The time is quickly arriving for my Pet’s visit in mid-late September. We’ve both been counting the months and now we’re down to counting weeks.
She just finished up a trip to Tennessee that she took with her family, and has been back home for a few days. Now thats concluded begins the push to having her here in less than a month. It’s been just over 2 years since I’ve seen her, since I had multiple bouts with kidney stones over the course of 2024. So much so, that I had to have them removed in 2 separate operations in July & December. But I got a clean bill of health this past February, so it was just a matter of scheduling the time off, getting it approved, and then making sure she didn’t have any conflicts of her own that might prove problematic to us getting together. But her job is a bit more chill about time off, just make sure you have coverage for your client, and you’re pretty well good to go. Unfortunately, her job doesn’t offer compensation for time off (vacation pay) so you’re left to your own devices when it comes to covering bills etc in the absence of a paycheck for that particular week. Such is the nature of certain aspects of the service industry.
Insofar as here at the homestead, it’s going to take a little more elbow grease to get things shipshape for her arrival. My wife and I had a serious sit down a couple of weeks ago about how long my Pet is going to be here, and we finally hammered out an agreement that it’s going to be at least 5 days and 4 nights; since it has been those 2 years since we’ve seen one another. Considering how far she’s traveling, doing a quickie weekend visit is hardly fair, and we’re not looking for anything longer than those 5 days, even considering they’re not full days since Sunday and Thursday are going to be travel to and from days. So essentially it will be 3 full days and parts of 2 others. Still with me? Good, and thanks.
The house is, and always is a wreck in terms of hosting. My wife and I both came from homes that typically had a ‘pack rat’ mentality, and we’ve successfully carried it over in the 25 plus years that we’ve lived here. We hardly ever throw anything away, so there are boxes and storage bins of bits and bobs all over the house. Thankfully I have the ability to change that, it just takes a concerted effort. This week I get 3 days off instead of my typical 2, due to the US Labor Day holiday. Consequently, the plan is to take little bites over the course of the time, using my days off for the major pushes, and then those days that I’m working, when I’m home, before making dinner, get the little things taken care of, so it’s not a huge push the last couple of days and then not getting it done, much like what happens on my vacations. Big plans, little results. I keep saying “It’s going to be different this time…” but this is definitely the one time I have to make it stick. Or else there’s going to be issues on both ends. Granted my Pet won’t be too disappointed, we’ll still have our visit, but my wife won’t be overly happy having a dirty and disheveled house to show off. That never goes down very well.
3 weeks and counting. Time to get this done.