Cooler Weather - But Still the Weekend

My Weeping Willow Blooming! Ykraps marking his territory Holy Cow! It was 9:15am. I slept late! But it was Saturday and I can sleep all damn day if so choose. And boy, was I ever out of it! Meanwhile, Mindy was laying quietly watching me sleep. She said she’d been awake for an hour and a half or so just watching the sky go from sunny to cloudy and back again. My mouth felt like sand paper. I needed a drink of water right away. A glance out the bathroom window while brushing my teeth revealed clouds overhead but clear blue skies in the coming western sky. And by the time we made it down stairs and threw on the coffee maker the sun was brightening what appeared to be a rather chilly morning. Even though we nearly hit 80 degrees on Friday, today wasn’t expected to top 48 degrees – a full thirty degrees cooler. We tinkered around drinking coffee and talking for a good hour and a half before either of us got going with our day. At 11:00am Mindy hit the shower, and I hit the running trail. There was a brisk breeze blowing out of the north that was apparently ushering in the se cool temps. Still the warmth of the sun was dramatic. As my run concluded, the cold that has been hampered my body found its way onto my face in the form of a sweaty snot. Mindy, I could see, was waiting by her mini-van when I arrived back home. She needed to head home to begin preparing the house for Jacob’s 6th birthday party, which would be tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon. My plan was to get in as much yard work as possible in about 4 hours. At that point I figured I would break off to complete my other Saturday duties which included grocery shopping and such. After reviewing my spring ‘To Do’ list I decided to attack cutting back the English Ivy in all of my flower beds. This stuff is very hardy and left alone will overtake the garden in a hurry. I worked diligently for about 2 hours before taking any kind of break. Around 2pm I took a ten minute break, ate some leftover pizza, and drank a diet Coke to restore some much needed energy. Back at it! I spent another tow hours trimming and taming the Ivy and raking last autumn’s leftovers from under all my shrubbery. I hauled all of this yard debris out to my compost area –at the end of my property. When I was done the flower beds circling my home were looking much, much better. All that is left is edging, adding Comtil, and mulching. Inside I showered a readied a list for the grocery and home Depot. It was apparent form the outset that I would likely stop at both Kroger and Wal-Mart for needing/wanting to get some grocery items only found at Kroger. That wasn’t a big deal though because Kroger is right down the road from Home Depot. At Home Depot I planned on searching out and purchasing a 110 volt landscape lighting kit to replace the temporary spot currently aiming at my garage from under the white pine. In addition, I needed to pick-up another rake – after with Mindy around, I’ll need to have two. And so I don’t always have to empty my giant city roll around trash can to clean up yard debris, I bought another plastic 40 gallon roll-around trash bin. Lastly, I picked up some miscellaneous lamp hardware to repair the brass lamp post fixture. I got all of that for under $50. Not bad! On to Kroger. At Kroger I grabbed my favorite coffee creamer – Coffee-mate’s, Toffee Nut, two bottles of wine, and some cheese. On to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart was crowded but it always is, unless you go late at might or extra early in the morning. There I complete my bi-weekly haul and then some. I had been gone over three hours. I wondered where in the hell all the time had gone. I called Mindy, she was already back at my house and was wondering where I was. I made one more stop at El Vaquero to pick-up some chips and salsa. I was planning to make my own guacamole once home. Once home I unloaded the Trooper. Mindy was nice enough to have walked Ykraps making my evening just that much easier. As soon as things were put away, we began making our dinner. We were planning to have Mexican - home made burritos, chips, salsa, and guacamole. Unfortunately, the avocado’s I bought weren’t ripe, so we had to forego the guacamole. The preparation went well and soon we were enjoying the great taste of homemade burritos. And nothing tops El Vaquero’s chips and salsa. By the time we finished dinner it was nearly 9pm. Where the day and evening go, we both asked? We had both worked hard all day – Mindy at home decorating and cleaning, and me in the yard. We decided that the only right thing to do was get in the hot tub. It felt absolutely wonderful! And because I had lowered the temperature by 3 degrees, Mindy was able to enjoy it so much more. We stayed in for almost 45 minutes. By the time we were done hot tubbing it was nearly 10:45pm. We tuned into Mad-TV for a spell and then headed to bed around 11:15pm. We were both exhausted!