Clear Skies, Empty Nest--- Again

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6:31

6:34

It was strange to get up this morning to a house empty of all but my wife, Evie.  For three weeks, its been filled with the sounds of grandchildren and just like that, they are gone and we are empty nesters once again for another year.  No more worries about what to have for dinner, what we are going to do today, and what we need to get from the store.  In other words, we are on our own and for now, it's an empty feeling.

Yesterday morning Tommy's family finished packing by 9:00, had a quick breakfast of eggs, a last swim as well, and were on there way to Cleveland's airport by 9:15.  And, suddenly, the house changed, the electricity (grandchildren) was gone.  As it usually happens, to fill the void, we got busy with cleaning, organizing, washing, and putting away for a couple of hours until we ran out of gas, around 11:00 in the morning.  We made a dent in getting the house back in order, so we felt good about that and we had done quite a bit the day before with the help of both Mary and Marlena.

The rest of the day we tried to enjoy the dock but because it was devoid of grandchildren, no one to play with for Evie and a surprisingly heavy wind, we did not last long and came in around 3:00.  I ended up watching the Olympics on and off.  For some reason, I was riveted by the cycling and watched the Dutch rider crash as she sped down hill, then witnessed the American who had a 30 second lead, lose in the last 10 seconds of the race.  Thrilling and disappointing.  And I watched some of the men's volleyball before we decided to have some appetizers and drinks on the front porch.  We are always amazed that when the family arrives, we rarely sit on the front porch before dinner, mostly because we are always doing something with the grandchildren, either playing games, taking a cruise, or swimming.  I can remember only one or two times where we were able to sit, relax and talk before dinner, without devices.

Dinner!

Dinner was great, just what we both wanted, easy and good...wieners and beans!  It was ready in 10 minutes, tasted surprisingly good and because we used paper plates, there was hardly any clean up, quite a contrast to the past few weeks.  And we watched TV in the evening for the first time and it seemed bizarre to be sitting in our TV room once again having dinner.  We watched CBS Sunday morning, catching up, then some of the Olympics, while channel surfing before we both lost our mojo, if we had any, and went up to bed, the end of a seemingly long, long day.