The House Where It's Impossible to Be Lonely

 Pesach draws nigh, as Elizabethan rabbis used to say. And like most holidays, for me it's time to take stock -- looking forward and backwards.

Friday we drove up to D1's house and had a Chick Fil A shabbos -- sandwiches all around, and then the lighting of candles and sharing of challah. We drove home with Little Man in tow -- he slept most of the way since he has an aversion to sleeping an entire night.

We got him set up, and he wound down with his IPad, which he loves. Finally, I walked him to his room, and he fell asleep -- up BEFORE first light, against our rules. I let him climb into bed with us and await the first photons visible in the sky -- and then we headed to House of Bagels, where they had his favorite black and white cookies, and he made sure to remind me to get an extra since his Ippi, a/k/a Wifey, "always finds and eats them."

Wifey arose, and we headed to Neighborhood Fish Farm, for some replacement cichlids and plecos. The koi did fine during the coldest weather we've had in years, but the tropical cichlids and plecos -- not so much. This kid. We arrived, and he went right up to one of the workers and said "Can we have a tour?" We got one, and he got to touch the small plecos in the net -- taking them home and letting them swim free in the pond.

Afterwards, I needed to run some errands and tried to entice him like I used to entice his mother and Tia -- D2 -- but he didn't bite. At home, his parents have CONSTANT activities for him, and with us, he savors "just chilling." As he said "Grandpa -- if I come along, that will cut into my chill time." I didn't disagree. I fetched his favored Anthony's Coal Fired wings and came home.

And it occurred to me that we again had what we first did in the late 80s -- a house I called "a place where it's impossible to be lonely." Back then,there was a was a huge, goofy black lab named Midnight, and an adorable Cocker Spaniel named Alfred. There was the textbook adorable baby and then toddler, D1. Later, in the next house 2 miles West, there was D2. Wherever you looked, there was activity -- canine or child related.

Now, in our much larger house, we're down to one elderly Spaniel who is anything BUT lively. And Wifey tends to putter around outside, or sit in her recliner. The house is blessedly quiet, and chill -- but when Baby Man and Little Man arrive -- instant life!

Saturday night he fell asleep with his headphones on watching said IPad. I was passing out -- Wifey walked him to his bed across the small hall. He slept soundly until 530 -- then up -- leftover bagel and more chilling. I re-homed him early -- his mother had tickets to a K Pop party near their house. The boys were adorably dressed when I left.

I came home...and napped. Parenting small ones is a job for the young -- surely younger than this about to be Medicaire eligible guy with a wife 5 years in already.

As I write this today, the doors are open and a lovely Spring breeze is blowing through -- the Spaniel sleeps on the sofa. Wifey is at the dentist.

I just fielded a call from Rabbi Yossi -- inviting me as he does yearly to either the community or personal seder. I told him we were all set, but WOULD enjoy the special, extra pure matzah he delivered to our house.

Actually, the plan is to skip Night One, and meet the Ds and their men night 2 either at a local restaurant, or bringing in food -- their call.

And even without the tumult of small ones, or lively dogs -- I still find it impossible to be lonely. I have the decades of my life's work -- the home I built with Wifey and the Ds, to look back and forward upon.

The quiet is kind of nice...