My Wii-turn to Work

I was up by 5:30am after a relatively lengthy night’s sleep, especially if you count the intermittent dosings between Family Guy episodes. Despite a mild case of the return to work blues, I felt pretty darn good. I failed to prep coffee the night before, so that was the first order of business. A glance out the back door revealed an inch or so of snow and it was still coming down. I could still hear the wind whipping around, too. The house was quiet having gone to bed without switching the CATV box to music. I began my exercise routine in complete silence. It wasn’t long before my calisthenics were behind me and I was bundling up for a walk with Ykraps. I expected it to be very cold. I wore snow boots, gloves and ear cover. We walked east with the winter wind at our backs. It was definitely cold! In fact, with the wind in our face upon our return, it felt as though the air was being sucked out of my lungs – a common phenomenon in brutally cold temps. I didn’t want to, but knew that I had to. I went to the garage for a snow shovel. There was a good inch and one half on the ground. The shoveling went quick. The snow was very light & powdery due to the extreme cold. Finally back inside I checked the temperature. It was 12 degrees, but -3 after factoring in the windchill. I enjoyed my coffee and meditation before readying for my run. Mindy wanted up before I left to run as apparent by the note she left attached to the computer mouse. After delivering her coffee I went to the closet to fetch my sweat shorts to wear under my running tights. I wasn’t looking forward to a freezing member. I wore one of two new winter wicking shirts along with a cotton mock t-shirt, new jacket, ear covers and running gloves. Just before heading out the door I grabbed my fleece earband and pushed it down around my neckline. Despite the bitter cold, I found myself quite cozy. Not too warm, not too cold. The human activity level was noticeably higher than it’s been for a week or so. I returned from my run by 7:20am. The first thing I did after stripping out of my outer layer was preheat my egg pan and begin fixin’ my lunch. I hadn’t packed my own lunch in quite some time. I made tuna salad with some of the yummy creamy horseradish sauce recently bought. I fried two eggs to help satisfy my immediate hunger. I ate those along with a plate full of fruit. By 7:45am I was in the shower, and found myself back downstairs preparing to leave by 8:00am. I still had to warm the Trooper, however. I let it heat up for a good ten minutes or so. I didn’t leave until 8:20am. I arrived to my first work day of 2008 at 8:30am. It wasn’t long before I was firmly replanted in the daily grind. We had a number of difficult issues to work through, but all in all the workload was still less than usual. I didn’t take a break for lunch all day. I worked straight through. The hours from 2-4pm went much slower than usual. The last 1.5hrs flew by, however. I left for home around 5:30pm. Mindy reported a quiet house – the kids gone with their father per routine. She asked about dinner options. I was in favor of something simple at home. We agreed on reheated chili. The house was indeed peaceful upon my arrival home. Mindy had a fire going and even more of the subtle holiday remnants put away. It’s amazing how some of those things linger. In fact, I still need to address the out of doors stuff. She had already walked Ykraps making my transition that much easier. We sat down to hot chili minutes after I arrived home. After dinner we still had over an hour before the kids were expected to return. Not only did I update my blog but we played some Wii, too. First, we bowled. I won two games in a row scoring 189 each game. Next, we played golf. I had a nice round going – even par after eight holes – heading into the treacherous number 9. I got a triple bogey and ended up 3 over for the round. Mindy shot a 17 over. The kids got home just as we were playing out that final hole. They were eager to play with us. Mindy, however, had other ideas. She wanted them ready for bed. She agreed to allow Jacob to play Wii after pajamas and before 8pm. We bowled two games. I won both of those, too. :) Jacob wanted to play more but Mindy insisted not. He was returning to school Thursday morning, and Mindy didn’t want him to be underslept. He understood and headed up to bed. I followed for the formal tuck-in. The Fiesta Bowl pitting West Virginia against Oklahoma game was about to begin. I tuned in from the family room. Mindy did some computer time. I promised myself that I’d head to bed at 9:30pm and then watch more from there until I fell asleep. I also DVR’d two more South Park episodes while watching football. As promised, I headed up to bed at 9:30pm. Mindy followed suit. We both watched the rest of the first half and part of the second before falling asleep. We turned it off after WV went up 34-15.