Bachelor Life

Last weekend mom and A went down to NYC and had a blast, and N spent the weekend at his buddy's lake house up north. That meant dad was all by his lonesome on the home front, which meant some serious leisure time... yeah, right. Truth be told, I was battling a head cold that made it a little hard to do all of the things that I wanted to do. I was originally hoping to work at the Inn or catering, but there was nothing going on. Boy, talk about disappointing. I then set my sights on the NH coast to do some surfing, staying overnight at a local hotel because of the deal I can get through work. I even contacted a local place near Hampton that said they had availability on a Friday night. How can you beat that?

I was, as I mentioned, battling a cold, and couldn't get any sleep because I was coughing all night. Plus, even though I was getting an amazing deal, it's still money (including meals), and I sort of get depressed staying in a hotel all by myself with all sorts of time to kill. Also, the surf isn't that great right now. Don't get me wrong, the waves are fine for my aging bones, but they're not huge, and there is a small window when you can actually surf, after which it's blown out and sloppy. Throw in frigid water (getting warmer each day, however), and I ended up bailing out on the plan and simply stayed at home. I did stuff around the house, and believe me when I tell you that there was plenty to do, despite my generally feeling of malaise... there's always a sob story, isn't there?

First off, since I got my log pile I cut a bunch of wood and have a good pile ready to split. I also cleared away a bundle of small trees in two big sections of our yard. The trees were too big to cut with shears and required a chainsaw. For the record, I think cutting these trees was the reason I hurt my back a couple of weeks back because of the awkward positioning to operate the saw (more on this later). I also changed the oil on mom's car, had the tires rotated, and set about doing battle with the squirrels who are plundering the bird feeders; a losing battle if there ever was one, and I was one step away from letting the cats out but refrained from unleashing the slaughter. I also mowed the lawn.

Making meals was easy because I simply got a large pizza on Friday and made it last through three lunches. It was Dominoes, which has an amazing deal - a large pie with three toppings for $8. Sure, the pizza is pretty bad, but you can't beat the price. For supper I simply had a big salad and ate a boule of killer sourdough with olive oil, tomatoes, and butter. My kind of meal. I didn't have to make fruit salad in the AM since it was just me, and this also precluded the need to go to the store regularly to get fresh fruit. I generally went to bed early (around 9-9:30) but didn't get much rest because of my cold. Again, poor me, right?

It was a little rough because our mild summer decided to get hot and muggy during this weekend, so it was brutal doing yard work. This was aggravated by the fact that we've had a lot of tick encounters, so when I did yard work I wore jeans and a long sleeve shirt. I was losing liters of water in that heat. Nonetheless, I managed to clear both sections and felt all the better for doing it. I love being productive.

Come Monday it was time for everyone to come home, so I prepared some food and cleaned the house, just like any good husband/father would do, right? Getting N was easy, but mom and A had complications on their journey home and didn't get back until late. At least they got home safely, and I'm grateful for that.

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Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Norman Goo for the pic.