Mindful Musings

Really Stupid Question of the Day #2: How do programmers (with day jobs as programmers) come back home and go back to programming in their free time?

I have been extremely bored this past holiday weekend and every weekend that Jennifer is at work or on one of her trips.

When she is around, we get up early and go for breakfast, stop by a bunch of shops, stores and fun places to browse, take a small walk or throw the ball around with the dogs and then settle down for a nice home cooked dinner and a movie on the couch under a warm blanket. I enjoy her company and just talking with her and doing things we both like makes those weekends relaxing and very refreshing.

When she is gone, I spend most of the day like a lazy bum, throwing the ball around with the dog a couple of times, napping some, watching weird movies (watched “French Kiss” today) and blogging a few things. I work as a programmer and have my nose deep in ColdFusion, VBScript, TSql, ASP, Perl and red tape. When I come back home from work, looking at code is like going right back to work. This has really hampered my OSS work but I am not apologetic. I need something fun to do, something that is exciting, relaxing and life giving at the same time. So I practice yoga, read a little (though that gets tiresome since contemporary fiction is just …) and literally do nothing. Doing nothing might be all right for some people, but I hate being idle. I hate that feeling so much that I start to feel guilty and the weekends blend into a boring routine and I do not get the break that I crave.

Now I will be going back to school next fall, which will be wonderful. But till then I need to find a non-code hobby. Jennifer suggests that I take up flying which I intended to do anyways. I am not sure whether I can afford it, but I will definitely look into it.

What do my coder freinds do to get away? I know some of you go back to your personal projects and I just dont understand how you do it! You sure are a better person than I!