. That’s something that I really have to start doing.
I’m with Ben on that one, in the last five+ years I have not taken more than 2 consecutive days off from work, rarely if ever planning a week + in advance. So far this year I’ve only take 3 non-holidays off.
Myself and another programmer friend of mine both like to go motorcycle camping. Its a good retreat. Although my other co-workers think its weird that a programmer would be into motorcycles and camping.
Ryan - this was only my 4th time out camping on the bike. Usually I’m lazy and end up in a motel!
There was someone camping in a hammock tent which looked really comfy to me - especially after a few beers…
Justin and Ben - you guys need to REALLY take a vacation!! And CFUnited doesn’t count!
You are right. After I get back from CFUNITED, I will plan a mini vacation this summer. I need to go hiking or something. In the city, I forget that the rest of the world has trees
Heck, I’m taking my first vacation in five years this year.
I make an assumption here, you don’t have kids. So if you don’t have kids and you might end up with them in the near future (5 years) I’d start vacationing now. Paris, Thailand, Argentina I ain’t likely visitng those places in my near future. Plus no matter what anyone says its not the same when you have kids in tow. Not even close. Enjoy your vacations now.
Two kids
The traveling part comes when I retire! And I love traveling with my kids. It’s great to either go to new places and share the experience or go to places where I went as a kid and share that experience with them.