1000mg of Tylenol ... ahhh

It was Sunday morning and just before 7:30am. I felt well rested and more than ready to get up & get moving. I could see from bed that the sky was clear and sunny. That proved to be all the motivation I needed to get up and out of bed. Bella joined me while I did my calisthenics and then asked if she could go on the walk with Ykraps. Of course!

It was chilly but nice. It must’ve been something like 43 degrees. We returned to the house still before 8am. I poured myself some coffee then spent considerable time updating my blog and reading about the much ballyhooed NFL draft. The Vikings only had one pick in the first two rounds after trading several picks to KC for the league’s sack leader. I’m good with it. At least he’s a proven commodity versus a highly paid unproven rookie.

I delivered Mindy’s coffee some time around 8:45am. She planned to attend church and needed to be up. At first she asked for me to hold off on my run until after they departed for church, but that plan would have further put me behind with yard chores. Instead, I left for a run around 9:15am. I ran along Trabue and then south on Hague. It was a nice run, but once again, I was experiencing moderate discomfort. I managed.

Finally home, I helped get Mindy shoved off then returned to the PC where I wrote for almost an hour in my blog. At 11am I stopped and aggressively moved towards spreading Com-Til. I had hoped the hour spent updating my blog would serve two purposes. Number one, catch up on my blog, and number two, and perhaps more indirect, to rest my sore ass. It really didn’t help much, though. It was still tight as drum.

I got busy first by getting the tractor and trailer from the shed. Next, I started the arduous process of moving Com-Til. I started at the most difficult spot in the rear, the steep slope just west of my hot tub. I can only get my trailer so close and have to move the rest by hand with either the coal shovel or 5 gallon bucket. I used both. The more I moved the stiffer my buttocks became. At one point I looked up and saw two little bodies sitting quietly on the deck watching me. I was startled until I realized that it was neighbors, Jacob & Makayla. They talked with me the entire time hell bent on waiting out the return of Jacob & Bella from church. They had already been to their own church service.

By the time Mindy & the kids returned, not only was I stiff, but I felt ill too. I was in very bad shape. I asked Mindy for two of her miraculous little 500 mg Tylenols. She gladly obliged my request. Less than twenty minutes later I felt like a million bucks. My ass stopped aching and the nausea went away. Hmmm? I figured it related. It’s made me feel that way before.

Eventually Mindy joined me, doing most of the spreading while I did the dumping/hauling. That sped things up significantly. We really do make a good team. After we finished the beds surrounding the deck we moved out to the old “willow-tree” bed. But it needed edged first. I hadn’t yet got to it. Mindy suggested I edge while she gathered the edgings. I had her place those on the low spot by our pond side benches. While we toiled away, the two Jacob’s professed being bored. We suggested that they might take a hike back into the woods. They gleefully darted off back into the woods with just a few rules. First and foremost, my biggest concern was for them to stay out of the pond. Number two was to avoid picking up any wild critters. There are deer, coyote, beaver, and snapping turtles all over back there.

We worked away until we had the bed edged and then topped with Com-Til. Mindy became a little concerned for the two hikers well-being after about 45 minutes. I offered to go searching for them, but Mindy wanted to. She was gone about 10 minutes after spotting the two boys coming out of the woods down by neighbor Mike’s. No sooner did Mindy return did Pastor Karen arrive with her son, Aaron. Mindy apparently made arrangements for Karen to drop off Aaron while she went to some ceremony. Aaron quickly joined up with the two Jake’s and played nicely the rest of the afternoon. In one area we had the girls, Bella, Makayla, and Emily playing together. In another, we had the three boys.

We finished the majority of the Com-Til with about a third of a trailer still remaining. We agreed to take it along with us to Mindy’s mother’s when we headed over for dinner. Mindy made me a sandwich. I was famished! I gave the girls a tractor ride first. They had been asking for the last two hours. The boys weren’t too pleased, so I gave them a ride after the girls were done. I was careful not to go for too long since I was low on gas.

Around 3:30pm I put everything away and headed in for a shower. As always, I would’ve liked to have gotten even more done but I was satisfied with the results. Next big job is mulch, and then the flowers.

We left for Gloria’s around 3:50pm. We wanted to arrive a little early to spread the Com-Til. And we wasted very little time getting started on it once we arrived. Mindy pulled last year’s spent flowers while I hauled the Com-Til. She also took responsibility for spreading it evenly. After filling the two raised beds we moved around to the east side yard that holds two very mature and very lovely shrubs. One’s a Butterfly bush, and the other is a Rose of Sharon. There’s some other perennials planted in their too. Over winter, the bed gets smothered in blown leaves from neighboring trees. I’ve seen them a foot deep! We raked out the bed just as we did last spring. I suggested adding some Com-Til and then later on some mulch. We got about half done before dinner. We took a break.

Dinner consisted of taco salad. It was a nice change. A handful of family members were missing. But as I often say, it’s not about who isn’t there as much as it is about those that are. As usual, we had a nice time, and the discussion was lively. As soon as we were done eating Mindy and I headed back outdoors to finish what we had started. Somehow we were able to cram all of the raked leaves into one large yard debris trash container and two paper grocery bags. I stood on all three to compact the load. I also edged the bed along the walk to provide a gutter-like valley to prevent dirt and mulch from running onto the walk during rain storms. We surrounded all the shrubs and plants with Com-Til. With just a little remaining, we placed it strategically around some of her back yard plants and trees.

Dessert time finally arrived. We had cheesecake and ice cream pie. I had cheesecake. I thought about having both but abstained. It was after 7pm, and we needed to get Aaron home, who also joined us for dinner. There was also an outside chance that Olivia and Ashley might’ve been coming to visit, but Ashley phoned to tell us that Olivia was already asleep. Just as well, we’d see her Monday night after work.

As soon as we got home I walked Ykraps. He was eager! Jacob went along on his scooter. After returning home I watered the grass seed I planted a week ago. We’d had some rain on Saturday but it was of the very light variety. It needed a good soaking. It still hasn’t sprouted either. After watering the grass seed, I left the hose running and topped off the hot tub. It needed about three inches. I hadn’t added any since the weekend before Mindy left for DC.

It was a long day. I was tired. We headed to bed around 9:45pm. Mindy professed being extremely tired. Suddenly, I was not. I got up from bed and headed downstairs to catch some trash TV and perhaps some popcorn. I headed back up to bed around 11pm.