When you were working, how often did you "weekend" outside the area you worked in? (retired, friends)
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Sounds to me like you’re overdue for a change. We went the other direction....lived in the city (DC) for 35 years....moved to rural-ish central MD 2 years ago for retirement. We both traveled a lot for business and have no desire to travel again...except to see family occasionally on the west coast
We hate leaving our little mountain now and our happiest days are piddling around the house with no plans, enjoying the blessed calm and quiet and our dog and beautiful views.
The change was good for us, we feel reborn in a way. I wonder if you would too. I’d encourage you to start exploring. The tone of your post resonated with me. We were as frustrated and fed up as you sound. Our move was the best thing we ever did.
I'm going to bed shortly, but am heading to Charlotte tomorrow and probably overnighting. I just need an escape from where I am.
For my entire adult life, it was unusual for me to spend a weekend where I lived midweek. I ski. Since I was in my mid-20's, I skied every weekend from Halloween to early May. I've had ~10 years where I lived in my vacation home all winter telecommuting. In the summer, it kind of depended on where I was living. I'm salt water-oriented. If I was living and working inland, I was away most weekends.
When I was working, and prior to having kids, I lived in a busy city with lots to do...good nightlife, music, dancing, restaurants museums, beach, hiking paths, parks, etc. Rarely went away overnight unless heading to the snow (about 4 hours away).
Last edited by twins4lynn; 04-14-2018 at 11:59 AM..
I'm going to bed shortly, but am heading to Charlotte tomorrow and probably overnighting. I just need an escape from where I am.
I’m not sure of the reason for this thread. Are you hoping to learn if others are equally resigned to the place they are living? A “misery loves company” kinda thing?
As has been suggested, life is short. Spend it in a place you don’t need to escape from.
A lot of my weekends were taken up with cutting grass, maintenance projects, grocery shopping, etc. We would make an effort to get out of town once every couple months. Most of those were day trips. Most of our close friends and relatives lived 140 miles away so those would be overnight trips. We took vacations and travelled more than most of our neighbours(it was a small town).
No, we generally stayed right at home. I worked FT with a chronic disease, so by the end of the workday I was tired and tended to catch up with laundry and chores on Saturday, and church pretty much filled Sunday morning. Sometimes we took a Sunday afternoon drive out to a state park, or just to see the sites. When we finally had children, I continued to work full-time and then the weekends, along with week nights, were totally full. When my youngest turned 10, I took a different position which required travel once in a while, so those get-away weeks kept me busy and it was nice to come home.
We lived in suburban areas and there were oodles of things to do, including taking care of the house and garden. We also were on a fairly tight budget, so we did not tend to go away for the weekend unless it was school or church related.
My wife and I lived and worked in Sacramento, CA and both our offices were within walking distance from our home. There being plenty to see and do in and close to the city we usually only spent one weekend away from home each month.
... Did you "weekend" outside your work area a lot when you were still working? What were your reasons for doing so?
No.
During most of my career, I was allowed 2 weeks of leave every 6 months. I was never allowed to select when these leave periods happened. Normally when a sub surfaces, about 2 week after we surface, the crew is required to take leave. This way there is very little possibility to plan and get advance reservations or reduced price tickets anywhere.
About once every second year one of these leave periods was canceled for some unknown reason. So I was always accumulating 'back leave' on the books.
At my last duty station [Naples Italy and Kosovo] I was normally given one 3-day 'weekend' off every month. Otherwise I was in rotating-shift work. 12-on / 12-off with an occasional 24-hour offs whenever we switched from working 'days' to 'nights.
They prefer us to be just slightly sleep-deprived, as the saying goes "you can catch up on lost sleep when you die".
As the frequent readers here know, I live in the middle of nowhere in Tennessee. Outside of outdoor recreation, there is little to do here on the weekends, especially in the winter. As an example, I like to go to baseball games. Though we do have "rookie league" teams here, they don't start playing until around Memorial Day, and are done by August - maybe half a season's worth of play. All the single A teams in the region are already playing. If I want to catch a baseball game, it's around a hundred miles in any direction to do so.
If I want to do any sort of higher end shopping (starting at Macy's/Costco quality), again, it's a road trip to Knoxville or Greenville. Most events/concerts - same thing, road trip.
It's gotten to the point that I might, might, spend one full weekend in a month in the area I live in, outside of the weekend that I'm on call. A lot of times I'm just gone Saturday and come back fairly late at night. Sometimes I'm overnighting. In any event, I'm often burning a couple hundred miles of gas on the weekend and probably one or two nights a month in hotels just to find "something to do." It's not really a budget issue, as much as it is a lack of stuff to do where I work. I live 35 minutes (25 miles) away from my office, so I commute quite a bit during the week as it is.
Did you "weekend" outside your work area a lot when you were still working? What were your reasons for doing so?
No, I didn't weekend out of town. I spent weekends where I lived, which was a big city. When I worked in a small city decades ago, I had things to do on the weekend, like grocery shopping, so I stayed in town then, too. Even a small city has the needs of life.
I'm retired now and live in a semi-rural, but growing, area (which I detest). I don't travel anywhere else. Most of my needs are met by online ordering and local stores, with occasional trips to the city (25 miles, 1/2 hr).
So...I pretty much don't travel. I hate it, it adds mileage on my car, costs too much, and if I enjoy where I went---I'm sad leaving it.
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