Living alone, but married

  Mountain living, solo style, has it's benefits and problems. I'll do a pros and cons type of approach and settle the issue by weighing the columns. My guess is... nevermind. I don't have a guess
  First off on the Pro side, as my loving youngest brother mentioned in his reply to my last column, living by yourself, the entire house is your 'naked room'. For me that carries a lot of weight, as do I.  I see no wholesome or organic benefit from walking around naked, nor do I do it to impress anybody, myself included. Sometimes I just don't feel like putting clothes on. Sometimes I am unsure what clothes I want to wear. I have cleaned the house naked, folded laundry naked, and even I tried working out naked, but there were some safety issues, so I donned shorts. In the fall and winter months the temperature drops down to the low 50's and even into the 40's inside the house when I return from work. My centrally located gas fireplace takes a while to heat the great room back up to a comfortable level, around 59. That just means that if you drop by on a weekday evening you most likely won't see me naked, although I may still be folding laundry, or vacuuming, or working out.
  On the Con side, I don't have many neighbors dropping by to chat or borrow a cup of sugar, or share a beer. This may be added to the Pro side of, walking around naked, but for now I'll keep it Con. Most all mountain folk keep to themselves, unless they have a problem with you burning scrap wood or pine needles on a "No Burn" day, or they think you parked you shed (or motor home) too close to their property line. They then walk, run, drive or email down to the homeowners association and lodge a complaint. You will be hearing about it for months. But seriously, most full time folks up here are reminiscent of the old west. They keep to themselves, fight their own battles and provide their own provisions. That's not to say they won't help out if a neighbor is in need. If you come limping in to catch up to the group you've been mt. bike riding with and you have half a manzanita branch hanging out of your armpit, they will graciously drive you :45 minutes to the next county to get stitched up. They will not remind you of how they helped, and hung out for two hours while all the nurses and doctors on staff that evening came to ooh and ahh about the size if it (The puncture wound that is), but they will brag on how you were trying to keep up with the younger, "big dogs" and managed to impale yourself on a manzanita stump. "Oooh, that was awesome". Or if you mention to a neighbor on your evening walk, you have young nephews coming up for the weekend and you want to make a fort, they will gladly drop what they are doing and bring all their scrap wood over for you to use, (and burn for them when you burn needles the next time).
 On the Pro side again, I have plenty of time to catch up on all the reading, craft projects, knitting, and writing projects I have been planning on and haven't done for the past 3-5 years. My fingers are blistered from looming, but I have 3 nice new matching hats and a fine pair of leg warmers. I have puncture wounds on the ends of my fingers but I have finally mastered sewing ornament size moccasins, and dream catchers. My basement smells like a dump, but I have plenty of fur, paws and feathers from roadkill carcass' for my next leather and beading project. I have loaded my shelves to overflowing with new, good, old and bad books waiting to be returned to the thrift shop. I am so loaded with useless facts and trivia I scare myself.
 On the Con side I find myself talking and arguing with myself because, because, because, There is no one else here. "That meal was great, I should have those leftovers again tonight. When did I make that soup? I think it was last week or the week before. It's in Tupperware, it should still be good, power was only out for 2 days last week. OOOH I'm sick, I wonder if I have the flu or maybe it was the soup." "What should I wear today? I don't think it's that cold outside. The weather station has a shadow, so it must be warm. I won't wear anything for a while and see how I feel later."
Another issue that is both Pro and Con is there is no one here to tell you what to do. There is no one to tell you it's past 9:00 on your day off and you need to get up and get the needles raked, or the driveway shoveled. But then there is no one here to force you to go out the door and shovel the driveway  because you  have to go to work tomorrow and you don't want to have to do it at 4:00 in the morning. There is no one here to make you go out and buy a case of Coors Light and a pack of tampons, but then there is no one here to tell you "let's go down to the well tonight and drink till we get our fill". Do tampons come in packs or bunches or boxes?
I guess my Pro and Con list weighs out pretty evenly. I do miss having someone here to talk about my day with, but then I have IM and Facebook to catch up with my friends on. I wonder why they don't answer me every five minute when I text them or change my status, like they used to? I don't like my wife sitting glued to the TV every evening, but I do miss having her here to try to impress and dress for. I sure miss the social life and friends I had at the local gym, but there is no beating the beautiful, serene, calming and wild wilderness just outside my window and all around me when I work out up here, naked and alone.

  Time to go reheat that mac n' cheese, and put on some clothes, it's starting to get cold in here.

davee