Home Forums Discussions General Discussion Does anyone have a cure for the winter doldrums?

I visited the British isle of Bermuda last weekend. It really helped cure my case of winter doldrums! From a winter snow storm and 8-15 degree F weather, I found myself in 72 deg F and mostly sunny conditions with water warm enough to swim in (unlike ANYTIME in Maine the sea is frigid cold).

I got to swim laps in the ocean, go running along an old railroad bed (the crazy drivers will run you over on the streets), I explored some caves, went swimming in a cave with some friendly Canadians (eh?), got a professional massage and didn't even realize how much pent up stress was stored in my back and neck muscles.

The dinner at historic Tom Moore's Tavern was heavenly: a trio of scallops each prepared a different way, and rock-fish caught fresh in the ocean that day served over israeli couscous and sprinkled with baby three-leaf clovers. Two bottles of wine shared with three of us, and 4 glasses of beer each, those same Canadians got me nicely relaxed and I slept about 12 hours (my usual is 4-6).

The second day there I read books on the beach, sun-bathed, went for a run in a historic nature preserve, and napped with the BLUEST water I've ever seen just feet away from me.

Did I mention tea-time at 3:30pm every day? From 3:30 to 4:30 the resort served tea and cakes. What a lovely idea those Brits have! Tea and cakes. I think we should have tea and cakes. A nice break to the mid-afternoon and a nice way to curb one's hunger until dinner, the tea was a nice pick-me-up.

I came back to Maine and temp was in the 20's. Snow still over the ground and we were running an hour behind all day which usually stresses me out....today I didn't let it bother me. Why?

Well two days before I swam in a cave, had a massage, and got to have tea and cakes! Man, how cool is that?

I learned an important lesson at the tender age of 38 years old. Go on vacation every year, maybe twice a year!

and another thing I learned, the Brits have a nice way of life in Bermuda. God save the Queen! Oh really now? Okay I'm proud to be an American but maybe our forefathers pushed the Boston Tea Party thing a little too far...just sayin...if they had taken a moment to chill out and have tea and cakes, maybe they would not have destroyed all that fine Indian tea in Boston Harbor. And maybe today we'd be saying "Hallow mate!" instead of "hi buddy."

Adam,

Sounds fantastic, have always wanted to go to Bermuda and sounds like a nice break from the winter doldrums.
My 11 year old son has decided to take on hunting, and I am not much for hunting, and thought it would be best to take the hunter education course with him, since I never took a proper course in hunting--a series of 6-2 hour classes with a 4hour field trial this coming Saturday. Just to spend a little time with family or friends, I think is the best way to beat the doldrums.
I'm hoping to take a road trip to Minnesota later this spring or summer to visit my wife's family/friends. Question for you-do you spend any time on the computer and remote access on a little bit each day to keep things going in the office so when you return you don't get so overwhelmed?? I have never had the option to logmein/Updox to keep connected before in the "old paper chart days" and am wondering if you find it best to keep a bit connected or just come back and deal with things? jimmie

Adam,

I'm hijackiing your thread, but this thought popped into my head this a.m., but I think will be of interest to other readers. I believe I have the capacity to form a hot spot with wifi with my android phone (the bionic) when traveling in the vehicle to and fro--would this be HIPAA compliant, I'm thinking of my upcoming road trip with a lot of down time would be the time to remote into the office. My thought would be to utilize my laptop with the hot spot created by the smart phone while my wife is driving to do a little catch up work from time to time, and also, how HIPAA compliant from the hotel is logmein/updox when utilizing a laptop? jimmie

from the LogMeIn Website:
SSL/TLS communications

The communications protocol used by LogMeIn Free and Pro is SSL/TLS (OpenSSL). The same protocol is the standard for web-based commerce or online banking. It provides authentication and protection against eavesdropping, tampering and message forgery.

Adam,

I can make a great case for either logging in and coming home to an empty inbox, or leaving the office at home and not intruding on your vacation. I waffle back and forth, and it really depends on how full may days are on vacation. If I'm just sitting on a recliner in the sun with iPad in hand, I may log on and work at my inbox. If I am having full days, no way.

Maybe the answer is to always vacation in places with no internet access.

63 degrees and sunny on the St. Lawrence River today. Robins are back. Geese flying north.

In Washington our seasons are cold rain, lukewarm rain, warm rain......

If it is always grey then you don't really notice....

Hi Jimmie, this depends on the scenario. When I visit my fiance in Pennsylvania each month (a pediatrics resident at Geisinger, marrying in July this year), I usually go Friday through Monday. I bring my laptop and I will limit logging in remotely to only one day, usually Sunday night, and only for 1 hour. I go through faxes, labs, reports and generally clear down the volume of stuff so when I'm back Tuesday in the office I'm not overwhelmed.

However if I take the rare vacation to Bermuda, I "unplugged" and didn't answer any email, didn't even bring my laptop. No computer work allowed.

On regular weekends when I'm home, I purposefully stay out of the office after I'm done Friday at noon. I come in Monday and get hammered all day with everything flying at me. But this is by choice. In order to maintain balance in my life, I do tons of outdoor activities and sports (exercise at the gym daily, swimming, lifting, running, kayaking, mountain biking, hiking, camping, mountaineering). My rule is never log into the office on a routine weekend b/c I'm therefore never free of the work. I want to enjoy my job, not be enslaved by it. So work my balls off 5 days a week to maintain my own business, and I play hard all weekend. The work-hard/play-hard philosophy.

Log-me-in is a great program and I use it for remote work. But only in the scenario as described. I used to do it every weekend from home, but began suffering burnout. Hence the balance and the rules I instituted about limiting how much work I do from the comfort of bed.

Yes you did a fantastic job of it



Yes you can certainly make a hot spot w/ your android phone (depending on your carrier you may have to subscribe to that service, for example Verizon charges extra for that so check w/ your carrier), and use the laptop via the phone's hotspot. About the HIPAA compliance on the smart phone and the logmein from the hotel's wireless......who cares? The HIPAA police won't catch you.

Just remember, don't do too much work when on vacation or it defeats the whole point.

Right on, man!

This global warming thing is pretty awesome, at least for now. It won't be so awesome when Florida, NYC, and Boston are under water and tens of millions of people want to move to Maine.

I hear global warming is doing the polar bears in. The don't have the pack ice to hunt seals as easily and they are invading inhabited areas. Maybe Boondoc can chime in here?

Here's a real sign of spring.....don't forget Sunday is SPRING AHEAD, it's almost daylight savings time!

Adam,

Great advice and I have the unlimited data plan with verizon, but will check to see if that covers the wifi hotspot deal too. Being half way between Glacier and Yellowstone and about an hour from the "Bob" with my recently renovated 81 air cooled VW pop up top vanagan (68K original miles) will hopefully have a few opportunities to be without the laptop this summer.
jimmie

PS--if i may be so bold to say--man you got your head on straight!!!

It seems like I've been using LMI forever. I almost always take my laptop when we go away. I will usually just check in the office for faxes. Most of the time I am online I am general surfing or on the board. We have a place in Michigan in the woods that gets 2 channels of junk TV on the air, so we watch movies on the laptop or DVD/TV.
If I am decompressing, I try not to focus on work. Sometimes I will do some data analysis while in the woods though. Nothing so relaxing as an excel spreadsheet

OK, Jimmie. Get ready for summer guests!! I have always wanted to horse pack "The Bob".

I live in warm weather and do the opposite. I flew up to Tahoe to be in the snow. Getting ready to head to Squaw Valley in about an hour.

Leslie,

Come on out, we'd love to see ya!! In fact just spoke with Dr Mel my partner and he has a cabin right on the edge of the Bob --bring your bells and pepper spray as the bears are rather friendly of late--jimmie

In the fine tradition of the AC board, I saw the post go by this morning, then saw this still with mules(?) in the background, and knew I had to throw this in there.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/08/national-parks-street-view-style-trails-goes-live-avoids-the-go/

"National Parks Street View-style trails goes live, avoids the Google cars"

It has a short video of how they put these videos and panoramas together.

Poor overloaded mules!!

When I lived in Seattle I was much closer to S. A. D. than I have ever been in Alaska! The endless days of clouds and fog that block the sun for months at a time can make you depressed! One year it rained for the entire month of March without ever stopping! At least here we have many bright, sunny, brilliant winter days to light up our life. This morning the sky was brightening at 0600 and the moon was full and low on the horizon like a giant orange disc. Then the sun came over the mountains and was blazing against the bright white snow. I was blinded!

OK, Chris, after I sponge off jimmie in Montana I will be heading your way!

And you'd be welcome! You can do some winter skiing at Alyeska a couple thousand feet above the blue ocean!

We went to Kauai in 2010 and really enjoyed the north shore. This is a minimally developed area with incredible beaches and snorkeling. We ended up going back to the same place last year and your description brings back some great memories. The best afternoon was spent sitting in the sun reading a book while the kids played in the lava pools. My wife brought a pitcher of frozen Margaritas down from the house along with some homemade guacamole (avocados purchased at the farmers market)and lime-salt chips. What a memory!

I definitely think it is sad that the average American only takes 15 days of vacation a year. We work to hard! Take at least two, two-week vacations a year - doctor's orders!

Umm, Chris, you have never met me but, believe me when I say, you NEVER want to see me on skis!!

I'm starting week #2 back in the office since Bermuda.....gross, I want to be back in the sun.

But the local rivers have finally opened up which means whitewater kayak season begins. I've been in the rivers twice! it's so awesome. Plus I'm teaching a kayak roll course at the local Y.

All this keeps my remembering one important thing, I work so I can afford to play!