A Mental Health Day

Sometimes you just need to do it. I was reviewing my leave status on Wednesday and realized I had a whole bunch of leave banked up. And some of that was in the "use or lose" column, so I decided I was going to partake in some "ballistic therapy" on Thursday, as well as get some chores done around the house.

I got up at my normal time Thursday and after breakfast did a bit of office work that needed handling. After that, I did nothing work related — though I did see that my inbox was filling — and cheerfully ignored it. I spent the morning drinking coffee and doing some cleaning and straightening of my "personal space" in the house.

Checkered Flag showed up at the house late morning, as his day off is Thursday — though he too has to work a bit before the "day off" actually starts. We prepped the car for a trip to the range, loading lots of targets, ammo and guns. The ranges were all unoccupied when we arrived, and we broke from tradition and started on the pistol range. It was a leisurely couple of hours, just plinking. We spent a lot of time trying precision shooting at tiny targets. It was an interesting exercise when even from close range the target is smaller than the sites. (And remind me not to challenge Colleen to a strong hand only shot at a paster square at 7 yards.)

After couple hundred rounds each, and some 600 pieces of brass to police, we headed over to the long gun side of the park. The rifle range was now being used so we set up the clay target stands on the shotgun field. We each only took a couple of turns since were all getting very hungry, and Colleen had already mentioned the panini she was preparing for lunch. Our timing was spot on as it started raining right after we had arrived home and unloaded the car.

As promised, the panini grill was warmed up and a delicious lunch was enjoyed. Since it was a fun day, I grabbed some adult beverages from the beer fridge as well. By the time we finished eating, the rain had about stopped. It seemed timing was working out just right on this day.

Last week we had stone block delivered for a fire pit we're building, so after lunch Checkered Flag and I went to work moving the block and digging the foundation trench. There's no free lunch around here! (Seriously though, I appreciated the help!) It was getting dark as we finished up, but the project is ready for the gravel and block placement this weekend.

Food being one of the major themes of the day, I soon had the grilled fired up and loaded with lamb chops. While I watched the grill, Colleen fried up some falafel and we soon had a fitting feast to enjoy. We enjoyed the rest of the evening just being lazy, while bemoaning our aching muscles. I went to bed with memories of a fun day, and also having gotten some much-needed chores done. I congratulated myself on having actually ignored my work email for the day too!

Another nice thing about taking a day off on Thursday is as I drove to work this morning, I realized IT'S FRIDAY! I think I'll take a few more of these days. In fact, according to the company leave policy, I'm required to.