What Is a Day off, Really? (standard:humor, 905 words)
Author: Godspenman	Added: Jun 02 2019	Views/Reads: 1492/1099	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
I have discovered a day off with my wife is the supreme recipe for a happy day.

I'm not one who gets excited about holidays. If up to me there would be
one holiday per month, and that's it. 

The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage loves holidays, no matter what it
is. For her it is a time to have a “Day Off.” If anybody knows how to 
celebrate a day off it is her. 

By January, she has all the holidays noted on her calendar and what she
is going to do on those holidays. 

I do not even want to celebrate my birthday. With all my birthdays, you
would think I would get tired of celebrating them. And, I have. The 
birthday just reminds you are getting older. I do not need that kind of 
reminder; the pain in my body does that for me. 

The problem with my birthday is it is two days before my wife's
birthday. I am not quite sure how I planned that, but if I had to do it 
over again, I am not sure our birthdays would be that close. 

In order for her to celebrate her birthday, I must celebrate my
birthday. And, oh boy, is that a challenge for me. After as many 
birthdays as I have had, I do not know what I could do differently in 
celebrating my next birthday. Of course, I do not have to think this 
through; I have someone in our residence that takes care of this. 

A certain holiday was coming up and my wife said to me very gingerly,
“What are we going to do on our day off?” 

My response was, “Huh?” 

“You know,” she said , “this Thursday we are having a holiday and so it
is a day off for us. So, what are we going to do?” 

I knew what I wanted to do, but I was not going to express it in audible
words. 

“Well,” I said as thoughtfully as I could, “I need to do some more work
on the book I'm writing now.” Then I smiled at her. 

Looking at me with one of “those looks,” and both hands on her hips, she
said, “Absolutely not. Thursday is a day off and we are going to take 
the day off. End of the subject.” 

When she says “End of the subject,” it really means it is the end and
the subject is settled. 

In nervous anticipation, I was looking forward to “our day off.” 

I'm not quite sure what that means. For me every day I'm off my mark, so
to speak. However, that is not what she was talking about. 

The best days of my life are when I am working on one of my projects.
The day seems to go by so quickly when I am doing what I love. 

My wife recently informed me that at my age I need to start slowing
down. I told her that I would slow down in my walking, but that was not 
what she meant. 

“You work too much, you need to take time off every once in a while.” 

Because I do not say something, does not mean I am not thinking of
something. What I wanted to ask her at the time was, “Would you please 
explain to me what ‘once in a while' means? What day of the week is 
it?” 

However, I kept the thought to myself and for good reasons. 

According to her definition of “day off” it is doing things that you
really love that you cannot do on a workday. 

When I wore a younger man's suit, many things I could do would fit her
category. Since I have traded the younger man's suit for a more mature 
man's suit, many things I cannot do even if I wanted to. 

I wrestle with this “day off syndrome” that seems to occupy my wife's


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