Gates of Hell Lizards

Sunset over Raymond Memorial at approximately 730pm on Friday, August 3, 2007

I was up by 5:45am preparing for my Friday. It was another steamy morning in paradise. I completed my morning routine in its usual order. In kind, the start of my day was no different than most others. After my breakfast I spent a solid fifteen minutes watering the thirsty flowers in the backyard. The rain we received a week earlier was nothing more than a faded memory. Accept for the lawn, all the flora was looking stressed.

I showered and dressed for work by 7:50am. Mindy mentioned that she and the kids would be visiting Teri in Westerville today. I left for work in the Trooper just before 8am.

The morning went by speedily. We were very busy. I prepared and left for a run about fifteen minutes earlier than usual. It was already sweltering outside. It was extremely hot & humid. I ran up one heck of a lather. It felt terrific to hit the AC once back in the gym.

I showered and quickly dressed. Ten minutes later I was outside in the Trooper determined to complete two quick errands – both on Parsons ave. My first stop was Harr’s Auto Glass. After calling them, they thought that they might have some clips I could use on the Trooper passenger window. I figured that it was worth the drive to check ‘em out. In addition, I planned to stop in the local Ace Hardware just up the road to see if they had the Gilmour telescoping watering wand I wanted. I found it on their webpage and could’ve ordered it online, but since I would already be down there I figured I simply stop in the store.
Long story short, both stops were fruitless. The clips were not what I needed, and the Ace didn’t have the watering wand I had hoped. The Ace Hardware guy tried hard to be the “helpful hardware man” just like the commercial says, but I found him a little annoying. During our close encounter I realized that it was a guy I went to high school with. I couldn’t remember his name until he wrote in on the back of a business card that he insisted I take for any possible future hardware needs. I never let on that I recognized him, and he didn’t either. In fact, I don’t know if he recognized me. As I pulled away I remembered that he was in my art class. He looked so much older than I.

Before returning to work I made it a point to drive by my old pal, Tom Clark’s house in Miriam Village. I hadn’t seen his place for the three years since he left town. It looked largely the same. The grass looked like it needed cut. Satisfied with my trip, I headed back to work. I arrived around 2:30pm to finish off my day. I was the on-call so I’d be taking work home for the weekend. Because of this, I wasn’t in my usual Friday celebrative mood, although I wasn’t in a bad mood either.

I departed for home around 5:15pm. I stopped at Lowes along my way home to check out
Their miscellaneous hardware to see once again if I could find a clip to possibly retro fit my passenger window. I also checked out their playset hardware and lumber quality. I arrived home around 6pm. After little toil, the first thing that I did was unleash the sprinkler pump on my drying lawn. I wanted to make sure and water heavily over the weekend since we would be home through most of it and the threat of rain almost non-existent.

Mindy had made arrangements for Christopher, her friend Tara’s son, to watch our kids so that we could do Barley’s. His dad dropped him off around 7pm. We sat on deck chatting with Doug, Chris’ father, for about thirty minutes. He entertained us with horror stories about his nosey neighbors calling the cops on just about everything they do. The stories were entertaining.

. The kids were happily playing with the neighbors under Christopher’s watchful eye. We left for Barley’s around 7:40pm. Not too unexpected, the Barley’s crowd was thin. Still there were plenty regulars in attendance. We sat at the bar along with Steve & Mark all the while a few others trickled in. I was reminded that I missed the Zappa on Zappa concert last Friday night. And by the sounds of it, it was an incredible show.

We hung at Barley’s until 10pm. Mindy called Chris’s dad just before we arrived home so that he could come fetch him. Mindy paid Chris handsomely before he left. After checking some headlines we headed to bed. I’ll bet we were in bed by 10:30pm. My body, especially my legs, was very tired.