Empty Nest: Three weeks and counting

Maria's daughter goes back to college Aug. 17.
Her son went to live with his father at the end of May.
For the first time in our married life (since May 15, 2001), we will have the house entirely to ourselves.
It will be truly liberating to be able to make plans that include nobody but us. No obligation to accommodate or entertain kids.
Of course, we can't have complete privacy because Maria's mother retired earlier this year and, since we only live about 10 blocks from her, she likes to pop in unannounced. I can't tell you how many times we've been on the verge of intimacy when we heard her car tires crunching down our gravel driveway.
She calls at least once a day, usually to talk to her granddaughter, but often to chat with Maria and sometimes even with me. Now you know why we got Caller ID recently.
If we don't get out of the house early on weekends we can count on calls from my mother-in-law and both of Maria's brothers.
So you see, "empty nest" and "privacy" are relative terms.
Maria comes from a long line of big, close families. Her mother comes from a huge family of Italian immigrants and has the equivalent of an army battalion of aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews. Maria is the oldest of three kids and they were pretty close growing up in sometimes difficult circumstances so they have a need to keep in touch - at least through Maria. The two brothers - one Amish, the other Kerry Democrat liberal Unitarian - have wildly divergent ideas on citizenship, responsibility and parenting and it often falls to Maria to be the family diplomat, smoothing ruffled feathers over real or imagined affronts.
I, on the other hand, was an only child. All four of my grandparents were dead by the time I was 5 and none of my aunts, uncles or cousins lived in the same town with us. I saw some of them separately maybe every six weeks or so and most of them at the annual family reunion.
For me, "family" meant my parents and me. And after I went off to college and later got married and lived 60 miles from them, I could go months without seeing them and not feel any pangs of separation.
So all of this extended family stuff has taken a little getting used to.
My biggest fear is that Maria will try to fill up our newfound "alone" time with extended family stuff when my idea of quality time is the two of us taking a weekend trip on the motorcycle or in the car. Alone. With the cell phones turned off.
This is actually the second time I've achieved empty nest status.
My first wife and I had reached that point with our two sons when the wheels came off of our marriage. That made for a really empty nest, with all the attendant advantages and disadvantages.
I'm looking forward to doing it right this time.