Warm but Chili

The days bounty. Jacob is a GOOD shot! I slept like a rock most of the night and dreamt heavily. I didn’t make an appearance in the conscious world until almost 8:30am, which is late for me. Troubled still by the news I learned the night before, I simply had to find the strength to muster through. I went about my morning routine like any other morning. Soon I dawned my winter parka and leashed up Ykraps for a walk about the neighborhood. The first thing I noticed when I hit the door was the warm temperature, which I later learned was almost 50 degrees. It was very spring like. For some reason I was expecting much colder temps and recalled the forecasters predicting such. On closer inspection of the forecast it revealed that the morning warmth would be waning through the day and all but disappear by nightfall. Too bad, it was so darn nice! I took my time through the morning by fooling around on the internet and enjoyed several cups of coffee. I finally got around to my run at about 10:15am. Already the temperature had dropped a few degrees. It was only 45 when I returned, but still felt fairly warm. Soon after I returned I gave Mindy a call. She had left a VM or two since leaving late last night. We nailed down our afternoon plans, which were for her and the kids to spend the afternoon at my house while her house was being shown by her realtor. Before she came over I topped off the hot tub and then decided today was the day that I’d wash the Trooper. So, after a shower I grabbed $3 dollars worth of quarters, my car washing pail, and the keys and headed to the spray and wash just down the road. I hadn’t washed the Trooper since September, I am sure. It was beyond filthy! It took about an hour to wash and polish her to my satisfaction. I forgot just how pretty she is all clean. Once back home I decided to take the BM’er for a cruise around the block just to keep the battery charged and the fluids moving. She purred like a kitten. Can’t wait for warm sunny weather! Back inside, I finished some chores and then began preparing the chili I had been planning to make for a couple of weeks. Just about the time I started defrosting the meat and cutting the veggies, Mindy and kids showed up. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Jacob was excited about going outside and shooting my BB gun. After getting the chili in the crock pot, he and I set out to fire on the Canadian geese that have taken up residence in my back yard and have turned my backyard into their personal shit pot. They flew away abruptly after only a shot or two. We kept after them though until they were completely out of sight. But I know all to well that they’ll return in a matter of minutes. They either don’t really care, or have no memory retention. I plan to make their time in my yard a living hell with constant torment if nothing else. I mean, you’d have to see the amount of shit they leave behind. It’s ridiculous. They’re nothing short of rats with wings! They sit and eat my grass and then they shit in the exact same spot. Jacob wanted to keep shooting even after they’d all departed, understandably so. We took aim at a couple of mallards in the pond and shot their way. To my surprise, he hit one and it jumped about three feet in the air. They, in turn, flew away too. We retuned indoors where we watched some movies and played a few games. We ventured back out whenever the geese returned to follow through in making their time in my yard uncomfortable. By the end of the afternoon, Jacob got to be a pretty good shot. And what almost seemed wrong, they brought some old bread to feed the geese too. But to do the feeding we walked out front to the bridge so not to confuse them. After all, I can’t justify shewing and shooting them, then luring them right back with food. We repeated this a number of times through the afternoon. Come 5pm Mindy and I enjoyed some chili and corn bread. The kids had some lighter fare. I can’t recall exactly what time it was but assume sometime after 6pm, I again walked Ykraps and then buttoned up the house and headed to Mindy’s. Both kids wanted to ride with me. In their eyes, I am still a novelty. On our way we encountered a big accident on Alton-Darby Rd. that required us to detour onto Walker Rd. Once at Mindy’s she readied the kids for a rather early bedtime – they were in bed before 8pm. I cracked one of my Columbus Pale Ales she keeps for me and began watching a little television. Through the night we watched two movies, Manhattan Murder Mystery & Home for the Holidays. The prior is a Woody Allen classic and the latter is a Jody Foster directed film. Both were very good although we missed the ending of the Woody Allen movie. Those movies kept us up until almost 1am. I missed Saturday Night Live.