Turning Toward Home: Vacations' End, 2012's Beginning

Bags are packed. Cab is called for the morning. The folder with the last round of reservations and itineraries is sorted and placed in the carry-on. The final small gift bought, the final meal before cleaning out the apartment's fridge.

Time for the vacation to end. Time to go home. Already, since yesterday, OS feels himself get into gear for life back home. Tomorrow includes a business meeting in London, even. The time off was so sweet while it lasted.

England is quite a place. The alarming headlines, even if true, don't tell the story of the people who live here. They are resilient, mainly cheerful and good-humored. I visited small houses, with small kitchens, lived in by people who drive small cars. The walls are lined with books, the small gardens are often small masterpieces of design. They don't understand places like Brentwood, Tennessee, with its square miles of big brick boxes with pick-ups in the driveway driven by people who haven't read a book in years.

The old WWII sign 'Keep Calm and Carry On' (and variations) has popped up again, on shirts, mugs, fridge magnets, etc. It summarizes what OS has seen here--a determination to muddle through and be happy anyway. They have seen worse, and their parents and grandparents much much worse. It's not hard to spot where the Luftwaffe did its dirty work seventy years ago, and one hears old East London accents well away from the old neighborhoods, as the inhabitants had to be relocated in the war's wake. Each little church and school seems to have a plaque recording the names of the boys lost to the two world wars--and the lists stretch on and on.

As far as the recession goes,  if the streets full of shoppers are any indication, there's not that much of a downturn still in place. Groceries brim with fresh everything, and prices there are pretty reasonable. People aren't driving old cars, the trains are full but not overrun, and run on schedule. And with rare exception, people here seem uninterested in staying aboard the EU ship while it scuttles itself. A cabbie refused a Euro coin proffered, half in jest, saying, 'No mate, not interested. It won't be worth anything soon enough.'

Again, this is the south of England, in a university town, so the impression may be skewed. But morale seems pretty high, which OS did not expect.

So, home again, to the wild wooly United States, and OS's beloved small-town life.

He will miss this place as he departs.

As Vacation Draws To A Close...Thoughts On The End Of Summer

OS faces a mountain of work at his desk, and musters little willingness to take it on. Vacation, modest and short though it was, has been delightful. A visit from one child at university far away, another visit to TheHighlySuccessfulChild in her new home on the East Coast, with a detour through central Virginia, off the beaten path. Places like Orange, Virginia go on the list of places to which one could happily relocate.

The 'burbs of Washington are not on that list. The bloating of the federal government for the past seventy years has turned a beautiful corner of the planet into one massive urban blight, surrounded by parking lots masquerading as interstate highways.

It is time to cut the gubbmint down to size, ya'll. One day spent attempting to drive around DC from one place to another tells the tale.

There has been time. To read. To write. To exercise, to play a bit of golf and make an acquaintance or two on the course. OS walked the back nine with a Japanese gent yesterday whose command of 'Engrish' was limited, but who played scratch golf walking, and never pulled out anything bigger than a rescue club from his bag. His reasoning was 'Driver not good, end up on beach!'.

There has been time to cook out a bit, or to stop by the local barbecue artist who smokes his ribs in a pull-behind cooker, and sells them from his trailer in the grocery store parking lot. OS wonders out loud, though: If we Southerners are such virulent racists, why is this black businessman selling out every time he shows up at the white-owned grocery store, serving up his wares to a steady stream of GoodOldBoys in their pickup trucks? Why is the local home-cooking restaurant run by the local black family crowded with white patrons and black patrons both, happily slurping down fried chicken and turnip greens?

There has been time to sleep, to pet the dogs, to spend time with the sainted Mrs. OS, to enjoy time with a student about to head to university, and to share the excitement of being the first in the family to reach that goal.

Of course, what makes that time possible is the time spent at work. And much work awaits. It's not even horrible, unpleasant work--no ditches to dig, bedpans to empty, store shelves to stock, unhappy customers to mollify. But, it is work, and it has been good to take a break.

So many voices have been berating Obama for taking a vacation this month. OS is definitely not his fan, but--everyone needs a vacation, even Himself. Leave him alone a few days, and take a few days off yourself.

Back to work...

Isn't It Great To Take A Vacation! Just Ask Mrs. Obama

The UK Daily Mail gives us the breathless coverage.

Michelle Obama today faced a fresh wave of attacks over her lavish break in Spain with 40 friends, which could easily cost U.S. taxpayers a staggering £50,000 a day.

The First Lady has been lambasted for her extravagance at a time when the economy is still struggling. One blogger went so far as to brand her a modern-day Marie Antoinette.

And her critics will be further annoyed when they learn that the president's wife had a Spanish beach closed off today so that she, her daughter and their entourage could go for a swim.

Spanish police cleared off a stretch of beach at the Villa Padierna Hotel in Marbella after the Obamas had finished a busy day of sightseeing.

Hey, girlfriend! A girl's gotta have girlfriends! Ya'll just trippin', gettin' all upset 'bout this. It's cool, really ya'll. After all, it's hard work being the wife of The Winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. Just chill, and let her do the same, ya'll.

The private sector of the US economy created 71,000 jobs last month. 120,000 people enter the workforce every month, due to the demographic math of Birth-minus-Death-plus-Immigration.

No worries, ya'll.