man alone

Though my wife had scheduled and wanted to stay in Taiwan for four full months like we did last year, I decided to come back alone to the States for December just so to take care of things and have meetings I felt more comfortable conducting in person.

"Can you live well on your own?" that's what I figured had been on my wife's mind from the suspicious look and frequent reminding she'd been presenting me. So here's a testimonial of how a well domesticated man for 30+ years survived the trial of single living for 28 days. 

It sounds surprising (to myself at least), but the most challenging domestic chore to me was using the washer/dryer for the laundry. I practically had to write down the operating procedure and followed it methodically so I wouldn't pull the wrong knob or push the wrong button, select the wrong load size or forget throwing in a softener sheet when drying. (One of these days they'll come up with a touch-screen panel or a mobile app to make things easier).

When it came to sorting and folding the clothes after it's done, I didn't, just threw them all in one lump sack in the drawer. (Who's going to inspect how neat my underwear was arranged anyway).

Another serious doubt my wife had with me was my cooking competency. For that, as I proclaimed to her time and time again, a simple man like me needs only simple food: My default meal consisted of a hand-made sandwich of ham, tomato, lettuce, and a little mayo or salad dressing:

A kale wrapped hot-dog also qualified as simple and healthy food in my cookbook:

Sometimes just a piece of bread and a few pepperoni-wrapped cheese sticks with a glass of wine could very well a good meal make:

A $5 Costco barbeque chicken tided me over for 4+ meals:

And this generic hash I put together with left-over kale, tomato, onion, turkey, and minced hot-dog (that's why I called it "chopsuey salad") I brought to a New Year's Eve pot-luck party looked and tasted actually pretty good, in my humble opinion:

Then a man's chore in the house was never done: I cleaned the garage, 

propped up the leaning trees, 

harvested my organic garden (consisting of only one plant), 

replaced barbeque grill cover that could easily blow over, 

fixed the kitchen sink soap dispenser that took days of diagnosis and ordering the right parts, 

and dis-assembled an old bed and put up a new one.

                                  

I also did some human relationship uplifting by hand delivering Christmas presents to our gardener and house cleaner--boy were they glad to receive them!, and even got involved with local politics by voting out the incumbent board of our homeowners association that many of my neighbors hated!

I went biking with my cousin-in-law's, 

hiking on the new coastline trail near the new outlet mall in San Clemente, 

and almost went kayaking with my Club Med buddy Mel on New Year's Eve if I wasn't leaving so soon.

Nor did I slack up on my social activities. I attended small group birthday celebration, 

meditation group Advent celebration, 

men's group reunion at my backyard, 

and hosted friends from out of town.

All things proven and done, I happily returned to my wonderful, capable wife, where true home is, to be a pampered, defanged man of the house again for the next 11 months or so...

Happy New Year!