More Time Than I Thought

So I thought I was supposed to drop off Lisa and Johnnie at LAX before 9 this morning. They had a 12 PM flight but for once Lisa wanted to be there early. As in really early. I couldn't believe my ears when she first said it. Couldn't be Lisa I thought. How many times did we have arguments over leaving for a flight late? Or argue over luggage and what was coming and what was not. Not that we missed any flights but she cut it much closer than I was comfortable. Every. single. time. And so yes abject shock was my reaction when she asked to get dropped off more than 3 hours before her flight! And so I was there at 8 AM on her front door with croissants for breakfast for mom and son. You can even see from the picture I got right up and didn't bother to even comb my hair. That's because it's Friday and I had to get up early anyway to lock in a tee time for next Sunday. I got up in time. But couldn't get one at Harbor. Oh well. Johnnie was clearly excited to go. He was already dressed up. And so when Lisa finally got out of the shower she informed me that she had texted earlier because there flight was moved from 12 PM to 4 PM. I took the day off for nothing! But hey, I wanted not to be bothered anyway. I had already gotten up to 420 vacation hours which was my limit. I literally am losing hours by not taking vacation.  Besides, this meant I simply get to spend more time with Johnnie anyway. Lisa asked me to stay and asked if she could get back to a nap since she had stayed up until 2 AM in the morning packing. Sounds just about right. Johnnie and I get to have the entire morning still since now I don't have to drop them off until about 1 PM later. So while Lisa napped, Johnnie and I pretty much goofed around like we usually would on a Saturday at my apartment anyway. It's like one of those Lisa piano lesson Saturdays on a fRiday is all. I even figured out how to get Wild Kratts on Prime video on Lisa's TV. And we got to watch the movie SING again!  It was all good. and I was happy to spend some extra time. For some reason the memory that came up today was July 2018  when they took off for Hawaii by themselves too. Only it ended up being the last couple of weeks I would end up living here at Maplewood. I still had a shred of hope when they left that perhaps maybe our marriage could be saved. Their Hawaii trip dashed every remaining bit of hope left. And that is ok. No such drama this time around. I'm just hoping to use Lisa's washer for my bulk items this weekend. She almost roped me into feeding all the animals but it turned out Courtney is staying there at her house and was given that task. Works for me! I already have the dog for the next 3 weeks.  Poor Claire.  i know he won't have nearly as much fun with me as he does with Johnnie. And i know Lisa cuddles him constantly and I really don't. Hey it's just for 3 weeks.  And so Lisa got to rest up a bit and then we ended up at Mitsuwa for lunch. Johnnie wanted som eudon, I got to have some chicken katsu and Lisa got to have some tuna rolls from the grocery store. A win-win-win. And I dropped them off as intended, by 1:30 PM almost 3 full hours before their flight. Sigh. Lisa actually asked if I could believe that. And of course I remarked that it was indeed shocking. And so it was that they off for Hawaii. And like my personality, I started shifting to my single guy with a dog persona from the single dad persona. I walked Claire later on around my neighborhood and sat through a bunch of episodes of El Cid. Yep that would be the Spanish knight known as Spain's national hero really. It's clear that I have to distract myself quite a bit these next 3 weeks to keep from missing Johnnie and that's ok. I do have plenty of distractions not to mention I have to do something with this time to move forward in my quest for financial independence and early retirement. There I said it. I'm quite serious about retiring early. And early calculations show that I might already have enough to do so right now. Or at least by the end of this year 2021. But of course I wish to do so on my own terms and I really do need to verify my calculations and talk to a real financial planner or tax expert. Either way I am grateful to be even at this point already. Well ahead of most Americans. The idea is to retire in relative comfort and maintain my current lifestyle. Then I get to switch personas again... stay-at-home DAD. I LIKE the sound of that!