Excuse Me Imbecile

For what it’s worth, it was Memorial Day. Admittedly, I have never paid much attention to the reason for the holiday, but do know its intended purpose. Hey, we weren’t as much of a military family, or for that matter, we didn’t ooze of patriotism either. For me, Memorial Day represented something far different. It signaled the beginning of summer and the end of school. Two things I’ve cherished even into my adulthood, and something certainly worth constructing a memorial to.

It was overcast at dawn but that soon gave way to lovely sunshine. Weatherwise, it was much more like what I had hoped for. It was in the low 60’s and humid. It felt like a summer morning. Perfect!

I proceeded through my morning ritual of exercise, walking Ykraps and enjoying a relaxing cup of coffee all before anyone else was up and about. I spent that time at the PC catching up on blog entries. Later, once Mindy was up, we discussed the day’s plans a little more in depth. For starters, Jimaken made arrangements to come pick-up the kids and take them swimming around 1pm. Mindy wanted to attend a graduation party in Grove City for one of her former students afterwards. On the way, we planned to drop Ashley’s planter. But before all of that I needed to run. Mindy asked if I was planning to grocery shop afterwards. At that point I wasn’t sure but really wanted to.

My run went well. Afterwards, I planted our double-knockout rose bush in the planter that I finished painting yesterday. That took just a handful of minutes. I was soon in the shower and ready to head to Wal-Mart to grocery shop. Mindy had a list all ready to go. When I lived alone, I grocery shopped every other week. But now with an expanded family, Mindy goes almost weekly. I used to enjoy my trips, and only needed a list for exceptions. I was a creature of habit. It was very easy and fun.

Today, I wasn’t sure what to expect crowd-wise. But thankfully,Wal-Mart didn’t appear to be too crowded at all. I started in the health and beauty aisle gathering the goods highlighted on the list. And much to my chagrin, those feminine products showed up again. Dang it! I wasn’t at all looking forward to seeking them out. Somehow I managed. I did it out of love, because I really didn’t want to. It wasn’t too long before I wrapped my way around the store over to the food section. I started in produce and worked my way around back like old times. It was there that I realized Mindy’s list was not necessarily in the order in which the items appear on the shelves. That made shopping a challenge, not to mention all of the incompetent shoppers who body block the aisles either with their carts or their wide-bodies. Incidentally, I heard more than one person refer to their cart as a buggy, a term rarely used in these parts.

Generally speaking, I leave my cart at the end of an aisle and then walk down the side of an aisle seeking/gathering the goods I need. It’s far more guest friendly, leaving room for others to get by. What really gets me are the couples that block an entire aisle while they peruse the goods. On one side rests their cart, and then, on the other side, their spouse stands hopelessly staring off at nothing. Mindy say’s that’s why they invented the phrase excuse me. But I say that’s why they invented the word imbecile! I will typically shout out something like, clog in aisle three!

After making several returns to various aisles, I got everything on the list save for donuts. I realized this at checkout but by then there was no way I was going back. While there, I picked up a couple things for daughter Ashley, too, one being an oscillating fan.

Mindy phoned while I was loading everything into the Trooper. She wondered where the hell I was. It took an inordinate amount of time to finish the grocery shopping. I’ll admit it. I’m way out of practice.

Jimaken was there by the time I returned home. He was just preparing to depart with the children. They were excited about going swimming. Mindy put away most of the groceries after I carried them in. We wasted little time preparing to depart for Grove City. I loaded Ashley’s flowers along with the items from Wal-Mart. We left the house around 1:30pm. It doesn’t take long at all getting to Grove City via I-270. No sir!

We were at Ashley’s ten minutes later. She and Olivia were outside waiting for us. We phoned first. I hadn’t seen her apartment since delivering/hooking up her washer and dryer. After carrying the somewhat heavy flower pot around front and placing it on her stoop, I ventured inside where I was happy to see how clean it was. Clean and neat! Perfect! She got the gene! It’s often said that the closets, bathrooms, and laundry room tell the real tale. I casually observed each. They were all equally neat and tidy.

After putting together the new fan, and then playing with Olivia, Mindy and I left for the graduation party, which was literally right around the corner. This was Tyler’s graduation party. As I understand it, Mindy taught him in both second and third grades. He’s chosen Mindy to present him with his diploma next Saturday afternoon. Plus, he comes back each June to help her take her classroom apart, and then returns in late August to help get it put back together again. There’s a boy with a crush somewhere!

I noticed the beautiful landscaping right away. The house was nothing spectacular but it was neat and clean. The landscaping, on the other hand, was creative, colorful, bountiful, and very well-planned. I could tell by observing that she (Tyler’s mom) must spend hours each day keeping it this way. Mindy informed me that she’s won awards from the city for the work. Again, I could tell. What’s more, their yard was very small. In fact, it’s very similar to brother Glenn’s. There’s essentially no back yard (about eight feet deep) and they’re on a corner lot. Most of the lawn is side yard. They, however, made the utmost of every square inch, yet somehow managed to not make anything look too overdone. The crowned jewel was a large pond in the southeast corner complete with a waterfall, landscaping stone, large orange coy, and beautiful water plants. Again, it was very nicely-done. I took a couple of photos.

We didn’t stay at the party long. This was Mindy’s first outing since her surgery some 12 days prior. She was tuckered, although she looked very nice. I asked if we could stop at Ohio Mulch on our way home so I could by some gravel for the yard drain project. She agreed.

It didn’t take long at all. I wasn’t there five minutes before we were loaded and on our way home. Jimaken phoned just before we got there stating that he and the kids were already on their way home from the pool. It was near 3:30pm and the sky was threatening rain, but it was very spotty. The kids pulled up just before we arrived home. Jim didn’t even bother coming in. He said hello, dropped the kids and left.

Rather than carry the seven 50lb bags of stone to the back yard, I lazily got out my tractor and trailer to make the trip easy and also save wear & tear on my ass, literally. Turned out, I used only 4.5 of the 7 bags to completely cover the ten feet of 4” drain pipe. I then raked the dug-up soil over top. Jacob helped. He said he was bored. It was warm. Mindy fetched all of us bomb pops! Yummy!

I kept working the soil until the entire was spread evenly over the area. I was careful to tamp it down every so often to hopefully avoid too much sinking. I decided after the sweaty yard work that it made sense to get another shower. After a quick one, I fired up the grill for thick pork chops. We ate dinner around 6pm. It was delicious!

After the kids got their baths and were placed into bed, Mindy and I spent some time together in the family room & kitchen. There, I enjoyed a couple of beers. It was my last casual night before returning to the grind. We headed for bed around 10pm.