Harry's Gang: On vacation, 'Why not?' becomes relaxation mantra

Tara forced me to spend a week in Orlando recently.

“Forced” is accurate, but I’ve learned that putting up a fight is pointless, so I went along and even pretended to enjoy it. I can sense that I will not get much sympathy from you, dear readers, about being “forced” to spend a week in sunny Florida while the rest of you stayed back here and tended to the snow and cold. Note that I already said that complaining about it is pointless.

Typically, my wife and kids go on vacation — I just happen to go with them. They vacation; I work. Running a small law practice tends to mean I work every day, even when on “vacation.” The work needs to get done whether I’m in the office or not. Most of you with small businesses are probably nodding in agreement. The rest of you are probably wondering why anyone would feel the need to work while on vacation in the warm sun.

At some point, though, it becomes a shame to waste a perfectly good opportunity to relax, and this time Tara insisted that I enjoy our trip and not complain about all the work I had to do back home. So we made a deal: I agreed to keep my comments to myself, and she agreed to not show me any of the bills.

I have to admit it was one relaxing vacation. The weather was terrific, even one day when the temp rose to just 65 degrees and only Minnesotans were in the pool.

Learning to relax was not easy, but I had some inspiration from my family. We had set some ground rules before we left. The first rule was: We are on vacation. We are doing this. We are not at home; we are not going home, and this is happening. You’d be surprised at how effective this was. Realizing that I couldn’t escape made it easier to accept the fact: We are on vacation. I don’t have to get onto the computer to check emails; they will be waiting for me when I get home. There are no court hearings scheduled. Mail can stay unopened for a week. New client appointments can be set later. Phone messages can wait.

Of course, I did none of those things. Each morning I spent an hour or so clearing up my emails, and each afternoon I spent the same amount of time returning phone calls. But that was it.

The second rule we adopted was: Why not? Every suggestion we made had some merit. Try table tennis? Why not? Eat some seafood? Why not? Swim before breakfast (when the air temp wasn’t even 60 degrees yet): Why not? Dad, can I have pastry for breakfast? Sure, why not? My kids had never seen a more agreeable me.

Even Ellie got into it. At 5 years old, she has been navigating the swimming pool for a few years now but still can’t swim, and she was deathly afraid of the deep end. She could jump into my arms from the edge but was trembling and scared, and clung to me in fear until she was safely back on deck. That evening, I asked her why she made such a fuss. I pointed out I was going to make her jump into the deep end anyway, no matter how much she complained; and I promised her I would keep her safe, like I always had.

The next morning she was eager to get to the pool. She actually wanted to jump into the deep end to me. With a big grin on her face, she flew through the air into the water. After about 10 jumps, she swam back to the edge all by herself. She was so proud of herself. Later, she said, “Daddy, do you know why I wasn’t sacred anymore? Because I knew you were going to make me jump no matter how much I cried, and I knew you would catch me. So I thought, ‘Why not?’”

Genius. The rest of the trip was just as pleasant.

Who would have thought a vacation could be so relaxing? I might even try it again someday. I’ll even bring my family with me.

Pete Radosevich is the publisher of the Pine Knot News community newspaper and an attorney in Esko who hosts the cable access talk show Harry’s Gang on CAT-7. His opinions are his own. Contact him at Pete.Radosevich@

PineKnotNews.com.