It’s seems to be an annual tradition of sorts. Right after school lets out for the summer, the family packs up the minivan and either heads to the airport or points the van West to journey out to the great State of Ohio. In Jamie’s words, she is returning home to “God’s Country” to rest and recharge in good ole Putnam County for two weeks or so. I am left behind to work and tend to the house as I will often tackle a bigger project such as in recent years I stripped and repainted the whole deck while they were gone.
Most of my friends think that I’m living on easy street by having the house and schedule to myself for such a long duration but I can assure you that the euphoria quickly wears off after a night or two of going home to an empty house. I will admit that I tend to get more exercise in since I can go either before or after work without having to worry about cutting into family time.
I also have a weird habit where the first night they are gone (which will happen tonight I guarantee you), I go home and clean the house from top to bottom and will keep it that clean for the whole two weeks they are gone. By the way, this isn’t meant to infer that our house is dirty in any way since Jamie does a bang up job of keeping everything ship shape. I do this simply to allow Jamie and the kids to come home to a nice clean house. By doing this in advance, I just simply don’t have to worry about waiting until the last night to clean up my own mess or rush around to get it done since there have been some years that I either get called out of town or they come home early.
Now that you know how I actually live my bachelor life, I’m headed home to scrub the floor and make myself some food as soon as I get done with a nice long run.