Lost, so lost...

My wife took the boy to visit relatives for the next week. I couldn't go because of work.

This is the first time in at least three years and eight months that I have been home alone for more than a day.

In the run-up to their departure, my mind was full of the things I would do when I finally had time to myself.

I could burn through a couple thick books.

I could finish a couple Xbox games.

I could watch a few DVDs that have been collecting dust.

But did I end up doing? Lying on the couch staring into space. I felt like Morgan Freeman when he finally got out of prison in The Shawshank Redemption.

I figure all my little hobbies and activies are actually like ornaments on the Christmas tree of my wife and kid. You have to have this big tree to start with, then figure out where to best place all the other sparkly little things that give the tree dazzle. Now my tree has been taken away -- really, it walked out the door with a suitcase -- and all my pretty lights and ornaments collapsed into a pile on the floor. And I'm not sure how to start sorting them out again.

Actually my paralysis only lasted a couple hours. I ended up having lunch and dinner out with friends, bashed out tons of e-mails, and drove what seemed like a couple hundred miles in "Forza Motorsport". It ended up being a pretty good day.