Gone

It's Friday night and I'm sitting at Bongo Java, a half hour before they close.  It's actually fairly deserted inside, with just a couple of tables of people talking quietly and drinking their coffee.  My guess is that a lot of the Belmont U. students took advantage of the long weekend (Labor Day) to travel home.

I said goodbye to Jude, J.P. and Joe at the airport, then drove home to an empty house.  It's strange, but while I look forward each year to the peace and quiet I'll have when they travel to Neptune Beach to visit with the Baines' clan, I also miss them as soon as they're gone.  When I got home from the airport, the silence in our house was deafening, in large part because I knew it would be that way for a couple of days.

It was nice, tonight, to sit at the bar and have dinner at Cabana, reading on my iPad, nowhere in particular to be.  At the same time, it's weird to know that I'll be going home in few minutes to an empty, quiet house (excepting N.C. and Mini T., our silly cats, of course).  I'll probably get caught up on "Breaking Bad," maybe watch a few episodes of the office, then read for a while.

My play is to get up early tomorrow and hit the trails at Shelby Bottoms for a long run.  Sadly, it's been ages since I've been there on a Saturday morning for a long trail run.  My Saturday morning trail run there was a focal point of my life for so long.  It's tough, now, because between family obligations, laziness and injuries, I just haven't been able to get over there on Saturday mornings.  Tomorrow, though.  Tomorrow.