Got overheated Saturday. Overheated big time. Too much time in the sun, too much dehydration from sweating, not enough liquids to replenish the body.

Heavy duty muscle cramps most of the night. Legs, arms, ankles, even hands. Continued even after downing several bottles of water and eating bananas.

Spent Sunday recovering, mostly sleeping, drinking lots more water, flushing out system.

Better now? God I hope so. Getting old is a bitch.

Hi, my name is Doug and I’m a workaholic. It’s been 17 years, to the day, since my last vacation.

Came across an old hotel receipt in my desk this morning,. It was dated June 28, 1991 for the Lodge at Koehle on the island of Lanai in Hawaii — the day we checked in on what was the beginning of a two-week vacation for Amy and I — our most recent vacation.

Good God. Seventeen years since a vacation? Where did the time go?

From time to time, I remind myself that we moved here to retire, to take life easier, to get away from the seven-day workweek and constant pressure. Yet here we are, nearly four years later, working at hard as ever, often seven days a week and taking little or no time to relax.

Not good. Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert dropped dead of a heart attack at age 58 — two years younger than me. He was a workaholic too. I have other friends who attacked their lives with the same intensity. Many of them are dead before their time too.

Not this guy. Starting this week, Blue Ridge Muse will close at least three days a week. Amy and I will start taking some trips for rest and relaxation — not exhausting vacation to exotic places but short, relaxing trips to parts of Southwestern Virginia and the South that I have not visited for a long, long time.

And maybe, just maybe, we will take a week or two and go on a real vacation. It’s been too long since our last one.

The speed limit as you approach downtown Floyd is 25 miles per hour but you wouldn’t know it based on the speed that trucks and other vehicles travel when they barrel through town.

Too often I’ve watched those huge semis streak down Locust Street at speeds well over 25 while pedestrians jump back because the monsters are traveling much faster than they should.

In recent weeks, we’ve had parked cars hit by trucks that couldn’t make the turn at Route 8 and U.S. 221 under the stop light and I’ve observed too many near misses when cars pull out of side streets and underestimate the speed of the approaching trucks.

Somebody is going to get killed if we don’t take steps to slow these speed demons down. Or do we have to wait for someone to die before action is taken?

Floyd’s fancy public outhouse — otherwise known as the Timber Frame Public Restroom — may (and the key word here is "may") open in time for the 4th of July weekend.

Contractor Ed Irwin says the final pieces to the puzzle are in and his crew is pressing to get everything installed by the holiday period.

Of course, this is Floyd, so there are still issues to be resolved. The Town Brain Trust — otherwise known as the Town Council — is still debating over what color to paint the timber frame.

Most people leave timber frames natural. They either seal the wood or stain and seal it. But in Floyd, process often overrules logic and some want to paint cover the natural wood with paint and they are undecided about color.

We always thought nature did a pretty good job on its own when it came to the color of wood. Some people just can’t leave well enough alone.

A foggy morning following Sunday’s thunderstorms.