Thursday, December 13, 2007

Common Sense and the Nanny State

I like the UK. I've been there a few times on vacation, and God willin' and the creek don't rise, I'm going back for a few weeks next spring. The natives speak a strange dialect of Amurican, but the beer is good, and I'm actually a fan of the food. I could really go for some Bangers and Mash right about now.

But this is nuts. Are you kidding me? You take a pic of your kid and next thing you know, Chris Hanson is asking you to "have a seat right over here".

Vacation

Last week was one of the most relaxing vacations I've ever taken. We didn't go anywhere, and we didn't do anything special. I just sort of hung around the house got some stuff doing that I'd been putting off. Like getting the garage to the point where I can actually get my car into it. I always liked the way my grandfather put it. "I can't understand why people will park a $40,000 car out in the elements just so they can keep $500 work of junk from getting wet.


But I digress. After having spent 5 whole days not-at-work, I was rather rudely reminded that vacation is an illusion. I spent extra time in the weeks preceeding my time off getting everything ready for my departure, and I'll spend several weeks after I get back taking care of everything that went on while I was gone. All else benig equal, I didn't get any actual time off. those 40 hours worth of work were just re-distributed. Ugh. At least I got to spend more time with the Kid than normal. Which was nice.


I also re-discovered a talent that I had forgotten I even had. I'm a firm believer that everyone has a talent for something, and if you can make money doing it, so much the better. Although I have played an instrument in the past, I don't consider myself a musician. I'm no good at "art" (drawing, painting, etc.); I can hold my own in a kitchen, but not to the point where I'm really good at it. Unfortunately, my talent is one that I can't make money with. I have the uncanny ability to find the one thing on TV at any given moment that my wife will absolutely hate. Usually it's something educational, military or history related. Last night it was the rather innocuous Canadian import "Corner Gas". I just watch it and giggle, but she doesn't understand what I'm laughing aboot.