Bachelerhood Again

So yesterday Wifey left on another hen trip, as the Brits call them. I dropped her at MIA, and she was off for ATL, where Elizabeth would join her and Edna and 2 nights at Edna's house. From there, they head to Robbinsville, NC, and three nights at an Inn.

Jeff and I spoke -- he was off to his youngest girl's parents' weekend at Duke. Boy, he said , your wife sure takes a lot of trips without you. Yes, I agreed -- if you're married to me, you need to get away as often as possible.

I had a vigorous workout with Enrique -- I did something unknown since 1978 -- I ran a mile. It was on the treadmill, to cushion my aged knees, but I did it. I HATE running, and still do, but when I started working out, the thought of making a mile was akin to my dunking a basketball. The latter remains out of touch.

I headed to Canton for lunch, as I did when I was in law school. The owner and I chatted -- I've been a patron since they opened in 1979, and she said "Where's your wife?" Left me, I said, and she looked sad. But only for 6 days...and she laughed. "Oh, so you lucky, but not THAT lucky?"

As I was leaving, a SUV pulled into the lot and nearly hit me. It was intentional -- Mike's boy Chris was pulling in for a smoothie before a job interview at UM. That little boy is a 2L, and was wearing a tie -- looked all grown up. We lamented about the Canes, and I wished him luck.

I put in a few hours at the office, strategizing with Stu and Vince, and then left for my first bachelor night. Gentlemen bachelors with sisters often dine with them, and so I did -- met Mirta at Titanic. We caught up and ate -- it was a lively atmosphere, as always. She had a big weekend coming up -- headed to her boyfriend's house in Daytona for BikeTober -- they love their motorcycles. And Sunday her granddaughter Karen, a lovely girl, turns 18. I gave Mirta some cash as a gift for her, and asked her to fake remove it from the girl's ear -- a trick I pulled when she was a girl. Mirta was touched.

The house is quiet, and the dogs are resting post breakfast. I'm going to bathe them -- it's been months, and they smell, as D2 once pointed out, like the schmutz you remove from a vacuum cleaner bin. Wifey no longer gets around to bathing them, so this bachelor will do the job.

I have a haircut at 11, lunch with my nephew of another mister Josh at noon, and then another office stint.

I think tomorrow I may treat myself and head to Deep South Dade to buy a few fish for my pond. Hurricane season seems to be over, and I know there'll likely be no power outages, which stops the aeration pump, and kills the fish. So the ones swimming newly in my pond for a year can use some new friends, I figure.

Yes -- being a bachelor for a week is lovely. I try to make the best of it.