Anywhere but north

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Yippee! I’m on vacation. Well, not now. Right now it’s Wednesday, two days before I go on vacation. I’ve got a couple of staff members who are going to take two-month leaves, so I had to get some time off in a hurry. I haven’t had a real vacation in quite some time, and I’m a bit burned out. But I’m also pretty broke. At any rate, I’m going, and here’s my plan. It probably won’t stand as an example for planning ahead or fiscal responsibility but here goes.

I filed my taxes last week. I filed electronically so my return should arrive on Friday, the day after tomorrow. The instant I have some money in the bank—I quit using credit when the credit card companies jacked up my interest rates 20-30 percent (thanks, Senate Democrats)—I’m going to one of the cheap travel sites, like www.travelzoo.com, and I’m going to book the cheapest trip to a non-English-speaking country that I can find.

As I type this, I see a trip to Prague for $599. There are also a few Caribbean trips for less than $800. There are likely to be some good Central American deals, too, although I don’t see any at the moment. We’ll see.

At any rate, we have such a small editorial staff, it’s always been our procedure to limit the personal duties that we foist on other people when we take time off, which of course is part of why it’s so hard to take time off. And that’s why I’m writing this eight days before it appears in print. It’s also the reason I can’t tell you if my harebrained idea has worked.

But wish me bon voyage, anyway, because I’m taking the time off, and I’m getting out of town even if I’m only walking to Death Valley. And don’t try to email, call, write, phone or send me a message in a bottle—I’m already gone. I’ll let you know how things go on my return. Ooh. Here’s a cheap trip to Tikrit.