Perpetual Change

On Time Off

I started to compose this one a couple of weeks before I left Backroads, but I didn't finish. Now that I am more or less settled here in Florida, I will try to catch up on a few draft blogs. This will be the last "Day in the life of" for a while.

A day OFF in the life of a Backroads leader:

I get a full 8 hours of sleep. I usually haven't gone to bed to early the night before, so I wake to the soft morning light coming off the meadow outside my window. Sometimes I can hear the sheep from the next farmstead over. Sometimes I hear rain, which is fine usually for the day I have unplanned.

I'll make a smoothy with some of the old fruit that we have left over from the trip we've just finished. I'll usually bake an apple crisp or apple muffins, or squeeze orange juice with some of the fruit too. It helps to warm the house on chilly mornings.

Then, I'll read leisurely for awhile. Sometimes I do this before getting out of bed, and then go cook.

If I have worn myself out with these activities, I might take a nap; otherwise I'll spend a couple of hours at email, news, (now) facebook, wikipedia, and swatting flies. Czech farms always attract a lot of flies in the summer.

In the afternoon, I'll go for a couple hours bike ride with a beer at the end, or in the middle... or both depending on company.

If it is raining or just for some variety, I might mix in squash, a swim, a visit to a local historical town, a bit of language study, a movie and with any of these, of course, a couple of beers.

Then it will be Beer:30 back at our hospoda (the place we live; also the local watering hole for all 7 farmsteads in our village).

At which point, I'll cook dinner, skype, chat, and maybe do a bit more email, if all I get is answering machines. People have become very wary of answering phone numbers that they don't recognize.

Then, for the first day off, I will usually watch a movie or read and go to bed a bit early. This probably isn't the most exciting day, but I do like them.

Labels: average day

posted by jjs @ 6:28 PM