Sheep Guarding Llama

Sunday. Today I am working on site for a customer and put in a ten hour day there! I had scheduled this for when the family was away because it was a perfect use of the time. With the family not at home, I might as well do all of the “out of the house” work that I can. It was a tiring day, though.

I was home around ten in the evening, and worked from home till late. Lots to be done.

Saturday. Now that I am home alone, it is time for me to start eating all of the food in the fridge that Dominica has abandoned that I was not allowed to eat while she was here because it was hers, but now is going to go bad quickly because she has been hoarding it for so long.

Being alone, my writing for much of June is going to be even more sparse than before. I tried very hard for the next several weeks to just focus on work and get a lot done to make use of the valuable quiet and alone time.

It’s always good for me the first few days of the family being gone. But this is a seriously extended period of time with everyone gone. I’m going to be really missing them very soon.

Friday. My lonely month without the family begins. They were out and on the road at eight this morning. Paul drove them in the minivan out to Louisiana’s border where they met up with the Grices and headed off for their drive to New York. Paul then drove back to the house getting back in the evening. I had to stay home and work all day, I would have driven the family out, but it would have meant a day without me covering things at work and that was really not an option. So I had to stay home and not get the last hours with the family myself. But we spent yesterday together instead.

My morning was very busy at work, but I also started my usual pattern of cleaning the house now that no one is here. I did two loads of dishes before noon!

Did Rocket.Chat rollouts today. Then this afternoon, I worked with Maggie doing technical training.

This evening, Paul and I put in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Party One and made it one step closer to Paul having completed the series.

Thursday. I essentially took the day off from work to spend with the family. They are all leaving me first thing in the morning. Liesl and Luciana are heading up to New York to spend the summer with their grandparents in Frankfort. Dominica and Madeline are heading to the airport in Newburg to fly to Dublin and begin their adventures in Ireland and England for the summer.

Dominica did her last minute packing and planning.

This evening, the girls and I watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban together as our final time to hang out before we do not see each other for weeks.

Wednesday. Got up around eight. Was brewing coffee by eight thirty. I had a call that started at eight and I didn’t get to get off of the phone until after noon!

This week is very busy. The family is leaving in just two days to head off to New York (for the kids), and to Ireland (for Dominica and Madeline) so there is a ton of packing going on and a lot of hanging out as I am not going to be seeing my kids for quite some time.

In some ways, the timing is good. I need a month to do nothing but work. But it has been two very hard, stressful, and depressing months and having all of the family away for a month is not going to do much to make me feel better. I am going to be very lonely.