Given that Marc’s project in New Mexico will likely take at least 14 months to build, my title refers to how far along on my journey of loneliness I am. After having him here for the past year during Covid, it’s been a jarring anomaly to now have him gone. The cats and I wander the house aimlessly, looking for something to do besides the daily grind. What a wasted year this will be, except for watching the bank account grow.
His first break home will take place on July 10th late in the evening, if all the flights go well. Before he left, we had thought about planning for a week away at some northern lake in the RV but we are now rethinking that. There always seems to be so much for him to get caught up on or fix when he returns, plus two full days of travel to and fro and it’s wearing. If we do decide to go somewhere it may be for just a handful of days and not too far away.
It’s certainly not the summer I had hoped for after our year
of being cooped up. Summer will be gone by the time he next returns in very
late September and it’s far too early to know what may be planned for that
break. Then he won’t return again until Christmas.
My main outlet now is gardening and yard work. Things were not off to a good start that way either; the garden seems way behind and we had quite a spell of hot, dry weather which cooked the lawn. Thankfully, this past week has seen over four inches of rain so things are getting better and maybe that will jump start things growing.
I can spend hours dreaming of and looking at what type of boat I may want. I jump around to all various kinds, trying to figure out what will fit needs and wants the best within our budget and ongoing maintenance costs of ownership. Obviously, I do a lot of “research” on the internet and it’s certainly nice that many You Tube channels now cover exactly those aspects. It passes (wastes?) many an hour as I porch sit in the sunroom, listening to the rain.
I sure hope Marc’s project gets done in time next year so we can at least enjoy some summer activity with a boat. In a worst case scenario, I picture losing two entire summers and then being shut in again for a long, cold Wisconsin winter before it would finally be a summer we could enjoy together again. That’s too depressing to even think about. Without leaving the state, we really deal with a window of May-October as months when outdoor activities are comfortable and possible. Neither one of us “does” winter activities outdoors excepting shoveling snow! Skiing, snowshoeing, ice fishing—all that freezing stuff holds no allure for us.
And for now, we’re staying put. June 10th was the red-letter
day of paying off our house and in today’s market there is no way to replace
what we have for the money we have invested. I’d rather buy a boat and go play
before we get too old!
