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Sunday marked our first visit to the Hilltop Swim Club in 2008. And just in time, it felt like summer for the very first time.
On auto-pilot, I woke around 5:30am but went back to sleep a couple of times until 7:30am, which is my body’s preferred time of waking. It was another lovely morning, only this time there wasn’t as much of a chill lingering in the air. However, on a summer scale, it wasn’t warm either.
Downstairs, I went about the business of making coffee and beginning my calisthenics. I was very focused on extending my push-up nose to the floor. Ever since the shoulder injury I incurred while snow skiing, I’ve had alligator arms. It’s simply a leftover habit from the healing process. Now that I’m exercising pain-free it’s time to get low to floor once again. And believe me, it’s a much tougher push-up dipping that extra few inches.
Ykraps and I took our typical morning stroll. Nothing out of the ordinary. I looked forward to my morning coffee. Saturday, I failed to mention that when I opened a new bottle of Coffee-mate Vanilla Caramel creamer I noticed that the foil seal had been violated. This temporarily threw my morning routine into a tailspin. I had little choice but to use Mindy’s creamer. Somehow I survived. Having not yet gone to grocery, I had few other choices again today.
Like a lot of summer mornings, I moved to the deck to drink in the morning sunshine. There are few things that feel as good as a sunny summer morning from our deck. The family ultimately gathered there with me. Later, before my run, we hung Mindy’s new finch feeder from the pergola. The bird seed came in a sealed zip lock bag advertised as ‘easy open”. Well, the zip lock feature would’ve been swell had we been able to beat the deal beneath. Mindy & I both gave it a try. Eventually, I gave up and cut the bag with scissors rendering the zip lock feature useless. I placed the opened bag of seed in a large Hefty ziploc bag. Go figure!
I left for my run around 9:00am. I kept my run inside the subdivision, and once again kept it abbreviated to just three miles. My leg/ass was really stiff this morning after quite a bit of activity on Saturday. I wouldn’t describe it as painful, however. Instead, it was just very stiff. At some point soon I’ve got to ratchet my run back up to the usual four miles. I want to be running pain free for a week before making the change.
I finished my run around 9:30am. The kids were immediately on me to commit to an afternoon at the Hilltop Swim Club. But I can’t complain too much, I’m the one that suggested such an outing on Saturday. Given Mindy’s condition, it was doubtful that she’d be going along. I proclaimed that we would most likely head to the pool after I got a little bit of home project work done. Speaking of which, my goal for the day was to start digging the yard drain. I gathered my ‘drain stuff’ and headed out back to make it happen. During a recent heavy rain I mustered enough foresight to venture out into the back yard to monitor where exactly the water puddled. That, I decided, would be where I put the drain. Hey, it’s not rocket science.
I dug a ten foot trench from that very spot to the edge of the stream. As best I could, I tried to dig it with a gentle slope towards the stream. That, of course, is easier said than done. Still, I managed. Satisfied with the rough results, I decided to call it an afternoon and began getting ready for a trip to the pool. That pleased the kids much. As we prepped to go, Mindy suggested that she might join us after all. But after getting the kids in their suits and all of our gear packed, I think she had a change of heart. Sitting in the hot sun wouldn’t have been the best thing for her at this point, anyhow. She decided to stay home. I would’ve preferred she go, but also understood how she must’ve felt. The kids and I left for the pool at 12:45pm.
It’s a quick drive out of the subdivision and then down Hague to Valleyview. We were there in no time flat. I was a little surprised at small number of vehicles/people there given the lovely weather. The kids were excited. We expected Uncle Larry and Aunt Jodie to be there. We saw them basking from their usual perch. We checked in at the office and picked up our family tickets. Jimmy Campbell, the new owner, was a little confused with the three different last names on our memberships. He wasn’t sure under which name they were filed. It took just a couple extra minutes to sort it out.
I felt the water temperature as we entered. Despite the warm sunshine, the water temperature was cold, but I knew the kids wouldn’t mind. We no sooner placed our gear on a bench and the kids were in the water. Because it was cold they weren’t in very long. Like most young children, they had their towels soaked in minutes. Bella asked for mine. I love them but was not giving mine up for nothing. No sir! I must’ve picked their wet wadded towels up fifty times. Each time I hung them over the back of the bench. Too, I told them just before we left the house that we wouldn’t be doing concessions from the pool. As always, they said they understood, but once we got there the inevitable questions soon surfaced. “Can we get snacks?” Lucky for them, I brought a few from home. They ate all of those in five minutes. I stuck to my guns.
We stayed at the pool for almost three hours. During our stay, the sun was warm & ripe. It never did reach 80, but hd to be in the mid to upper 70’s. We bagged it at the 4 o’clock rest period – 4 o’clock rest period. As we were leaving, Peter Fisher pulled up. He knows Jodie & Larry well. I greeted him too. He said he didn’t recognize me. More than likely, he did his darnedest to forget about me & my peeps. We gave him a hard time when we were very young. Always liked him, though.
Ashley called as we were pulling out of the lot and heading for home. She wanted to know if she could come over to pick-up her flower pot. Sure! I was eager to see her & Olivia. We hadn’t seen either of them for about 12 days (the day before Mindy’s surgery). We weren’t home long when Ash & Olivia arrived. They both looked so cute walking up the walk with their sunglasses on. Olivia seemed a little shy and wasn’t too keen on coming to Mindy or I. Mindy, of course, still couldn’t pick her up.
We made our way onto the deck where we played for about an hour. We broke out the mini-popsicles, which Olivia went bonkers for. It was too cute. She must’ve had five or six, all at my prompting. We offered Ashley a little help to make it through the month. She was very happy to have the assistance. Ashley realized how heavy the flower pot was. Instead of cramming it into her car, I agreed to delver it on Monday when we attend a graduation party for one of Mindy’s former student’s right around the corner from her apartment.
As soon as they departed, Mindy and I began prepping steaks for the grill. It wasn’t long before we were enjoying dinner from the deck. Ahh – summertime! Gotta love it!
After dinner I spent a little time watering the front flowers. There were oodles of couples out walking the neighborhood and congregating on the bridge by our house. Happens often this time of year. While I watered the flowers, the kids ran around the yard playing somewhat wildly. Mindy really wanted them in to bathe right after dinner, but I begged for another fifteen minutes of fun time. After all, it’s a holiday weekend.
Once we finally got the kids inside and bathed, they were both being pills. Mindy reminded me that her intuition told her that they really should’ve been in earlier. She just knows when they’re over tired. I hate to say it but she was right! They were a handful. Bella was really over tired, which equates to very whiney. Finally, we got the kids to bed. Must’ve been about 8:45pm.
Mindy and I sat on the deck where I enjoyed a drink. We didn’t stay out there too long, however. Mindy was getting chilly. She went in and to bed around 9:30pm. I stayed up probably later than I have for the last couple of weeks. I enjoyed a bowl of popcorn along with my second Jack & Coke. At the same time I updated my blog and added pictures for the last ten days or so. I headed for bed just before midnight.
On auto-pilot, I woke around 5:30am but went back to sleep a couple of times until 7:30am, which is my body’s preferred time of waking. It was another lovely morning, only this time there wasn’t as much of a chill lingering in the air. However, on a summer scale, it wasn’t warm either.
Downstairs, I went about the business of making coffee and beginning my calisthenics. I was very focused on extending my push-up nose to the floor. Ever since the shoulder injury I incurred while snow skiing, I’ve had alligator arms. It’s simply a leftover habit from the healing process. Now that I’m exercising pain-free it’s time to get low to floor once again. And believe me, it’s a much tougher push-up dipping that extra few inches.
Ykraps and I took our typical morning stroll. Nothing out of the ordinary. I looked forward to my morning coffee. Saturday, I failed to mention that when I opened a new bottle of Coffee-mate Vanilla Caramel creamer I noticed that the foil seal had been violated. This temporarily threw my morning routine into a tailspin. I had little choice but to use Mindy’s creamer. Somehow I survived. Having not yet gone to grocery, I had few other choices again today.
Like a lot of summer mornings, I moved to the deck to drink in the morning sunshine. There are few things that feel as good as a sunny summer morning from our deck. The family ultimately gathered there with me. Later, before my run, we hung Mindy’s new finch feeder from the pergola. The bird seed came in a sealed zip lock bag advertised as ‘easy open”. Well, the zip lock feature would’ve been swell had we been able to beat the deal beneath. Mindy & I both gave it a try. Eventually, I gave up and cut the bag with scissors rendering the zip lock feature useless. I placed the opened bag of seed in a large Hefty ziploc bag. Go figure!
I left for my run around 9:00am. I kept my run inside the subdivision, and once again kept it abbreviated to just three miles. My leg/ass was really stiff this morning after quite a bit of activity on Saturday. I wouldn’t describe it as painful, however. Instead, it was just very stiff. At some point soon I’ve got to ratchet my run back up to the usual four miles. I want to be running pain free for a week before making the change.
I finished my run around 9:30am. The kids were immediately on me to commit to an afternoon at the Hilltop Swim Club. But I can’t complain too much, I’m the one that suggested such an outing on Saturday. Given Mindy’s condition, it was doubtful that she’d be going along. I proclaimed that we would most likely head to the pool after I got a little bit of home project work done. Speaking of which, my goal for the day was to start digging the yard drain. I gathered my ‘drain stuff’ and headed out back to make it happen. During a recent heavy rain I mustered enough foresight to venture out into the back yard to monitor where exactly the water puddled. That, I decided, would be where I put the drain. Hey, it’s not rocket science.
I dug a ten foot trench from that very spot to the edge of the stream. As best I could, I tried to dig it with a gentle slope towards the stream. That, of course, is easier said than done. Still, I managed. Satisfied with the rough results, I decided to call it an afternoon and began getting ready for a trip to the pool. That pleased the kids much. As we prepped to go, Mindy suggested that she might join us after all. But after getting the kids in their suits and all of our gear packed, I think she had a change of heart. Sitting in the hot sun wouldn’t have been the best thing for her at this point, anyhow. She decided to stay home. I would’ve preferred she go, but also understood how she must’ve felt. The kids and I left for the pool at 12:45pm.
It’s a quick drive out of the subdivision and then down Hague to Valleyview. We were there in no time flat. I was a little surprised at small number of vehicles/people there given the lovely weather. The kids were excited. We expected Uncle Larry and Aunt Jodie to be there. We saw them basking from their usual perch. We checked in at the office and picked up our family tickets. Jimmy Campbell, the new owner, was a little confused with the three different last names on our memberships. He wasn’t sure under which name they were filed. It took just a couple extra minutes to sort it out.
I felt the water temperature as we entered. Despite the warm sunshine, the water temperature was cold, but I knew the kids wouldn’t mind. We no sooner placed our gear on a bench and the kids were in the water. Because it was cold they weren’t in very long. Like most young children, they had their towels soaked in minutes. Bella asked for mine. I love them but was not giving mine up for nothing. No sir! I must’ve picked their wet wadded towels up fifty times. Each time I hung them over the back of the bench. Too, I told them just before we left the house that we wouldn’t be doing concessions from the pool. As always, they said they understood, but once we got there the inevitable questions soon surfaced. “Can we get snacks?” Lucky for them, I brought a few from home. They ate all of those in five minutes. I stuck to my guns.
We stayed at the pool for almost three hours. During our stay, the sun was warm & ripe. It never did reach 80, but hd to be in the mid to upper 70’s. We bagged it at the 4 o’clock rest period – 4 o’clock rest period. As we were leaving, Peter Fisher pulled up. He knows Jodie & Larry well. I greeted him too. He said he didn’t recognize me. More than likely, he did his darnedest to forget about me & my peeps. We gave him a hard time when we were very young. Always liked him, though.
Ashley called as we were pulling out of the lot and heading for home. She wanted to know if she could come over to pick-up her flower pot. Sure! I was eager to see her & Olivia. We hadn’t seen either of them for about 12 days (the day before Mindy’s surgery). We weren’t home long when Ash & Olivia arrived. They both looked so cute walking up the walk with their sunglasses on. Olivia seemed a little shy and wasn’t too keen on coming to Mindy or I. Mindy, of course, still couldn’t pick her up.
We made our way onto the deck where we played for about an hour. We broke out the mini-popsicles, which Olivia went bonkers for. It was too cute. She must’ve had five or six, all at my prompting. We offered Ashley a little help to make it through the month. She was very happy to have the assistance. Ashley realized how heavy the flower pot was. Instead of cramming it into her car, I agreed to delver it on Monday when we attend a graduation party for one of Mindy’s former student’s right around the corner from her apartment.
As soon as they departed, Mindy and I began prepping steaks for the grill. It wasn’t long before we were enjoying dinner from the deck. Ahh – summertime! Gotta love it!
After dinner I spent a little time watering the front flowers. There were oodles of couples out walking the neighborhood and congregating on the bridge by our house. Happens often this time of year. While I watered the flowers, the kids ran around the yard playing somewhat wildly. Mindy really wanted them in to bathe right after dinner, but I begged for another fifteen minutes of fun time. After all, it’s a holiday weekend.
Once we finally got the kids inside and bathed, they were both being pills. Mindy reminded me that her intuition told her that they really should’ve been in earlier. She just knows when they’re over tired. I hate to say it but she was right! They were a handful. Bella was really over tired, which equates to very whiney. Finally, we got the kids to bed. Must’ve been about 8:45pm.
Mindy and I sat on the deck where I enjoyed a drink. We didn’t stay out there too long, however. Mindy was getting chilly. She went in and to bed around 9:30pm. I stayed up probably later than I have for the last couple of weeks. I enjoyed a bowl of popcorn along with my second Jack & Coke. At the same time I updated my blog and added pictures for the last ten days or so. I headed for bed just before midnight.
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