Ohio Mulch & Straders

I was still tired when 5:30am rolled around, but got up and moving just the same. Mindy had me take two 500mg Tylenols the night before and they seemed to make a real difference with my stiff legs and ass. I did wake in pain in the middle of night, however, which is something that didn’t happen even once when I was in the worst of pain all last week. However, it felt a lot better come morning. Exercise and walking with Ykraps went well. It was a very lovely morning with clear skies, relatively warm temps, an almost full moon, and hundreds of stars. I felt grateful for the moment. This was trash day and our can was out. I had to position it differently as my Dad’s trailer was kind of in the path of the garbage truck. I held out hope that they’d still pick it up. Come 6am I heard the rumble of the garbage truck all the while sipping coffee at the PC. My trash was picked up without incident. I delivered Mindy’s coffee at ten after the hour and then promptly returned downstairs for meditation and run prep. And just as I have for the past week or so, I stretched my legs a little extra. And all that extra stretching seemed to pay off. You never know until you take those first few strides, but I ran as close to pain free as I have in the last 10 days. Finally! I burst back into the house after my run excited to share the good news. Meanwhile, Mindy had scrambled eggs ready at my place setting and the entire fruit tray laid out for the picking. While I was settling in for my breakfast Mindy was heading out the door with the peanut (Bella). Not a lot of overlap. I was out of the shower, dressed and downstairs by 7:49am. And just as he often does, Jacob rushed me out the door a few minutes early. Like usual, we met the Shultz’s at the bus stop. Pat & I chatted like we often do after the kids were gone, but I was off to work by 8:15am. My work day was chalked full of action, including a one-on-one with my boss. The weather was gorgeous, so I definitely didn’t want to skip my lunch. I planned a drive to Strader’s and Ohio Mulch, which are across the street form one another at Riverside and Hayden Run, and not too far form the office. At Ohio Mulch my goal was to price wall stone for one of my large rear flower beds that slopes naturally & dramatically towards the pond. They really couldn’t give me a total cost, but instead a simple price per pound for each type of stone. I thought that seemed lame, but what could I do? Strader’s was next. Given that’s it’s still April, there wasn’t much of a crowd, but the selection was fantastic. The trick is balancing buying too early against the weather (a potential freeze) not to mention having the beds completely ready. Typically, here in central Ohio, things get pretty picked over after Mother’s Day weekend. My goal is to buy the weekend prior, weather dependent, of course. Today I just did some looking. The afternoon diversion did exactly what I had hoped it would do – take my mind off of work and put it on topics I find more calming & relaxing. The rest of my work day went on as usual. Mindy emailed asking if I’d be willing to pick-up Greek on my way home. I wasn’t craving it at all and pleaded my case with her for something else. She agreed to simply make tacos. She also reminded me that Dad would be over after fetching Jacob off the bus. I guessed that he wouldn’t stay for dinner but he did. I was happy to learn that. When I got home I had little to do. Dad had already walked Ykraps and dinner was just about ready. I checked email and then rinsed my lunch containers. That’s about it prior to sitting down for dinner. I ate three tacos and then a piece of leftover cake from Sunday dinner. I asked Dad & Mindy to excuse me while I set out to cut the lawn for the first time all season. The front especially needed cut. While organizing the lawn tools, I sat Dad’s battery charger on the drive so that he wouldn’t forget it when he departed. I was pleasantly surprised that my weed wacker started right up after only a normal priming. Fact is, it started and ran better than it’s ran in the past few years. Hmm? I spent the next two hours cutting, edging, and trimming. The only task I didn’t complete was blowing. It took a little longer to edge since it was the first time. But the lawn looked even better than I thought it might afterwards. Lush is the first word that comes to mind. Just before calling it a night and going in, I secured the shed and watered my newly planted grass seed. It was 8:30 when I went in for a shower. After my shower I tucked in the kids. Mindy & I went to bed around 10pm just after another butt massage.