Isolation Mitigation Techniques

My Daughter and I Yesterday

Yesterday I faced the daunting task of overcoming the severe depression of facing the departure of both of my kids as well as my son in law.  This is of course compounded by the two month sabbatical my wife took to Panama.  Buddy is great company, but….

I find it interesting that I’m generally not suited for solitary living.  My two best friends both live alone and seem to thrive.  I’m guessing the thirty years of marriage to a fairly dynamic young lady ruined me for extended periods of solitude.   

I think both my son and daughter held fears I might tie them up to prevent their respective departures yesterday but I successfully fought off those urges.  My son left first, burdened with now clean laundry and a bunch of stuff to take down to Panama with him later this week.

My outstanding boss gave me the morning off to ferry my daughter and son in law down through the dreaded Connecticut traffic wasteland.  For once both the trip down and back flew by (a few traffic laws might have been stretched a tad).  I returned to the office by noon with enough work to keep me too busy to ponder the empty house awaiting me.

My menu for increasing the speed of time spent alone consists of movies, puzzles, and home repair projects.  I employed all three last night getting well into my first 1000 piece puzzle while watching a movie at home.  I planned on a late night showing of a movie and headed for the door when the bat phone from Panama rang, signaling my wife wanted to talk.

It’s almost like she sensed my imminent departure, something she has a real talent for.  The battery on her parent’s telephone was dying.  She seemed mystified by this but anybody who knows my wife can probably guess who was on the phone for the majority of that battery’s life span – she does have that talent.

I enjoyed our talk, but cast a worried eye as time marched on and the show time for the movie I planned on seeing passed by.  She had the temerity to complain about the heat in Panama until I pointed out the thermometer back home currently read 16 degrees.  That certainly seemed to boost her morale. 

The battery finally gave out and with a hurried good night to my distant love I headed out the door for the movie theater.  The only option available when I arrived, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, was kind of campy fun.  Renner and Arterton had some real chemistry as brother and sister witch hunters but there was a lot of modern vocabulary in the supposed middle age milieu.  The witch hunter’s technique seemed to consist of getting beat up by the witches until they could land a lucky shot.  Hansel was hampered by diabetes generated from his childhood consumption of the candy house (like I said – campy). The witches led by Famke Janssen were deliciously evil and you almost end up rooting for them.

So, one night of solitude bites the dust.  This was the third day in a row I’ve been in the movie theater, we’ll see if the streak continues.  I still miss that dynamic young lady though.

So Great Having These Two Around

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