Mental Health Brakes (breaks)

I took a mental health break today from work. It is still another 4 weeks until we leave on our vacation and these weeks are dragging. So I shortened this one. Now if you are wondering -  I didn't call in sick, I actually scheduled this one about 5 weeks ago. Abate had a orthodontist appointment scheduled last evening at 6:30 in Temple and since Temple is only sixty minutes from Austin I thought it'd be nice to drive on down and eat at Aster's Ethiopian Restaurant and afterwards pick up Caleb and bring him home with us for the weekend.
All sounded good five weeks ago, but Abate plays in a soccer league that has games on Tuesday and Thursday evenings in Temple. So after the ortho I had to drop him across town to his game. It was 7:30 before Fantu and I are back on the road heading south to Austin town. We are doing pretty well on the drive down. traffic is heavy but with the interstate being 3 lanes southbound for most of the drive with a 75mph speed limit we should be there in no time.  Well apparently and not surprisingly  ( heavy traffic, high speeds, 3 lanes)  traffic comes to a crawl. A three car accident blocking two lanes of traffic. three lanes into one takes some doing without getting crushed by that one aggressive driver that insists on having all rights of way. I'm old, I'm patient, go ahead you #^$&@?. I believe in Karma, I'd say yours is probably due some payback about now.
Soon we are back up to speed closing in on Austin. Chatting with Fantu dodging the cars weaving through traffic when oh crap... brake lights up ahead... all three lanes.... stop. Yes we stop and crawl a few feet, stop again, crawl another few feet. twenty or so minutes of this when traffic starts to move again. Didn't see anything except an 18-wheeler with a smashed fender being driven off the highway while being escorted by two deputies (yep this is Texas - Sheriff deputies still patrol the counties 'round here). Finally 8:50 pm we arrive at Aster's. We order all our favorites (I have a Groupon Coupon for $25) so we eat our fill and bring plenty home for later. Since it is so late by this time and Caleb is usually asleep Carrie brings him to us at the restaurant. We soon head home and arrive exhausted at 11:15 pm.
Friday! I don't get out of bed until 8:30 am, what a treat! I have a list of things to do but I'm not going to knock myself out getting them accomplished. This is a vacation day after all. Chores can wait until tomorrow. This is a day to get away from the craziness at work and to have an extra day to get   through all the craziness at home. While this probably hasn't been the Mental health break I wanted, I did get a much needed break from work and got to spend a lazy summer day with the kids (and grandson).   I really should do this more often.