missing the guests

Summer is always a challenge.  I have so much to do:  Put the academic year to bed, relax a bit, do any major travel for the year, and of course the big one.  I try to complete 3 or 4 major writing projects before classes begin again in August.  (Do NOT get me started on how civilians think professors have the summer "off."   That's a whole other rant.)  Anyway, the monkey wrench in the works is always the summer guests.  It's the most pleasant distraction I have all year, so of course I want to focus on these good folks who typically travel hundreds of miles to spend a week or so with us at the beach.  This time our best friends from my other home town, that favorite college town, came for TWO weeks and I elected to take the time "off" from writing while they were here, to have a real vacation with them.  How fabulous, right?  We indeed had a blast.  They left yesterday to return to their real world and here I sit with my writing rhythm shot, trying to figure out how to get my compulsive writing urge back in gear.  I remember once telling a colleague that I go on writing "jags" and find it difficult to stop even to eat and shower.  I'd love for one of those to grip me right now.  In reality, the jags are few and far between.  You would think that academic writing would not need inspiration or a muse, like creative writers, but wow, I am in the market for inspiration.  Got any for me?  My next deadline is not until mid-September, so my urge is to kick back, read a novel, to do summer. Yikes!  I gotta get going!