Alarm Clocks and Time Pieces

What do I miss about my marriage? Well if you've read my blog, you know there are plenty of things. Yesterday I discovered I missed MyUnwife the alarm clock. Sure. I miss waking up every morning and tapping her on the head so I can snooze a little longer. I miss her rolling over and kneeing me in the spine until I fall out of bed, crippled, but awake and ready to start my day.

Ok, she never did that. She was already at work by the time I got up. I do remember the first year we were married she came home for lunch. I liked that. She stopped when her work moved her further from our house. When we moved closer to her work, she never started it back up again. I missed that. I also missed when she stopped calling home at lunch. I guess they moved the phone lines too. Sorry, just a bitter whine, nothing to be alarmed about.

See, couples settle into routines. Comfortable one are kept, unnatural ones fall away. That's where the alarm clock thing comes in. I grew comfortable with my day moving on her time table. I knew what time to expect her home from work, so I'd make sure to shower and be clean for that. I knew that I had to cut a wife sized hole in my work schedule at night. Make space for comfortable time. Each day, the clock would reset and we'd do it again.

When she announced her intent to leave, the timetable shifted. She hung out at work later, she worked out in the evening, I'd stay up later at night. This worked into an hour of quality time we needed to avoid each other. Our hour of alarm.

Now that she's gone, the time belongs to me, and I'm only good at losing it. Last night I had a computer problem. My Wi-Fi connection went down. Now in the real world, this isn't earth shattering. This is something to be filed and dealt with as needed. In Robworld this is Chernobyl melting down. All efforts are now focused on cleaning things up and plugging the internet leak. 40ft of PVC and a can of plumbers putty later, I've fixed the problem. It's also 10pm. I haven't eaten dinner, I haven't checked the mail, and the dog is tapping his watch too. It seems I've forgotten somebody else too. There goes my doggy daddy of the year award. All because my alarm clock is broken.

It's funny how somebody else can add priority to your life, even if they aren't the priority, they reflect what is important. Left alone we lose perspective, and our bathtub of dirty water becomes a muddy sea to our eyes. Time loses meaning. We tread water until we can gain an outside perspective, like a boat, or a dock, or a man eating water squirrel. At least that's how I see things, but you can't trust me: my alarm clock is broken.