Apologies to Hivelogic for the style copping in the title, but I’m a high (high) plains (plains) drifter (drifter). Note the squinting, cold steel glare. Yeah.

Vacation was excellent. Horseback riding, swimming, boat rides, softball, ping pong (at times quite heated matches with the wife) and eating – Oh, the eating. I could probably go the rest of this week without any food and still function. – were all thoroughly enjoyed. As a new experience, I have to say riding a horse is an excellent thing to do and highly recommended to anyone else who has never done it. Although, out on the trail, my wife's cousin asked if I would want to give up my bike in favor of a horse and the answer was a definite no.

Did I make it through an entire week with no TV, computer or internet access? Well, sort of. I did end up bringing the iBook, but it was used very sparingly and only for downloading digital shots to iPhoto. I also found a local library a couple miles from the ranch and checked my e-mail – 132 messages, maybe six weren’t spam so I quickly logged off and ran back to the hills. I didn’t miss TV in the least.

Interestingly, as fun as the ranch was, my favorite day of the vacation was yesterday at home with the smell of freshly cut grass and the beautiful breeze blowing in the backyard, baby daughter running from tree to tree saying “this one Da-da” and coloring the bark with bright pastel chalk.

This morning reality punches me back in as my pets all have fleas, my car wouldn’t start and I'm sifting through the unholy mountain of spam in my inbox.