Andy's Summer Break: "I'm Glad It's Over"

Written by Andy Rooney.

I don't know about you, but I'm glad our new television season has started. I thought my vacation would never end. To tell you the truth, it's been one damn day off after another. If summer had lasted another month I'd be exhausted from all that relaxation.

I can stand a little vacation, but things are getting ridiculous. Too many people are making a living off the rest of us taking time off. My time off from 60 Minutes lasts from Memorial Day at the end of May until the third week in September.

The necessity of having fun in the summer is one of the most tiring things of the whole year for me. My idea of a good restful week is to get up at the same time every morning, eat breakfast, read the newspaper, go to work, come home tired, have dinner, read a little something, watch television then and go to bed. Now, that's what I call relaxing.

The tiring part of my long break from doing my 60 Minutes each week is planning to go somewhere, getting ready to go there and organizing everything that I need to take with me. I have to pack, I have to load the car, find the place I'm going to spend my vacation and then, when it's all over, reverse the whole process and come home.

There are just so many things about summer vacations that are tiring and tiresome that maybe we ought to give some thought to abandoning them altogether. Avoiding work is hard work.

When I'm on my vacation I don't get enough sleep, I spend too much money on nothing, do too much driving, too much eating, and too much talking.

I'll bet that I could add ten years to my life if I didn't have to take all those vacation breaks from my usual routine. And my usual routine is work - that's why it's so good to be back from my vacation.

Written by Andy Rooney