How Does a Writer Take a Vacation?

Once I spent a whole day cleaning an institutional meat grinder. I was volunteering, helping humanity, trying to pry myself out of my little isolated writer's dream world. Volunteering has always somehow brought me in contact with mops and dishmops and bleach and soapy water. So volunteering is not an option for my vacation -- from writing.

I don't have money (it's December, when property taxes eat 1/3 of my monthly net), so trips and dinners and shows and retail therapy are out. It's also cold outside, and it's hunting season, which puts the kibosh on outdoor adventures.

All year I have put off reading and doing a workbook that in 10 easy steps will turn me into A People Person. The author says that to do this I will have to become a Christian. I suppose that's little enough to ask. However, it doesn't sound restful enough to count as a vacation.

I could lie in bed, on the couch, or on the carpet, and read, and watch movies and TV -- or just do nothing -- but only after I return home from my day job, because I can't take a vacation from that, not at this busy time of year.

I could clean the house from top to bottom. Or draw pictures, or do crafts. These are all unsatisfying pastimes -- and they are "pastimes," and time is passing a heck of a lot faster than it used to.

Dear person who thinks I need a vacation from writing: I'd rather write!