I just returned from vacation.
I couldn't wait for it to be over.
I needed to get back to someplace where I could get some rest.
Usually when someone says they are glad to get back to work because they need the rest, it's because they have exhausted themselves relaxing.
I didn't have this problem.
I was working on my new old house.
There is, of course, a difference between working on your house and working around your house.
Working around your house suggest chores, you know, a screw here, a nail there, maybe a quick dab of paint and then some hammock time.
Working on your house is like actual work.
It involves stuff like perspiration and drudgery, and this is under the best of conditions.
If, however, you are being supervised by someone who has no regard for such things as hours, job safety and the sanctity of the coffee break, then working on your house is like spending a week at a summer camp for people who might be interest in forced labor as a career. But I digress.
I spent most of the week digging stuff up and filling stuff in. This involved using a shovel. Over the years I have learned that whenever you find yourself outside with a shovel in your hand no good is going to come of it.
Any project that involves dirt is hard. This is why people hire men with noisy machines to move it. This is also why the phrase "dirt cheap" is as big an oxymoron as jumbo shrimp.
Here are two other indisputable truths about dirt:
If you are digging a hole, just before you reach the required depth you will hit a large rock. Sometimes you can move this rock, although personally I tend to be nervous around explosives.
The other indisputable truth about dirt is that for as long as you are digging in it you will be in direct sunlight … unless you pass out and the paramedics move you.
If there is an upside to working on your house it is that it makes you feel muscular. I mean this in the sense that you will feel every muscle in your body.
Anyway, I have another vacation coming up in August. I'm already dreading it.
>>Read Jim Shea's blog at http://www.courant.com/tooshea, and if you have a suggestion for a column send it to jshea@courant.com.
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