Class of '77

HAPPY 6th Birthday Kaileigh!

I woke at my preferred weekend rise time – 7:30am. I felt pretty darn good and got crackin’ on my exercises immediately after prepping the coffee maker. It was 8:07am when I sat down at the PC with my first cup of coffee. By then I had finished exercises and walking Ykraps. I didn’t sit there long, however. It was much too nice outside. I soon took to the deck with coffee and guitar in hand. I must have sat out there for 30 minutes or so. It was very lovely. Just before 9am I grabbed some clean running clothes from the dryer and took off on a run. I took my MP3 player at first in my hands but eventually placed it on my mid-arm area being careful not to place it too high where it would irritate my skin by rubbing. I ran inside the subdivision. I finished my run around 9:30am. Mindy was out on the deck when I returned enjoying coffee.

We decided to skip a heavy breakfast and instead opted for a plate of fruit. Around 10am I started fooling around with my new sprinkler pump again. It didn’t take long to get it working after finding a suitable spot to suck water from the pond. The only glitch in the process was that the oscillating sprinkler screen was clogged with pond silt from my Thursday experimentation. After removing the clog the watering worked very well. Well, that is, until Mindy blew the GFI breaker while blow drying her hair.

I was over visiting neighbor’s Pat & Lisa checking out their new shed and sharing vacation stories when Mindy began hollering for me. She was leaving for Target. I ran home when she told me she reset the breaker and the sprinkler was no longer running. I was afraid that my pump would burn up after running dry for several minutes. It didn’t.
She left while I was re-priming the pump. I just knew she was already regretting buying me this thing!

After getting the watering back underway I took to deweeding the flower beds. I did that for almost an hour. The most tedious part was removing lots of dead English Ivy still in the Westside beds. Mindy retuned home with Kaileigh’s b-day gift about that time. I finished up working in the yard while Mindy wrapped the gifts. I went in to shower for the graduation party at 1:30pm. We needed to leave at 2pm.

I was fully ready by 1:50pm. I suggested taking the BM’er until Mindy reminded me that we supposed to pick-up her mother and take her along. I changed my plans and drive the Trooper. We left the house at 2:05pm. We arrived at the party in Oakhurst just after 2:30pm. Amy just graduated from OSU and her parents were sponsoring a large gathering of friends and family. The house and yard were lovely with an abundance of shade out back making the soaring temps bearable. We hung at the party until 4:10pm. We needed to leave early, however, to leave ourselves plenty of time to get ready for the reunion which started at 6pm.

I got the sprinkler pump restarted as soon as we got home and watered for another hour or so, soaking the front lawn as much as possible. I pulled the plug just before changing clothes. Mindy wore her little black wedding dress. She looked awesome! I wore shorts and a nice summery shirt. We drove the BM’er just a short quarter mile to the Raymond Memorial Party House. I guess we could’ve easily walked.

We arrived just after 6pm. I was a little nervous walking in. I began spotting familiar yet strange faces immediately. What a throw back! It wasn’t long before I saw that David Waters and Sean Meehan were there – two of my closest childhood friends. I hadn’t seen David in probably 18 years and have only seen Sean once or twice in the same amount of time. There were many equally cool encounters through the evening too. I talked with all sorts of old school mates, including Rita Bell whom I went all through elementary school and high school with. I gave out lots of hugs! Dinner was pretty good, too. It was catered by Schmidt’s. As for drinks, they served only your run of mill beers like Miller & Budweiser. I detest them all. I drank only half of my first beer. I drank water the rest of the evening. It’s interesting to note that we invited the classes of 75 & 76, too. They each had far fewer attendees, however. But by far the most interesting twist was that Mindy’s older sister, Jodi was there too. I’ll bet they never dreamed they’d be attending the same reunion given that they’re eleven years between them.

After group photos and a couple good byes, Mindy and I snuck away for home. I often leave like that. I don’t like to make such a fuss. We were home by 10pm. After changing into comfy sleepwear, we sat on the deck for a few where I drank a Honey Raspberry Ale. It tasted great! We went to bed by 1030pm needing to be up awfully early Sunday morning for Father’s Day ceremonies.