A Proclamation of Temporary Emancipation

I admit to being remiss in updating my blog, but I tend to forget I have a blog. And I’m still not sure of the purpose of posting my ramblings, but I also admit that I enjoy typing nonsense that comes off the top of my head after a gin and tonic. So what comes off the top of my head this morning without a gin and tonic?

The most obvious is that Gayle is gone for a week. She is taking care of her two grandsons while her daughter is on vacation. She combines her obligation with visits with her close friends in Discovery Bay, where we once had a home on the water and she is evidently having a good time. So what’s it like for me in a relatively empty house?

First, it’s not like the experience is something new. I try to give Gayle the chance to visit her friend in Oregon, her friends back in civilization and just about anything she comes up with to take a breather from the chauvinist she lives with in Quincy.


She takes a lot of trips. Two weeks after we were married, she flew to Ireland with three of her girlfriends and spent a couple of weeks at an equestrian center located in a famous castle where they rode horses cross country each day, ate potatoes and sipped beer in Irish pubs. As Khalil Gibran said, it’s good to allow space in a relationship. I think he was right.

I’m filling in the space by feeding cats, the dog, making my own coffee, and following instructions that Gayle is so great at leaving for me. She leaves little notes stuck at strategic places around the house with instruction for everything. For example, the note on the refrigerator tells me when to give the male cat his pill, how to mix it with special juice and reminds me to do this at 12 hour intervals, how to follow it up with his food and how to protect him from the dog stealing his food. Then how to put the medicine for the female cat in with her food and guard her from the male cat, who likes to steal her food. What not to feed the dog in order to avoid the Hershey squirts, since he doesn’t do well on pork and reminding me not to steal Gayle’s food, like her chocolate hidden in the cupboard.

The note on the coffee pot reminds me to turn it off. I actually forgot to do this the first day she was gone, but don’t tell her that. She’s on the verge of having me committed already.

The notes on how to work the three remotes in order to watch a DVD is helpful, but with my brilliant mind I was able to grasp the complexity of this process after the first try. You can tell her that.

On the other hand there are some plusses: Things like watching football on TV with the volume up so that I can follow the action while in the den, working on my new deck, hiking in the mountains with my trusty dog, riding my motorcycle through beautiful pine forests, having spicy barbeques with my friends from India, swimming at the gym, slamming the refrigerator door at 3 AM without waking my wife, listening to Limbaugh with the volume up, and washing the dishes whenever I want. Actually, I do most of these things even when Gayle is in residence.

But in the final analysis, being apart makes you appreciate each other, and that’s a good thing.