A Week of Solitude

 Last Sunday evening I picked up the rest of the family at Portland Airport.

The Bride and kiddos had been visiting the grands in Massachusetts, making the week-long "duty visit" that grandparents require every so often.

FWIW, it was reported to have been dreary but tolerable except for the weather, baking and humid the first part of the week, cold and raining the second.

Everyone was tired and bored and happy to be home.

Within a day everyone was also happily back in their respective ruts; The Bride on her paddleboard on the Willamette, the Boy in his headset in front of his gaming computer, the Girl with her trowel in the garden.

Me, looking over what had been a quiet house now full of not just them but all their stuff.

I missed them when they were gone. 

The house was desperately quiet and more than a little lonely without them. I got up alone, went to work, came home alone. Cooked a solitary dinner, read or watched the television, played with or was tolerated by the cats. 

Went to bed alone in the silent dark house.

I was like being a childless widower, and that wasn't a comforting thought. 

Now they're home, though...I remember all the things I liked about it.

The principal one being the tidiness.

I'm not obsessively cleanly, but I retain a pretty strong sense of military order. I like things to be clean and stowed neatly where they belong. During the previous week the kitchen was spotless, the bathroom clean, the floors swept, the counters and table empty.

Suddenly there was people's stuff everywhere. The Girl, who - although I'm the primary cook - likes to make her peculiar spicy versions of whatever food is in the house, has put the paprika on the over-the-stove shelf where it doesn't belong and has left dirty dishes in the sink (my particular button-pusher...). The Boy has dumped his laundry on his floor again and who the hell left the goddamn paper scraps on the bathroom floor?

At least my Bride is as neat as I am, so there's that.

I love them dearly.

I just wish that life with them wasn't so...messy.

Which is kind of a good metaphor for Life in general, isn't it.

Well. I've gotta go do the dishes, so here's a cat.

Aww. Isn't that...hey. Wait.

Okay. That's a good kitty. That's...hey, wait!

Ack!