When the Cat's Away....

The Kitten and Kittens are off on a Spring Break adventure, something they take as a natural right, co-equal with life, liberty, property, etc.  For something they hold so incredibly dear, their planning is always rushed and last minute, something in which I can rarely partake as my work schedule is somewhat more defined.  One has to wonder whether or not they play it this way on purpose in order to flee my presence during March Madness, which any sane human would consider wise.

They left on Thursday.  I teach a class on Thursday nights, so I really didn't feel "alone" until I got home late Thursday to a completely silent house.  Yesterday was the first full day of my solitude, and I made the most of it with a good day of hard work and Physical Therapy.  How's the hip, you ask?  Getting better, thank you.  There isn't a noticeable hitch in my get-along anymore, the one associated with my pre-surgery arthritis or the one associated with my post-surgery recovery.  While the procedure done this time was considerably less invasive than the first one (2006), it still does a number on the soft tissue around the joint and it takes a while for the pain and stiffness to completely recede.  By the end of a long day though, the hip is talking to me and a little limp returns.  I view this as a temporary state of affairs.

The absence of the Kittens enabled the lesser angels of my nature last night, as my viewing of the UVA/UNC game was an unbroken string of loudly voiced obscenities that truth be told, had my dogs seeking cover.  For those of you unfamiliar with UVA basketball, we have had another great season built around a crushing defense and a solid team work ethic.  We have had some untimely injuries, but that's the nature of the sport.  What we haven't had is consistent scoring, and this is something I've been bitching about non-stop.  However, the "real" fans of UVA basketball kept talking about our "offensive efficiency", which sounded like a load of bullshit to me.  I could see with my own eyes that our offense simply didn't threaten any team with its own good defense to any real degree.  When one of our biggest scorers went down with an injury, the good news was that it coincided with a softer span in our schedule, which lulled our fanbase into thinking we were still the bees knees.
I think we are a very good team.  A solid 2 seed.  If Justin Anderson returns and can chip in 10 a game, we can make a run.  But we desperately need some scoring.

My practice of eShabbat is shelved for the weekend, or at least dramatically altered.  It is of course, the eschewing of electronic media from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, a move I made because I was working seven day weeks and offering too little of myself to those around me.  Since my rational for even creating this weekly pause is removed, I am only not working this weekend, but still enjoying the wonders of electronic media.  Any Virginia Basketball game over the next couple of weeks that falls in the eShabbat window is also a freebie.

As we discussed last week in my post about not running for political office, I recharge my batteries to some extent from being by myself, so this little stint has that impact.  It is amazing how quickly I fall back into my bachelor habits, the most notable one of which is deciding at breakfast what is for dinner. Today the decision was made seconds after I awoke at 0905, a full four hours after each of my wakeups this entire week.  As I lay there providing one of the cats with his required morning attention, I fixed upon a delicious dinner of shake and bake chicken breast, which while it has a few carbs in it, will keep me under 50 for the day.  

I live with women who are caught unaware by the dinner hour on a daily basis.  Not only are they far less regimented in the time in which they eat the meal, but they often stumble upon some concoction that they'd like to have that requires a trip to the market and significant prep time at oh, about 1800, when I am beginning to look at the two cats as possible sources of sustenance.  My habit has always been to figure out what I'm doing for dinner in the morning, and if something is required to thaw, it has the whole day to do so.  There is also the added bonus of being able to look forward all day to whatever little joy I've moved into the fridge,  Again, because I live with people who do not value food as they should, this practice has been discontinued in favor of the phone call made while driving back toward Easton at about 1700 or so that goes something like, "Have you thought about dinner?"  "Not really.  Do you have anything in mind?" "Well, I know what I'd like (insert steak, pork, lamb, chicken, seafood etc)".  "Ok, that sounds good."  Which then requires me coming home, thawing, and cooking (as I do most of the cooking when I'm around).  Often, one or more of the Kittens will have decided that they want to cook some little tofu-infused crime against the palate, and so I am free to cook for me and me only.  This has led to a variation on the them of  "traveling together separately"  , which is "eating together separately".  In this operation, the Kittens usually have or are in the midst of cooking something that either because of its contents or because of its carbs, I won't eat.  I instead, cook my protein and fat dinner, at the same time.  Usually we all sit down together in a delightful family meal.  Sometimes they take too long, and I eat and join them later for coffee whilst they sup.  So it all works out in the end.

My day today will be spent reading and writing, with occasional breaks to play with two black labs who miss their girls.  The rain is peaceful and the house is quiet.  Not a bad day.