Sweetheart of a Day!

Like many holidays, the line between pagan and religious roots are blurred. Valentine's Day is no exception. It seems that some time during the third centruy A.D. then Emperor Claudius in an attempt to incent young men to join his armed forces decided to outlaw marriage, thinking the move would eliminate their need to settle at home with loved ones. Instead, it caused a revolt of sorts. St Valentine, a Roman priest, began performing secret weddings. Ultimately he was caught, imprisoned, and finally executed on or around February 14th, 269AD. Power corrupts! Valentine's Day began for me at 5:30am sharp. And judging from this recent streak, I seem to be back in my groove. I proceeded to carry-on with my usual routine and was out the door with Ykraps by 5:50am. The morning sky was brilliantly clear and not a cloud in sight. The moon hung overhead in the northwest sky providing a well lit path for our walk. Too, the temperature was much warmer than it has been in a couple of weeks. We were back at home by 6:05am, and I went about finishing up my routine. I left for work sometime around 7:37am and arrived on time slightly before 8:00am. As you likely assumed, I spoke with Mindy along the way as we exchanged Valentine greetings once again. We made tentative plans for pizza at her home after work with the children. I would try to be there earlier than the usual 7:00pm. Work was busy, of course. Come noon time I was chomping at the bit to run. The temperature had moderated to well above 40 degrees and the sky was cloudless. I was looking forward to a spring like run! I dressed in two layers (a wicking shirt and a fleece jacket). I was perfectly comfortable. After my run I hit the shower immediately. In the men's locker room we have five shower heads. Three on one side, two on the other. For about a month now, one of the end shower heads has been inoperative causing one to shower right next to another without a shower between us. It feels uncomfortable and it looks rather odd! I decided while showering to attempt to take it apart to see what was the matter. Long story short, I was able to remove some blockage in the shower head and restore it to good working order. YEAH! The afternoon began with me logging onto Krogers floral website to check on the delivery status of Mindy's roses. I had ordered them on February 7th for a Valentine's Day delivery. Once I had my tracking number I was whisked off to UPS webpage where it showed that my package was in transit but not delivered yet. It was now 2:00pm, and Mindy gets off at 3:00pm. I began to worry. After all, I paid a sailor's ransom for Valentine's Day roses! A cal to the 800 number netted several busies but that didn't stop me. I kept on trying until I finally got through. The young lady was more than helpful but surprised me when she informed me that she wasn't necessarily Krogers florists. Instead, she was with proflowers. com. Apparently they are the pedals behind the Kroger moniker and provide this same service for several other companies as a DBA (doing business as). Any way, she let me share my story but assured me that there wasn't a problem yet so not to worry. There was still a good hour left before school was out. While she was correct, I wasn't so sure, and they lead me to believe that they'd be there in the AM hours. She claimed that since they went UPS they have a policy of 8pm for residential deliver, 5pm for businesses, and 3pm for schools and the like. I agreed to drop off the call and continue tracking the shipment. Come 3:05pm the webpage continued to show them in transit.. I was frustrated now because I knew that Mindy would soon be leaving for the day. And that meant that she didn't have Valentine's Day flowers to show off to her friends and co-workers. I reluctantly called and asked if she'd received any gifts while at school. Nope, nothing! Shit!! Mindy patiently agreed to stick around until 4pm to see if they'd arrive. She said that they UPS normally doesn't arrive until sometime just after 3pm anyways. In the meantime I continued to monitor the UPS webpage. Come 4:15pm Mindy had to depart without her flowers. I was dejected! What was meant to be a surprise was suddenly a painstaking endeavor. I repeated tried to dial the 800 number, but to no avail. Come 5pm EST I finally got through and spoke with Monique. I calmly explained the situation and she seemed to empathize. She provided two options. Credit the delivery charges and deliver anytime tomorrow or in the future - my choice. That didn't sound appealing because the luster was off the surprise already and I paid Valentine's Day prices. I asked about option #2. Option #2, she explained, was to credit me for the entire purchase. That felt right to me. I had lost out on the moment I intended to capture. We agreed to those terms. To cover myself, I logged back in one more time and printed off the screen shot of "in transit" at 5:00pm. I also got her employee number to use as reference should something in the credit process go awry. I left the office. Mindy was so cool over the entire event. She seemed happy just to know that I tried. My after work plans included stopping for a quick haircut, picking up a Joseppi's pizza, and then heading directly to Mindy's. I managed to do just that. I made it to her home with a new haircut and an extra-large Topper pizza by 5:50pm. I made great time due in part to a rock solid game plan. We all enjoyed the pizza although Jacob was a little distraught over the lack of a plain cheese pizza. I explained that the last time I bought two, one with pepperoni and one plain cheese, they all ate the pepperoni anyhow. He soon got over his angst and enjoyed some pizza. After dinner we played together for about an hour -a little hide-n'-seek, a veggie tales video, and a sword fight or two. But soon it was bath time. Again, both kids turned their tubby time into swimming time. Under my watchful eye they went about their hold your breath underwater contest. For whatever reason, their controlled fun got a little out of control towards the end. Soon they were flinging water at one another with plastic cups, and a great majority of it was leaving the tub and finding its way to the floor and walls. Mindy wasn't to please when she returned. Of course I did what any good "watcher" would do. I blamed them! They were just having fun and nothing was damaged. I saw that any little puddles were quickly soaked up by the floor towel. Not sure what the big deal was? After their baths the kids were in bed before 8:00pm. Mindy and I spent a few minutes together on the sofa before I headed home. Because I had driven straight to Mindy's, Ykraps was at home with his needs not yet tended to. I left her home at 8:15pm. Once home I walked Ykraps, washed my lunch containers, and prepped coffee for morning. Before going to bed I did some blogging and played guitar. And before closing my eyes for the night, I read several pages of my "What The Bleep" book.