Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The lunatic is on the grass


A poor picture of the full lunar eclipse
This is my habit… Like clock work, I was up at 5:30am ready to get after it. It was already Tuesday and a good day indeed. I made quick work of my exercise routine and then leashed up Ykraps for our morning walk. I had forgotten about the full lunar eclipse until my eyes stared upward and then westward into the clear and starry predawn sky. There it was in all of its glory, the lunar eclipse. It was just minutes away from being at 100%. I hurried Ykraps along for wanting to get back home and wake Mindy. I was sure that she’d want to see this amazing view.

Back home by 5:50am I rushed upstairs to wake Mindy. She was still out cold. I simply asked if she cared to see it. She did and quickly got up and robed. She joined me outside where I stood on the sidewalk in front of our house with my camera marveling at the lunar eclipse. The moon was completely covered by the Earth’s shadow yet you could still see a faint, orangeish red moon. We marveled at it for several minutes, or until almost 6am.
Back in the house, Mindy made some coffee but eventually decided to go back to bed to catch a few more winks. I found that funny. I played on the internet and eventually readied and left for a run just after 6:30am. I was another cool morning with temperatures hovering near 60 degrees. The day’s high was expected to reach well into the 90’s, however. It’s still summer. The morning run seems very good for my soul & psyche. What a way to begin each morning. By the time that I returned, Mindy was just placing the finishing touches on her departure. I double checked to make sure there wasn’t something about Jacob’s prep that I needed to see to. She said not. Soon her and Bella sped off leaving Jacob and I to ourselves.

After eating a couple of eggs I headed up to the shower skipping a watering that I really shouldn’t have. I was making excellent time and decided to drive the BM’er. I also thought that I’d wear my contacts in lieu of glasses. I had a horrible time trying to get the left lens in my eye. I got so frustrated that I gave up and removed the right and chose instead to wear my glasses. I wasted almost 12 minutes screwing around. It was 7:55am and time to get Jacob ready to leave for the bus stop. As both Mindy and I understood it, the bus would be arriving ten minutes earlier beginning today – something I was very pleased to learn. We were running out of precious minutes in a hurry. I organized what I’d need to take and then walked Jacob to the bus stop figuring I’d simply come back to get my car and gear. The bus came and swept the kids away right on schedule. I headed back home and loaded the BM’er and left for work

Work went well. I asked several folks if they had seen the eclipse. No one responded so I guess the answer was no. :) I guess there just isn’t that much interest in that sort of thing. I find it fascinating nonetheless. Because I had already completed my run, I used my lunch hour to drive to Advanced Auto Parts to look for some sort of mirror fix for Mindy’s minivan. They had a number of mirror kits available but mostly for GMC vehicles. I ended up buying a simple piece of mirror glass that I was certain was smaller than her mirror frame, so I knew that I could glue it in place until we get a whole new mirror. I decided to browse the rest of store while there. And low and behind, the next aisle over I found what I had been looking for, for almost a month. A window clip that looks like it just might work for my Trooper. I had completely resigned myself to replacing the entire passenger side window, but these clips look like they just might work. They were $9, but I figured that beats $200 any day. It was worth the gamble. I felt energized leaving the store. I wouldn’t get a chance to try out the clips until the weekend.

Back at the office I dug into my packed lunch. It was a very good salad along with a cup of mixed fruit. I worked hard all afternoon. Come 5pm I hurried up and readied myself to leave excited about the prospect of getting home before 5:30pm for the first time in a long while. Mindy already had dinner ready by the time that I arrived. I walked Ykraps but then immediately sat down to eat some incredibly good hot wings. Mindy’s really gotten the hang of baking them just the way we all like them. We ate 33 of them between us.

We finished dinner around 6pm and clean-up was done fifteen minutes later. I had several small projects to complete outdoors and got started on them pronto. I started by raking all the weeping willow switches still lying in the yard to make the core aeration that’s supposed to take place later in the week a bit easier and beneficial. When done, I got started one tearing out the damn that formed at the rear of our yard that has since forced storm run enough through my compost pile. It’s my fault. I built a log bridge over the three foot wide storm run-off stream last fall, but it collapsed forming a dam.

I wasn’t done. The next thing I did was installed the temporary glass in Mindy’s mirror. When I finished that I watered flowers front and back. When I finished watering it was almost 8pm. I was officially tuckered! Soon, Mindy was prepping the kids for bed. While all that was going on, I took to blogging. Before going to bed I enjoyed a Honey Raspberry Ale. It couldn’t have tasted better. Mindy talked me into yet another early bedtime. It had to before 9pm when we headed up.

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