I spent the day today in solitude, but it was very strange. I spent it at my parent’s house. I really don’t remember the last time I spent an entire afternoon there when no one else was home.

I stirred up a lot of different feelings.

The purpose of going over there was to do some planting and to do a couple of loads of laundry.

My mother and brother had gone to Connecticut to Foxwoods Casino, something they had both wanted to do for a while. I have absolutely no interest in gambling, casinos and throwing away money, so I elected not to go with them.

The people in my department at school had given me a rhododendron plant when my father dies. It was lovely and rapidly coming to a horrible end while on my balcony. Rhododendrons clearly need to be planted in the ground and put in a location that might give them a chance to survive. A pot on my balcony, with full sun for most of the day was doing it in. It belonged at my parent’s house.

My mother had also been telling me that she hated how a certain section in the front of the house was looking and that it needed some sort of plants, but that she hadn’t gotten around to doing anything about it. I had a bunch of begonias left over so I thought I’d plant them out front.

I got there shortly afternoon, and was struck by how weird being there felt.

This is a tri-level house and we always entered through the garage into the den, which is where my father would be sitting. It was so sad to walk in and not have him there, to not sit and chat and tell him a joke or two. I’d always save up my clean jokes for him and he’d have a couple for me.

It choked me up to see that empty chair, to not hear the Boston Pops or Lawrence Welk, or Mario Lanza on the CD player.

It was also odd not to have him complain that I’d brought laundry with me again, and to not keep asking me how much I had left to do as I took it from the washer in the basement to the dryer in the garage.

I don’t think that he really cared that I was doing the laundry, but it gave him something to talk about, to complain about.

Of course I had chosen a 90 degree day, complete with 90 percent humidity to do all these chores. And of course the house is not air-conditioned.

So I dug my hole and planted the rhododendron, then I dragged the huge terracotta pot from the garage to the front walkway and did the potting soil, fertilizer thing before putting in some of the begonias.

After a brief break I planted the rest of the begonias in the place that my mother had been complaining about then started watering everything. Oh the luxury of a hose! Of not having to tote bucket after bucket to water the plants!

I want to find a way to rig a hose to my sink and drag it through the living room or bedroom to the balconies!

I had brought my book with me so I sat in the new porch while I waited for my laundry to dry. It was quite nice out there, and my mother has done a lot to the room since my father died. In many ways that’s the easiest place to be in that house as my father hadn’t spent time out there, so I can’t picture him there. They had only had the room built last November, so we hadn’t had a chance to use it before he died.

I sat out there for an hour or so and then grabbed my stuff and went back to my air conditioning.

I did finish reading Acts of Love while I was out there. If anyone has any interest at all in theater it’s worth reading. It is a love story, but there’s a lot more to it. It has to do with overcoming obstacles, coming to grips with the past and facing the future. And the main characters were in their forties, which is unusual in a love story (gives me hope!) I thoroughly enjoyed it.

And tonight is the two-hour Iron Chef extravaganza as Iron Chef Morimoto takes on Bobby Flay in New York City!

Gotta love that Iron Chef. Even Chairman Kaga gets to come to the Big Apple!