Warm and Cheery inside

It's been six months since I've had a "steady girlfriend". I've waited to discover what I was going to be learning as I dated during this phase. Now it seems like what I was learning was that I don't have to have someone to complement me - I'm whole just the way I am. After Robin died I thought about how our lives had been like two overlapping spheres. How, when she left, the sphere of my life was shredded. Well, like an elastic soap bubble apparently it's snapped back.

Six months is the longest period I've "been on my own" in over twenty-two years.

Two years is the longest I've lived in a house alone, well...in my whole life.

It seems common that when widow(er)s leave the house to go out they leave lights on, or they leave radios on, or the TV. After all, the house wasn't always dark when getting home late and someone else was there. The house didn't used to be quiet every time you came home, when someone else was there.

It didn't even take an act of rationalization to leave things running when I went out. Leaving things on was obvious. OK, maybe there was a little denial. Oh, I see the kitchen light on but I don't have time to turn it off. Oh, it's just two cents worth of electricity.

The other night I arrived home late after a fun evening with friends at dinner. The house was dark and empty when I pulled into the driveway but it was warm and cheery when I stepped inside.