Too Tipsy

I was up at 7:30am. Mindy, as she often does, chose to stay in bed and catch up on her sleep. The kids, of course, were already up so I took care of their immediate needs along with my own. Soon I had coffee brewing, my vitamin down and my exercises completed. I asked the kids to quiet down a little a couple of times. They’re four and seven. They know only one volume level. While I enjoyed coffee and surfed the internet, the kids played in the basement. I left for a run just after 9am. I ran down Trabue and Hague for the first time in a couple of weeks. It was refreshing. After all, it was a beautiful morning. Mindy was still sleeping even after I returned. The kids continued to entertain themselves. Before getting started on the shed project, I decided to trim the dead English Ivy vines from the eastern-most front flower bed. That’s never as easy as it appears as each individual vine tends to take root multiple times making it difficult to cut it back cleanly. But having done this a couple of times past, I knew the drill well. An hour later I had it cleared, raked, and ready for the new purple sage. While I was busy working in the ivy beds, Mindy finally emerged from bed and made us a big breakfast. She made maple bacon and scrambled eggs laced with tomato & cheese. It was all very good. Mindy knew that I wanted to get cracking on the shed so she agreed to clean-up the dishes. I got ready to get down and dirty. The first thing I did was mix 1 part bleach to 4 parts water in my pump sprayer. I mixed just shy of two gallons. I sprayed it on the southern side of the shed first. Almost instantly it turned the dark trim boards white again validating that it was mildew, just as the internet tip explained. Eventually I work my way all around the shed. After letting it set for about thirty minutes I readied the power washer. It hadn’t been run since last fall’s garage cleaning project. I began power washing in the same sequence that I applied the bleach solution. The shed cleaned up like new. In fact, it was better than new. The power washing opened up the pores of the wood to better receive stain. I finished the power washing in just over an hour. Now it would need to dry for at least a day before applying stain. My next project was planting the purple sage out front. That took another hour. Mindy & Bella returned from grocery shopping phase one while I was at it. After getting all seven planted I watered all the beds, front and back. I spent the rest of the late afternoon doing a handful of miscellaneous tasks. Most notably, I washed the BM’er and the minivan. The BM’er hadn’t been washed since last fall. It looked really good when it was done – better than ever. The van cleaned up nicely too. I was about done! I had all the fun I could take for one day. I retreated to the house for a shower. I walked Ykraps shortly after my shower. I opened a Hop Devil & took to the deck. It was after 7:30pm. I grabbed some sparklers and bottle rockets and entertained the kids for a few. Just as we were enjoying our pyrotechnics, Renee showed up for dinner. We were planning to grill filets & shrimp again tonight. The kids ate earlier and went to bed shortly after 8pm. We got busy grilling sometime around 8:30pm and sat to eat on the deck at dusk. It was an incredibly beautiful evening. Renee’ made me one of her gin drinks at the meal’s conclusion. It was tasty and also very strong. Sometime after that we invited our neighbors, Crissy & Kenny over. As the evening passed Renee’s new friend Tandy showed up, too. Somewhere along the line Renee’ and I thought it a good idea to do shots of Jack while Mindy did Goldschlager. After a few beers, some gin, & shot or two of Jack, I was toast. Next thing I knew I woke up in the back yard out by the shed and very cold. I felt miserable. I could hear everyone still carrying on up on the deck. And for whatever reason I wanted to avoid them. To that end, I stumbled my way along the side of house nearly falling a couple of times. Eventually I let myself in through the garage as the front door was locked. How I managed to press the right combo I’ll never know. All I could think of was getting to my bed. Good Night Moon!