While it was a bit hot this past July, altogether it has been a fabulous summer. The sun has been out for the past 2.5 months - almost every single day. (My nipples are beautifully bronzed at the moment!)
Unfortunately, this is the week that most *wage slaves* and *school slaves* go on vacation. Everyone, EVERYONE in these parts is vacationing somewhere this week with camping and beach-going being the most popular activities. July was booked with summer camp and school starts next week for many.
But this week the weather is looking to be horrible - colder and rainy - and that really sucks for those who only enjoy limited *lifestyle freedom*.
Homeschool and self-employ!
While my wife is still a wage slave in the Wall Street skim biz racket....she's always enjoyed considerable flexibility to work when she wants. Except that since a vast majority of her co-workers and higher-ups do in fact take the last two weeks of August off....it's a complete waste of time for her to go to work because almost everything has been put on hold.
So she (and I) are essentially forced into a family-vacation type of trip at the same time as the slave population.
We spent, collectively, a few hours trying to figure out which of the two weeks to take off AND what to do with it. Guess what, there's nothing at all either of us want to do!
With all the warm weather, we've already been to the beach and swam in the pool a bazillion times this summer. Camping this year has no appeal as it would require too much effort - plus Mrs. C-Nut is a real tenderfoot! We've been out to the Hamptons a bunch of times so far; and we've been on the road, not only with our complicated, staggered move 3 months ago and my two trips south (Philly and Wildwood, NJ), but also just last week with the 4 hour drive up to and down from my parents' house.
One idea my wife had was to drive out to Hershey Park in Pennsylvania and then hit some attractions in Lancaster and Philly on the way back. But my kids are too short to ride most of the crap, I don't feel like getting in the car again, and some of the stuff, like Dutch Wonderland and the Sight & Sound Theatre are priced like rip-offs. We'd also have to pay for hotels, eating out, etc.
This is where one has to be careful. We could very easily end up spending $1,000 on a vacation that we don't want or need at all.
It's precisely like buying an overpriced house, a car, religiously dumping money in mutual funds, or liquidating your life savings/home equity to send your ill-bred kids to a worthless college.
You should be constantly wary of doing something or going into hock for something just because everyone else does - most especially those big ticket items!
No comments:
Post a Comment