Typical Weekend AEN

Playing for Lunch

That's After Empty Nest...

For twelve years Muffin and I have not exactly lived together. We have the same address, but he has a job 200 miles to the east and keeps an apartment there. He has never called it a home-just an apartment. For the first three years or more he did not have a bed-just an air mattress on the floor. Finally, we both decided I would never be happy spending a night over there in camping conditions, so he bought a mattress set at Sam's Club. And so the living conditions go...

His employer allows him to work flex time so that he completes his work week in four days. A typical weekend for us, when there is nothing else on the calendar, looks like this.

Thursday around 7-8 PM Muffin rolls into the driveway with his ice chest full of groceries from Central Market, including a dinner for two in a brown bag which is our version of eating out that evening. He also brings me fresh flowers from their flower market because he loves me. We put away the groceries, heat the dinner and eat in front of the TV where we talk about his visit with Nana (his Mom) on his way home and then watch recorded TV shows from the week. In the summer, that means So You Think You Can Dance. He reads all his accumulated mail, both USPS and electronic.

Friday we sleep in a bit, drink coffee slowly, visit some more about whatever we missed during the week, and make any outstanding phone calls that need to be returned. At noon we go to the Health Club for a Body Flow class. Afterward we may run errands, grab a bite to eat at Taco Bueno, or just come home for leftovers and salad. However, last week we skipped the usual Friday routine and drove 42 miles northeast to a small town and met four of my students, ages 12-16 and played at a local nursing home. Then we played for a Chamber of Commerce luncheon and knocked their socks off with Mozart, Bach, a tango, and Ashokan Farewell.

Returning home we headed to our favorite bakery to pick up honey wheat bread and a loaf of braided Challah, which was pre-ordered and waiting for us. By that time it was 98 in the shade and the heat index was around 105, so we just dripped home and took a wee nap. We spent the remainder of the evening watering plants, doing laundry, eating dinner, watching some recorded and live shows, programming Nannie's new telephone, and surfing the internet.

Saturday we did a Body Flow class, took the phone to Nannie and gave her some quick lessons on it, stuck around awhile to comfort her in her continuing grief since Dubbie went to his heavenly home, then grabbed a meal at the Bueno. After that we shopped at Sam's and HEB, unpacked all the groceries, talked to some of the daughters, finished the laundry, cooked dinner, made cookies, and generally toodled around the house doing things that had to be done.

Sunday after church we visited with a family who has two adorable and precocious sons adopted from Russia, just because we had time to do so. Then we talked to another daughter for over an hour, read the Sunday paper, watched Formula 1 racing, and took a nap. Sunday nights we cook. The menu is usually a variation on grilled meats and fresh veggies and some salads, which we divide for the week and pack half in the ice chest. Then we clean the floors in the house, put away everything, pack Muffin's car with all the clean laundry and good food, program the coffeemaker for a full pot, go to bed early while Muffin sleeps and I read or listen to podcasts. The next morning he hits the interstate by 7 AM or earlier.

One of these days we would both like to return to the Sunday-Saturday of life together every day and night. The first twenty five years seem like a great luxury now.