Sounds of silence

My Esteemed Spouse has left for work, and I'm here alone with the cat. I don't have the television or radio or stereo on. I'm basking in the sounds of silence (okay, the sounds of the keyboard clicking).

The day seems filled with possibilities, as well as with tasks I need to do. Later today, I'm going to pick up my husband and we'll drive up to Big Rapids to take possession of the key to my studio apartment. Obviously, I'm eager to see it again, empty of the furniture that was in it when I toured it so many months ago. I want to know what I need to bring. Will I need a rug? How many electrical outlets are there? Is the stove gas? (I seem to recall that it is.) Do the burners work? What about a shower curtain?

I also need to prepare syllabi for the two classes I'm teaching this summer online. I need to pack up the dishes that didn't sell at the garage sale. I need to continue cleaning the dining room/living room, not only because the dining table is arriving on Friday, but also because I have an intense need to reclaim my home. We did some work toward that end yesterday, when my husband put up the shelves in the den, and I placed many of our family photos on them. Coincidentally, in the mail yesterday was a new 8 x 10 of my mother-in-law. (Her church takes them periodically.) We rehung the boys' senior portraits (displaced by the tv over the mantle). They now occupy the dining room.

The whole time my husband was cursing and fussing over hanging the shelves, I couldn't help but grow concerned. When I was helping him carry out various things for the garage sale, he seemed to have much less physical strength than he used to have. Of course, he's older, but so am I, and I felt like I was strong enough to carry my end without much difficulty. Does my memory exaggerate how strong he used to be? Or has he gotten weaker?

What I want to be doing is writing. I really want to get that story resolved that I've been working on (mentally more than anything else).