Hubs is TDY this week. For those whose spouses or parents have been in the military, you know that means ‘temporary duty.’ He’ll only be gone for a few days, and I’ll be able to talk with him every morning, but his absence will unquestionably be felt.

Even though I don’t sleep as well as I would with him at home, and have to do double morning duty to get The Boy and The Girls up, fed and ready for the day, and have to re-arrange a few things at work and some doc appointments… I’m actually looking forward to a little alone time.

We’ve been married long enough that being apart has its good points. The old adage ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ works for us. Being together all the time can take a toil on a relationship. We both have outside interests and friends, but we spend an inordinate amount of time together, so these small reprieves can be a welcome break.

I know this might come as a shock, but I can really get on a person’s last nerve sometimes. No, really! I can be insanely annoying… and a tiny bit of a nag.  Oh yeah, I am a consummate slob, and obsessively punctual.

Hubs snores ~ OH. MY. GOD! like a friggin’ freight train. That man has the teething gnashing habit of always being right, and knowing far more than I do… about everything. And, he’s a huffer… a passive-aggressive sigher.  Sometimes I just want to take a ball peen hammer to my forehead. I’ve been known to bang the receiver on the kitchen counter ~ over, and over, and over ~ after getting off the phone with him.

With Hubs gone, I don’t have two men folk I have to wake from the dead, only one, and I can threaten bodily harm against WK and know I can back it up. With Hubs… I can still kick him in the head, but he’s really fast with his hands. I can fold clothes and wash dishes when the time suits me. I can even leave wet towels in the bathroom, picking them up AFTER I’m done getting ready in the morning and not immediately after stepping out of the shower. I can leave all the lights on and the bedroom door open. Oh, the freedom!

While he’s gone Hubs doesn’t have to worry about me being too cold and can set the AC to whatever degree of winter he wants. He can watch any sports program and know I won’t try to switch it over to CSI or Law and Order the first chance I get. If he has to wash clothes while he’s gone, he knows he can hang up his dress shirts still warm from the dryer and not find them wadded up in the bottom of the laundry basket, wrinkled and unrecognizable. And he can sleep through the night without me punching poking him in the back or shoving nudging him onto his side trying to stop the train. Ah… peace and quiet.

The Man and I sometimes need some apart time to miss each other’s idiosyncrasies, and to really appreciate the together moments.