Real Deal

Today was the real deal. Mindy had her first day of school with students. I was up on time and downstairs by 5:35am. I was happy to be back on track relative to my rise time. I wasted little time leaping into my morning calisthenics. And like many recent days, I found myself back home after a morning walk a handful of minutes before 6am. The morning was a lovely one. Even though September is a week or so out, the sky was crisp and clear just like one expects most September morning’s to be. The moon was almost full, too. Very beautiful! Do you hear Neil Diamond? I spent the next 30 minutes reading the Daily OM, meditating, and drinking coffee. I donned my running shorts and shoes and hit the door just before 6:30am. So far, running in the morning is working out very well. What was originally a product of the intense summer heat is now driven by the need to stick around and see Jacob onto the school bus. It’s very nice having my run out of the way before 7am each day. But what I don’t want to happen is to get lazy about packing my lunch and start the bad habit of dining out, which will almost always lead to unwanted weight gain. I was back home by 7:05am after a pleasurable run. Mindy had my lunch set out and our eggs cooking on the stove. That brought a smile to my face. After eating some scrambled eggs I headed out to water the flowers. Mindy and Bella departed for Grandma Sharon’s and school. Jacob watched the Disney Channel while I watered and then showered. He was eagerly waiting for departure time. We were both ready by 7:50am even though his bus wouldn’t be here until 8:14am. He walked to the bus stop at 8am. As of tomorrow the schedule is supposed to change by ten minutes. She‘ll pick him up at 8:04am. That works much better for me. I left for work as soon as the bus picked up Jacoby. I arrived at work just before 8:30am. Things were really hopping in the center. The morning passed by quickly. And since I had already completed my daily run, I decided to make a Home Depot stop for lunch. I really wanted to get some more bar/chain oil for my new Echo chain saw, and I also wanted to look at gas grills after seeing that they’ve reduced their prices significantly. I spent about 40 minutes there. I got the bar/chain oil I wanted. I bought a gallon jug which should last me years. I also bought another bottle of Echo 2-cycle oil, so that I don’t find myself without fuel. I was back at work by 1:45pm. I spent the afternoon working on a few difficult issues. And just like Friday, I ended up at the office until almost 6:30pm working on an escalated issue with one of my new guys. I phoned Mindy to let her know my dilemma. She mentioned that brother Tommy was over with Wally. He was staying for dinner. I arrived home by 6:45pm. Mindy was helping calm Wally when I arrived. She had already walked Ykraps, too. After changing into some comfy clothes, I got the grill fired up. We were having Bubba burgers. While the grill heated, I began making some homemade salsa with garden fresh tomatoes and an assortment of hot peppers. I used a store bought Vidalia onion. I chose to make the main batch mild and then cut up some habanera and chili peppers which can be added in later. That way everyone’s happy. Soon the grill was preheated and ready for the burgers. It didn’t take long. We were eating our burgers ten minutes later. They were very tasty, too. To complement the burgers, Mindy whipped up some baked beans & garden salads. For dessert we each had a piece of the cheesecake leftover from Sunday dinner. After dinner clean-up I was overcome with sleepiness. I sat on the sofa where I tuned into the NFL preseason game. Mindy asked me to rub her shoulder, and while I did, I became increasingly sleepy. By 8:15pm I was dosing off. Seeing me dose off must have scared brother Tommy away. He upped and gathered his and Wally’s things and then departed. We sent him home with a bag full of hot peppers. He promised to bring us some banana peppers in trade. Not long after Tommy left, Mindy and I headed off to bed as well. It wasn’t even 9pm. We tuned into the football game from bed until we fell asleep.