Sendin you the fairy dust, RM.
Fallgirl, please stick your toes in the sand for me, will ya? I’m enjoying my heated physio in the pool but nothing beats warm sand and the sound of the ocean…last night I made Alexa play ocean sounds over and over again 
Cheers to alone time. Wait, did I say that out loud ? (Enjoy, Missy!)
But seriously, McH and I are what friends consider unusual in that we both excel at “alone time” in the same house…at the same time! I think its in part because
a) we work together all day, so neither of us has a compelling need for constant company and
b) we had separate residences for several years before co joining, so when we first moved in, we kinda identified territories
It works out really well 90 percent of the time. Ten percent of the time, one of us gets underfoot. Eg. I am notoriously derelict in the laundry department. Since we each do our own laundry, this isn’t usually an issue unless he wants to “play through” – he thinks I think the dryer is another drawer to me (sometimes true 
) I’m also pretty certain given his druthers, mch would prefer we didn’t entertain as much…and I of course feel I entertain less because we have an agreement we made years ago whereby I never schedule or at least include mch in two consecutive weekend of house guests/events. In summer, I often cheat, but cheat gently…eg girls night or book club one weekend, house guests the next.
My mother has said recently that her next grieving task will be to figure out whether she really ever wants to live with anyone again. She misses her man dearly in terms of companionship (the shock has worn off) but she’s noticing that she now has the freedom to “paint all day if she wants and put her easel in front of the lr windows” or putter the day away the classes/sr center where she swims and does exercise.
She wants to think about dating but doesn’t want to go back to someone waiting for his lunch. I tried to explain that companionship doesn’t have to look like that …if its the right kind of autonomous person AND you layout and live by the approach.
(The approach has to go both ways. If you want someone whose not hovering when you read a book or putter, then if you notice a tree down in the back lot, you’d better be good natured about just going and getting the chainsaw yourself if so moved without dragging them into it or resenting you chose to do it…)
At any rate, I hate being so far from her right now, particularly when she’s noticing it too. She outright said last week that more than anything she wishes I was just around the corner. I know she’s “rebuilding a life” and experimenting instead of just running over here, but I also know that my youngest sib is angling to move in with her and she’s utterly opposed to this, for very legit reasons.
Time will tell how this all goes.
I’ve considered suggesting she move into our rental home, but its a big old house with wicked stairs and isn’t suited to aging in place. I wish I had another rental that was a rambler like this one Maybe I should chew on that a bit.