Happy New Year, everyone!

2006 has definitely been interesting so far. This past weekend, Emil and I went to Youngstown; it has now become time to ensure that someone is with Emil, Sr. around the clock. This is partly a consideration because of his failing health, and partly a consideration because Kathy and I are done teaching for the fall, and can now commit the time. In any event, Kathy spent a few days down there last week, and Emil and I went down on Friday. We 'celebrated' New Year's Eve by going to bed at 10:30 and being awakened at midnight by loud noises that I, at first, thought were gunshots . . . and soon realized were fireworks. Not an auspicious celebration, by any measure. But it was fine; we're not really New Year's people, so it wasn't a deprivation in any sense.

I came home on Sunday, and Emil is still in Y'town. The plan is that I and the kids will go down on Thursday, and stay until Saturday (when Kathy returns), when we'll all come home. (The plan is subject to change; Emil has to call tomorrow to schedule an interview with a firm in Southgate; we hope he can delay it until next week . . . )

So. I am the sole adult in my house for the next few days. I met Emil when I was 21 (and had been living 'on my own', ie, not in a dorm, for exactly three months), and we moved in shortly thereafter; in the subsequent 27 years, I have never been without him in our house for this long at a stretch. We've been apart, because I've traveled - but he has never traveled for more than a night. I tried to explain to Charlie how weird this feels to me, and he said, "It's not that weird." And I thought, yeah, it's not weird to you; you have no concept of 27 years . . . and you think whatever your parents do is normal . . .

So I've spent the day in satisfying disorientation, if that makes any sense. I dialed down the theromostat three degrees. I washed the kitchen floor at 8 o'clock at night. I have compiled a shopping list that consists of things we don't normally eat, like blueberry waffles . . . It actually took me almost 24 hours to compile a grocery list because I am so unaccustomed to thinking of what I want to eat, unalloyed by Emil's wants . . . The television hasn't been on at all, but I went out and bought a little dock and speakers that will play the music on my iPod, because I get headphone fatigue . . . (I got a 60G iPod for Christmas - a totally self-indulgent present that was so much what I wanted that I can't even feel guilty for 'trading up' the Nano so soon after I got it . . . 60G is more storage than we have on any computer in the house . . . ) I wish this could go on until I'm sick of it (which I will surely become. But not yet).

Tonight the bed will be cold, so I put plastic on the windows at the head of it, and went and bought an adapter so that maybe we can finally use the electric blanket I bought in England last March. I'm hoping that the electric blanket will eliminate the need for the space heater that we use instead, and which I think must cost more . . . I had an electric blanket in Australia, and it provided the coziest warmth I could ever imagine. ('Electric blankets' in England and Australia are actually mattress pads; they make absolute sense, in my view. For one thing, heat rises, so you don't lose any, as you would if the blanket were on top of you; and for another, I've always worried that the wires in an American electric blanket would break if you, say, stuffed it between your knees, as I am wont to do.)

In the past, when I've been gone, Emil has done things like rearrange the furniture, or make massive plantings in the garden, and I'm starting to understand the impulse . . . maybe it's crass, given that his father is dying and he's no doubt not having much fun in Youngstown, but I am cherishing this time . . .

Oh, well. I'm only human . . .