More on life as a bachelor

Ruth Gordon said of marriage that there is always someone you can tell it to.
Tomorrow, my wife, Sandra, returns from a five-day retreat at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre. It's a silent meditation retreat. ("Can she text?" asked granddaugher Krista.) Sandra's on the retreat with her friend, Janet. They've been friends for nearly 60 years. Janet's husband, Michael, died a few months ago.
It's been a quiet time for Marley and me as well. We've divided our time between the camp and town. There's no television at the camp yet, so I've managed to be at home when the Celtics are on. There were a couple of days of hard work, spring cleanup and stacking wood around the camp, stacking wood 'n other stuff in town.
When you've been married for a long time, you may not realize how often you see or hear something that you want to share with the other person. It can be something important, like a death of one of our extended family on Sunday, or something just curious, like the mention of our investment company in the context of last week's 1000-point drop of the Dow.
One night, I got to stand on the back deck and see Venus with the thumbnail moon:

Click to enbiggen

And, of course, when you see something so cool, you want to say, "Hey, look at this."
There's always something to say. (Remember that aching line from John Prine's Angel from Montgomery? "How the hell can a person go to work in the morning, And come home in the evening and have nothing to say.")
And when you can't say it or when you say it and there's no one around to hear it because the other is gone for a while or gone forever, well, you know, ....