re: #54 wrenchwench

I hope that works out great for him. And you!

Thank you!

It’s so odd to me that a guy who is 60 has never taken a vacation. He owns a small business and while he has an office manager, she cannot do the work he does, so when he doesn’t work, he doesn’t make money. In the 30 years he has owned that business, he has never had a sick day and never taken a day off.

When he went with me to my first company conference (and we took a mini-vacation with it as we always do), he was beyond nervous. He said a few days before he might not be able to go. All the way to the airport, he was freaking out about his business. Half-way through the 6 days he was gone, he was like…nothing burned? I can actually take time away? The second conference he went to with me was less disconcerting for him but still so. When the third one rolled around he was eager to go. He took some business calls while he was gone and realized that by giving his customer’s notice that he was going to be gone and making sure everything was all set before he left, he actually could leave and his business wouldn’t collapse.

I used to travel extensively for work so every weekend I was away was a vacation to me. I went white water rafting in Washington, would go to museums, all kinds of things…and every single European work trip I took included a week or so of vacation time after the work was done.

So, for us, this vacation is a really BFD. For him because he is actually taking one and is not stressing about being gone for 2 1/2 weeks. For me that I am “making” him take it and that he is actually looking forward to it.