Something quite rare and unexpected has happened this weekend, the sky has been bright blue, the winds light, and only a few white puffy clouds aloft. It has not rained in the past forty-eight hours. This weekend finally feels like the real lazy days of summer, eh? My wife, recently, asked who came up with that slogan: ‘lazy summer days.’ For us, being lazy when the weather brings out the sun is really hard to do without feeling a huge amount of guilt.  When you live in any climate with a true four seasons, and in your bones you hate the cold, then when its warm outside, the sun is shining, and the deer are frolicking, well then you must rise off your posterior and accomplish something.

One of the dozen bosses I have commented on a long email that I sent this past Friday to notify my management core by saying in response to the many things accomplished and planned, “you don’t let the grass grow under your feet.” That was a nice thing for him to mention, recognizing that my team puts in more than enough time and effort to accomplish company goals. So on days off, why shouldn’t I let the grass grow under my feet more often? The simple answer, because my wife and I are not built that way.

Now, we can be lazy. We have been guilty of a nap on a Saturday afternoon. We have binge watched Aussie Television on Netflix. Yet, these days of being lazy, doing little, watching our toe nails lengthen and paint chip from the mantel, well, they are more exceptions to our normal activities.

Could it be that I have the definition incorrect? Perhaps “lazy” isn’t being a sloth on the couch, so enjoying a lazy day of summer must be something completely different entirely. Let us take a look at the events of this sunny weekend and you be the judge. It all starts with knowing what you must do as compared to what you want to do. No matter what you want, there is always something you will be required to do as a civilized person of the human race. For example, you must get up and put on something: clothes. Top tip for those with close neighbors, close the curtains while you get changed. It is also recommended that a person shower or bath at some point in the day, using actual soap. At some stage, and perhaps to be more civilized, enjoy a nice cup of coffee and eat something. The caffeine and sugars will help with all the things you want to do later. But beyond the basics, there are errands, prescriptions to pickup, groceries to buy, petrol for the car, or trips to the Post Office to mail toy boat bits to your father-in-law in Queensland.

After you accomplish all the necessary tasks, then we have to carefully schedule and weigh out how to accomplish all the “wants”. This weekend I wanted, no needed, to get to the airfield and take Big Red to the skies. There also, as it happens, were two cruise-in’s with classic cars and a Barnstorming Festival. How can anyone, with my interests, possibly pass all that up? Well, I didn’t. I sacrificed flying in the evening to go to cruise-in number one. Then I got up early on Sunday and flew to the Barnstorming Carnival. After tucking the plane away, grab the wife and off to the second cruise-in. After this last car cruise-in, it was back to work on my own classic, and hopefully fix Tilly enough to make road worthy once again. After all, I had car parts deliver this week, and a new plan, so had to accomplish something.

Interestingly enough, I attended three different events this weekend, two with my wife and one with my father. Walking them all, we saw what we saw, laughed and smiled, and had fun together. At each event, people were putting their feet up in portable chairs next to their cars, or taking a nap laying under the wing of their plane. These people were destined to spend their entire day at the one event, and content to do that. However, truth is, they spent hours polishing, washing, buffing, and tuning their cars and planes for the event. They arranged sitters for the kids. They paid their bills the night before. The gave up grocery shopping for the cheesy burger at the food truck. And in their minds, there was a list of things they still needed to do.

So who is letting the grass grow under their feet, honestly? But when my wife asked if we can fix the house number sign for the front door, I told her it could wait for a rainy day.

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PS: Though this puts me over 800 words, it’s worth mentioning. The featured image on tonight’s article was taken today, after fixing Tilly and making her somewhat road worthy again. More to do, but that will be on my list for the next day off, after I get done doing what I must.