Welcome back, welcome words

Welcome back.

It's always nice to hear those words upon returning to work after a two-week vacation.

Mondays can be a doozy as it is, but that first day back can be a real bear.

Sometimes you feel like you've got to be re-trained.

Not this time, though.

Two weeks at the Jersey Shore was just right.

My two brothers, Jimmy and Joey, have rented the same beachside house in Surf City, N.J., in mid-July for 17 years.

But this year, another family who had the house the two weeks prior bailed out.

So my sister Jeanne and husband Mark Evans jumped on the opening.

Which meant Team Mannix had the house for a whole month!

There goes that neighborhood, right?

It was a relaxing time with my wife, Sherri.

Sleep late. Beach in the afternoon. Cocktails at 5 p.m. Movies after dinner.

Also read a wonderful biography of President Harry Truman, a 1,000-page book that went like that.

We went to Atlantic City, too, won $12.80 on the slots, and sang "We're In The Money," all the way back to Surf City.

It was a good time "downashore", indeed.

Especially trying to ride an inner tube in the surf and getting tossed head over heels time after time.

"Your husband is 60 going on 13," my brother-in-law cracked to Sherri.

What vacations are for in my book.

Yet when it was over it was good to return to work, too.

Welcome back.