Anatomy of a harness found here.
My house is so quiet this week.
To explain why, I have to back up about six months. Last summer/fall, John had been toying with the idea of finding another job, having been working for a high tech global employer for lots and lots of years. He didn't dislike his job: he just was getting antsy to try something new. As luck or providence or whatever you want to call it would have it, right about that time his company decided to reduce the number of folks in the Portland area workforce, and offered those folks 55 years and older the opportunity to yoink a sweet early retirement package.
John knew a good thing when he saw it, so accepted quickly. He decided to take several months off before returning to the workplace, and so he's been home with me every single day since D#2's wedding.
This is why we've been able to just pack up and zip out to the coast, or zoom over to the southwest, or motor down to San Francisco whenever our little hearts desired. It was wonderful. We've never had this much time together since we were married in 1980, and I'm really glad to say that I still like this guy. He's a fun dude to hang around with, even thirty three years later.
But we knew that his retirement was only temporary, and so now he's back working full-time. Sigh. It's a great new job, he's jazzed to be embarking on a new career move.
But I miss him. I miss looking at the week ahead and saying to him, "So. Whaddya want to do THIS week?" I miss having breakfast, lunch, dinner, and bedtime snack together. I miss hearing him humming or singing all day long. I miss relaxed mornings as we sit over coffee guffawing together at strange things that we find on the internet. I miss being amused at the running conversations he has with Maggie and Lulu. And, to be perfectly honest, I will miss having laundry constantly done, floors mopped and vacuumed consistently, and having someone around who is capable of going through a grocery story and actually remembering what he went there for.
I think that when the day comes when John is ready to retire for good, that we'll be just fine. It was a nice retirement trial run.
But I have to get used to being alone for most of the day again, and this will take some getting used to.
I guess I'll just have to appreciate him even more during the hours that he is home.
1 comment:
Congrats on new job but a bit of me wants to say that being together as happily as you two obviously are is worth more than money. I know not much option but aw gee.
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