I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.  – Henry David Thoreau

If everything goes according to plan, I will have the house to myself for 18 consecutive hours this weekend.  I have been dreaming about this for weeks, and I’ve been trying not to get too excited in case it doesn’t happen.  As the big day approaches, however, I’m almost giddy in anticipation.

As a parent of two young boys, I hardly ever get time in the house alone.  Maybe an hour here or there, but rarely anything longer than that.  In the five-and-a-half years since A was born, time alone in the house has been a rare, fleeting thing, seemingly over almost before it began.  

On Friday night, B and A are heading down to Southern Ontario for a visit / dress-fitting (for B, not A), and my mom’s volunteered to have K stay at her home on Saturday night.  So, sometime around 2:30 pm on January 17, I will open my front door to the sound of…silence.

My plans for those 18 hours are modest.  I want to read the Globe and Mail from front to back with no interruption, I’m going to listen to music at a volume level that would usually be frowned upon, and I will probably spend a few minutes (hours) playing Guitar Hero.  Awesome.

I’m also looking forward to spending some one-on-one time with K.  Being the second child, we never really got to spend a lot of time together with just the two of us, so this will be the chance for some father-son bonding.  All in all, it’s shaping up to be a great weekend…