Bonus Round, MP3, and Jack

It was Tuesday morning. I was up and rearing to go by 5:40am. My thoughts turned to the fast pace of the week. It was already the second day of the week. And given that we’re leaving for Oregon Thursday evening, time seems to be slipping by quickly. There’s still so much to do. I calmed myself via exercise and the realization that everything will get done as planned. It always does. Plus, Mindy does a great job of tying up the details. It really makes a huge difference having someone else working on the plan, too.

After exercising and walking Ykraps I was back inside making the morning’s first cups of coffee. I delivered Mindy’s bedside. She had just popped out of bed and had already begun making the bed. I headed back downstairs. I did some surfing and then read the Daily OM, which talked about the way we fill voids in our life. Often we try to fill the emptiness with stuff, shopping, or food – all very temporal things.
I checked the temperature. It was a balmy 39.7 degrees! What a difference a day makes. Yesterday at this time it was only 9 degrees. We’re expecting rain today, which if heavy, will further help to eliminate the heaps of snow and ice.

It was 6:30am and time to move into food prep. I whipped up lunch for Mindy & I and then got started on breakfast. I threw everyone a curve ball this morning. The leftover French bread setting on the counter looked very appealing. So, in lieu of eggs, I whipped up some gourmet French toast. Even Jacoby wanted some. Te kids and Mindy left at their usual time, and I headed up for my shower.

Before leaving for work, I took some extra time to organize and finalize a document I had been working on, and brought our ski gear up from the basement storage. I left for work around 8:15am.

Right out of the shoot, work was busy. I took of numerous tasks through the morning hours. At 12:45pm sharp I left for my run. I was a little extra psyched to have my new MP3 player along for the run today. It’s been over three months without tunes. I realized today how it adds another dimension to the run. It takes the mind further from the mundane physical landscape to a more introspective place. It was very nice. The temperature was nice today, too. It was 46 degrees!

After the run I returned to my desk with plenty to do. Some time just before 4pm I went and met with my boss to, among other things, discuss my merit raise/bonus. I didn’t get back to my office until almost 4:50pm. When I got back I added some RAM to my laptop and wrapped up a few other loose ends. I left the office at 5:10pm destined for home. The warmer temps and rain made a significant impact on the snow pack. I could see parts of my driveway I hadn’t seen in weeks. It was still raining when I got home. Jacob wanted to walk Ykraps with me, but Mindy quickly nixed that, not wanting to risk him getting sick out in the dreary weather.
He understood.

The ice covered walks were now malleable slush. I suppose the fear is that they’ll freeze over night making them slicker than before after the day’s rain. Back inside, dinner was about ready. We were having beef tips & gravy served over whole-wheat lasagna noodles (low carb). To complement the main entrée, Mindy made a fresh salad. Bravo!

We ate and cleaned up the kitchen all before 6:30pm. Record time! Mindy built a fire and put in a movie for the kids. We both got crackin’ on packin’. For lots of reasons, packing is always a stressful activity for me. First of all, I like to do something and be done with it. But because I need to use a number of personal packables right up until time to leave, I can’t wrap up the task fully. That and the fear of forgetting something major causes me much stress.

Mindy finished her packing well ahead of me. While she tended to the children’s bedtime needs I continued on. Thank God for lists. I keep a checklist in Excel that I tweak for each Oregon trip. It really doesn’t change too much, and comes in very handy, especially for addressing last minute to do’s.

After I packed all I could, Mindy and I talked about family dynamics for the next hour or so. Before heading off to bed, we snuggled against the warm fire she had built earlier. Mindy had a glass of red wine, and I had a Jack Daniels and Coke. We fell asleep there in front of the fire. We woke and headed to bed around 11-something.