Slow down, you move too fast

Hi, my name is Doug and I'm a workaholic. It's been 17 years, to the day, since my last vacation.

Came across an old hotel receipt in my desk this morning,. It was dated June 28, 1991 for the Lodge at Koehle on the island of Lanai in Hawaii -- the day we checked in on what was the beginning of a two-week vacation for Amy and I -- our most recent vacation.

Good God. Seventeen years since a vacation? Where did the time go?

From time to time, I remind myself that we moved here to retire, to take life easier, to get away from the seven-day workweek and constant pressure. Yet here we are, nearly four years later, working at hard as ever, often seven days a week and taking little or no time to relax.

Not good. Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert dropped dead of a heart attack at age 58 -- two years younger than me. He was a workaholic too. I have other friends who attacked their lives with the same intensity. Many of them are dead before their time too.

Not this guy. Starting this week, Blue Ridge Muse will close at least three days a week. Amy and I will start taking some trips for rest and relaxation -- not exhausting vacation to exotic places but short, relaxing trips to parts of Southwestern Virginia and the South that I have not visited for a long, long time.

And maybe, just maybe, we will take a week or two and go on a real vacation. It's been too long since our last one.