With base camp more or less established and my annual allowance of vacation consumed, I am back home again. Nothing very remarkable to report about it all, except that it took a damn long time (from 4:30am taxi pickup to arrival at my doorstep here, with stops in Moorestown, NJ, and Elkview, WV, was about 60 hours). This week has been spent getting caught up at work and vaguely trying to reorganize myself for the next couple months.

It’s extremely weird being on my own here. Aside from a few days here and there, this is the first time in about seven years (since before we had children) that I’ve lived on my own. I won’t lie: there's something very liberating about the prospect—no interruptions, no delays, no being responsible for anyone’s needs but my own. But most of all, it feels tremendously empty: I keep having these twitches of expectation that Sylvia and the kids are about to walk through the door, followed by a sinking realization that they aren’t.

The biggest challenge of the next few months will be keeping myself on some kind of reasonable schedule. I've become so accustomed to the patterns of (mostly child-driven) family life structuring my day that I find myself turning in circles wondering what to do with myself next. Work gives me some structure, but with it being summer, the university is half-deserted and work feels almost as fluid as the rest of my day.

And that’s where things stand. If nothing else, basic survival needs will dictate that I do a few things like shop for food, which is the currently the most pressing item on my bachelor agenda.