Solo

The photo gives you a rough idea of what this week feels like. To me.

While I returned from California on Sunday last, the Missus Herself did not. She remained behind to assist the WSO's family in their transition from their rented house to the semi-permanent OhMyGodWe'reInDebtForever house. Yes, the junior branch of the wide spread OAFS empire has purchased a domicile in the sunny environs of the San Joaquin valley. Why would they do that, you ask?

Well, it's that whole why rent when you can buy thing. I mean I think it's hard-wired into every red-blooded American that at some point in time you buy a house to live in. The money you pay every month now goes (theoretically) towards the eventual goal of receiving the title to a piece of property. Rather than the money going into some landlord's pocket. Whether that landlord be an individual or some corporation.

It's the old, "Dammit, if I want to paint the walls yellow with purple polka dots, I can. Because it's MY HOUSE!" situation. Well sure. I get that.

However, it's also the old, "Ah crap the toilet is spewing filth everywhere! Quick call the... Oh wait, that's right. I don't have a landlord! I have to fix this myself!" situation.

But really I'm digressing, as I so often do. It's not the kids buying a house which is the point of this post, it's that the Missus Herself stayed behind in Cali to help out.

(I understand that the denizens of California don't like it when people say "Cali", instead of "California" or "Frisco" for "San Francisco". So my apologies for doing so. Not that my apology is sincere. It's sort of a pro forma... Oh wait, I'm digressing again, aren't I?)

So once again, the wife and I went to visit the WSO and her tribe and only I returned to little Rhody. (By the way, you can call Rhode Island anything you like, I won't mind. Of course, I'm not a native of this state. And my actual native state, Vermont, has become so socialist since I left there that the state I grew up in doesn't really exist anymore. So have at it. Make fun of where I live to your heart's content. Do your worst. I shan't be offended. I may even chuckle some at the more artistic and/or crude insults.)

Damnit. Digressed again. I need some sort of automatic topic maintainer standing next to me. Perhaps with a cattle prod to keep me on track.

Um, no. But thanks!

So, to recap. I'm in Rhody, the wife is in Cali.

I'm back at work, the wife is helping select furniture (and my sources tell me she's paying for some of it [picture my alarmed face here]) and painting the interior walls of the new house.

Yes, painting the walls of the brand new, just built house. Yes, they did paint the interior walls as part of the finishing process. They are (were?) a very serviceable shade of white. Now as a guy I only recognize the color white. And yes, I understand there are varying shades of what a man would call white. Just like I don't know the 3 billion different words the Eskimos (or Inuit, if you prefer) have for snow, I don't know all of those shades. I do know that the females of my species have highly refined detectors of color tints that I lack.

I'm pretty sure that it's not the Y-Chromosome which prevents males from detecting color shades other than your standard red, blue, green, yellow, white and black. (Yes, I know that technically white and black are not colors. But if you drive a black Mercedes and someone asks you what color your car is, you're not going to say, "My car is the absence of all light color." Or words to that effect.) I happen to know that there are males who have a great appreciation for each and every nuance of color that exists. Whether those colors exist in nature or in Home Depot, they can spot fuscia ten out of ten times. And furthermore, [Jumping Jesuits, would you please get back on topic?]

Um yeah, sure, okay. (Sorry about the Jesuit crack. I think I'm safe, the WSO went to Holy Cross, a Jesuit school. Hhmm, maybe she's safe, but I'm not. Oh well, yes, yes, I know, off topic. Geez!)

Yes, the walls of the new house were painted some derivative of white. But the WSO, though she is very much like me, is still female. The females of the species like to put their own mark on newly acquired property/possessions. So from what I understand, the downstairs area, with the exception of the kitchen, is being painted light gray (perhaps the actual shade is haze-gray-as-seen-from-off-the-coast-of-Maui-at-ten-in-the-morning-on-a-spring-day, or something of that nature.)

And Little Bit's room is being painted a "light lavender". At any rate that's what the Missus Herself called it when she conveyed that information to me. Over the phone. I'm guessing that "light lavender" is some variant of purple which guys recognize as a color primarily (I think) because it's worn by the Minnesota Vikings. Maybe the Baltimore Ravens wear purple too. But to me it seems that the Ravens are actually wearing some shade of "darkish-blue". But not Navy Blue, which to me is black. But a different black than our "absence of all light"-painted Mercedes described above.

So I'm flying solo this week and a piece of next week as well. Seems the wife has to babysit Little Bit next weekend as the WSO and Big Time will be attending Tail Hook in Reno. (Along with her furniture selecting and painting duties.)

Yes.

I said Tail Hook.

Yes, that Tail Hook. Which used to be held in Las Vegas. But is now held in Reno. (Perhaps because the hotels in Vegas would like what happens in Vegas to stay in Reno, this year at any rate.)

When I told my "Up North" boss of this, he looked at me as though I'd said something along the lines of "The kids will be pillaging small villages in the Ukraine that weekend."

And I think we all know that something like that has never happened at Tail Hook. Ever. (Small villages in Nevada, I wouldn't know, the Ukraine? Never alleged, never proven. Just sayin'...)

So. This week is going to be interesting. My cats are concerned. But as long as I continue to feed them, they won't complain.

Much.