So. There's this concept in France called "going on vacation."
Every summer, millions of French persons cut all their lines to any human being they are connected to -- via phone, busi- ness, Internet, or social networks -- and go on vacation. They pack as much as they can into their cars, lock the apartment in Paris, and go on a Road Trip. Because the French work ethic values going on vacation far more than it values, say, working, French vacations tend to be sacrosanct -- real vacations. Don't even *think* about calling the only guy in the universe who can help you fix the bug in your code when he's on vacation. That's not cool, and nigh unto religious heresy. The bug can wait. The customer who is complaining that this bug is costing him tens of thousands of dollars a day can wait. The dude is on vacation, man. It's August. You just don't FUCK with vacation in France in August. The vacation is holy. So. I'm on vacation. Like Curtis was able to do a few months ago, I have the opportunity to just cut myself off from all of my patterns, all of my normal ways of doing things, and just be on vacation. While many of the French loaded up their cars and headed for Spain, I loaded up mine and drove off with my dogs and several friends to the French Pyrenees, where we will be spending a delightful few weeks in a place we scored by "house-swapping" it for our respective abodes in Sitges. The people who live in the perpetually-perfect climate of the Pyrenees are for some reason so bored with perfection that they were willing to swap their cool, comfortable property in France for our non-air-conditioned apartments in Spain for several weeks in August. I was in Sitges last August and I still break into a sweat just thinking about it. We definitely got the better part of the deal. Anyway, I'm going to be away for a while. And while away I'm going to try to do with Fairfield Life the same thing I am doing (in the finest French tradition) with my employer and other contacts. I am trying to "cut the cord," but in my own kinda bent Uncle Tantra way. This is an experiment in (because every TM-related "scien- tific experiment" needs a title) "Write Only Fairfield Life," or WOFFL. The subtitle of the experiment might be, "Can one successfully continue to post to FFL with some relevance without ever bothering to read it?" Personally, I don't think that'll be much of a problem. :-) It's not as if the place hasn't grown predictable and boring. Any of us knows well ahead of time what the main topics of conversation are going to be in any given week, and what reading these posts is going to *feel* like. So, even though I'll probably have access to WiFi from time to time, I don't really plan to read FFL while I'm away. Why ruin a nice vacation with the same old same old? However, if I find myself having fun and feel like writing about it, I might post about what's going on, in "Write Only" mode. I probably won't respond to any followups, but please don't take that personally. I'm on vacation. I don't *have* to read the followups, or any other post here. The vacation is holy. Different rules apply to people in France who are on vacation. :-)
