Husband is off to California for a week and even Opal, our beautiful white dwarf rabbit with the black stripe on her back seems a little unhinged by his leave taking. She’s in the corner of her cage right now doing her vibrating huddle not quite sure why all the lights are on at 4:30 in the morning.

Poor Opal. She’s very attached to Husband.

Husband’s cell phone alarm clock woke us all up. It plays this silly song that we’ve come to call the Clown School Song. "We are graduates of Clown School. We ride out little cars in circles…" Husband was making up some words this morning.

None of us are used to having Husband out of the house for even a day, let alone a whole week. And with the new job and all, Husband vacates his Aeron desk chair and ventures into the big city on a daily basis now.

So he just left in the middle of the night to catch an early Jet Blue flight out of Kennedy Airport. He will spend the week with family in Northern California. Since we didn’t make it out there this Christmas, there is family business and pleasure to attend to.

The apartment feels too big without him. Not to mention our bed: though lord knows I don’t mind stretching out without worry of kicking him.

I’m still wondering how we’ll get the Christmas tree to the Mulch Fest in Prospect Park without him. It’s on the sidewalk in front of the building now.

And God forbid the fancy lightbulb in the dining room light fixture goes out (it’s been flashing). Last night was a flurry of packing and H. didn’t get around to everything he was planning to do. He did, however, manage to leave me with a large selection of No Words_Daily Pix by Hugh Crawford choices and that’s the important thing.

We’re just not used to having him out of Brooklyn for long periods of time. It’ll be a strain on everyone. Opal. Son, daughter. Even the little mouse who’s taken up residence behind the stove will miss Husband I’m sure.