DaedTech Digest: Taking a Vacation While Vagabonding

Thanks, everyone, for your patience these last few weeks.  I’ve been eking out some digest posts, but have taken a bit of a hiatus from dev- and consultant-centric content.  That’s because I’ve been on a vacation doing, among other things, some deep sea fishing.

So I figured I’d do a post about the idea of vacation as a vagabonder.

A lot of people think, given the places we go and the touristy things we do, that our life is a constant vacation.  But, in a way, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Specifically, I don’t think we’ve ever taken a vacation, per se, while vagabonding.

In a way, that would make no sense.  We’re paying a premium to stay in an AirBNB, so it would be ridiculous to fly somewhere for a week.  Anything we do, we do it locally.  And, because of that essential connection and lack of travel, there’s a tendency to limit tourist stuff to the weekends.

Anatomy of a Vagabonding Vacation

But, for the past week or so, I did take a vacation (ish).  This fun bit of life was prompted by my brother and sister in law coming for a visit.  When you’re staying somewhere as scenic as the lower Florida Keys, people give a little more weight to your invites to come stay.

I must admit, I did a little work on several of those days, but mostly I did not.  I unplugged and enjoyed local attractions, including Key West, a fishing charter, the Bahia Honda beach, and a lot of good food, drink, and local fishing.

In a weird way, I took a “staycation.”  I know, I know — that sounds crazy.  But, think about it.  When we go places for a month or more, they become home, albeit somewhat temporarily.

I set up my work environment, get a PO box, and do all sorts of other, decidedly non-vacation-y things.  The place really does come to feel like home, and my career a work-from-home scenario.  So having people out and taking time off is a delightful kind of staycation.

It was my first time doing it, but hopefully not my last.  It really kicked our exploration of local, off-the-beaten-path places into high gear, such as this key without a name.

Picks

• Speaking of the mail (earlier in this post), I’ll throw a pick for our virtual mail provider, PostScanMail.  Your mail goes to them, they open it, scan it, and show it to you, and then you pick what you want them to do with it.  It’s a great, low-friction service.
• In order to get around MLB blackout restrictions, I re-upped with NordVPN.  They’ve really made the whole “hide your location” thing pretty turnkey.  No more messing with the network adapter settings or setting up VPNs or whatever.
• If you’re ever driving down through the keys toward Key West, keep your eyes out on Cudjoe Key for Moritas Cuban Cafe (it’s hard to see from the road).  The owners were great, the outdoor seating pleasant, and the food some of the best Cuban I’ve ever had.

The Digest

Once again, a pretty slow week, given that I was on vacation.  But nonetheless, here’s some new stuff I scrounged up.

• On the Freelancers show, we produced an episode about career development when you’re a freelancer.
• We did our last Facebook Live from Austin about how writing improves other communication skills.
• And, our first Facebook Live from Isle of Palms was about what getaway day is like for us as slow travelers.

And, as always, have yourselves a great weekend.