Grand Kids Come Callin'

At my own choosing, I slept on the sofa. However, I didn’t sleep particularly well at all. Through the night I got a couple of times and played on the internet and worked a little on the plasma wiring project. I hooked up the composite feed from the receiver to the old TV to at least confirm the functionality. And just as I guessed, any component video feed still didn’t work. I wouldn’t be able to confirm that connection until such a time that I have the plasma TV upstairs and attached (our old TV doesn’t have component video inputs). I was up early. Must’ve been about 6am. My head was very fuzzy, but I needed to be up because Jacob had an 8:00am ball game. Once I made a pot of coffee and got my exercises underway, I felt a lot better. I was very deliberate in my actions. I couldn’t waste any time at all. I had to remain on task. After a quick cup of coffee I readied for a run. Mindy & I had a brief conversation just before I left. I think that we both felt better after. I took the Trabue/Hague route, and trimmed that back to the three mile version. I did it solely for the time savings. My arse felt terrific. It was lovely – about 65 and sunny. I chose not to shower after my run to save even more time. I still cleaned up a little though not wanting to reek at the ball game. These days, I smell similar to a dead fish after a run. Before leaving the house I poured both Mindy and I to-go coffee’s and then grabbed the dozen Hostess donuts from the counter. I also grabbed my small digital camera. We were on our way by 8:00am. The game wasn’t slated to start until 8:30am, but coach Rob wanted the boys there at least 20 minutes early for warm-ups. We arrived by 8:12am. We had to walk to the far diamond in the Southwest corner of the park. Bella was still in her PJs. The morning sun felt terrific, unlike last Tuesday evening’s game. Lots of folks asked about Jacob’s injury. Mindy shared that it was nonexistent by Thursday. He was back in action and with his full motion. Mindy & I wondered if enough kids would show for the extremely early game. Surprisingly they did. The games started on time. Not long into the game my Dad showed up, as did Jimaken. During Jacob’s first at bat he hit into a force play at second leaving him as a runner at first. With the next ball hit it up the middle, Jacob dug towards second. He got about 2/3s the way when he suddenly buckled and began clinching at the back of his knee once more. The players and coaches rushed to his aid. We knew what was up. Coach Paul carried Jacob off the field to a round of applause. I went to his side on the bench in an attempt to cheer him up. Back in my chair, I mentioned to Mindy that she might want to give her brother Craig a call to discuss his injury. She agreed and walked off to the side to make the call. Despite Jacob’s injury, we stayed for the entire game. But then again, why wouldn’t we? The game went 1.5 hrs. The best thing about the early game was that the lion’s share of the day remained in front of us. I was most happy for that. My plan called for cutting the lawn for starters. Mindy mentioned the desire to go shopping. What we already knew was that we were going to have Kaileigh and Olivia overnight. I took a short nap before getting started. I must’ve slept for about 45 minutes. It felt terrific. I got started on the lawn around 11:30am. I moved swiftly through each phase of lawn care. Meanwhile, it was getting warmer and warmer. The sun felt great. The kids stopped me while I was about halfway through with the backyard to ask if the neighbor kids, Makayla and Jake, could stay down at our place while Mindy left for shopping. I agreed. After finishing the lawn I moved immediately to washing the BM’er which was about as filthy as it’s ever been. Most of the filth was dust & tree pollen. I wanted it sparkling. At the same time, I got the sprinkler pump going so I could water the lawn and cut it again in a couple of days. J Truthfully, I’m trying to stay on top of the watering. If the lawn looks like it needs water then it’s probably too late! To keep it lush, well, you’ve got to keep it lush! Once the sprinkler was going I spent the next hour or so washing the BM’er. It looked pretty darn good when I finished. Mindy arrived home from her min-shopping spree around 4pm. I continued on with a few more chores. I found Mindy napping in bed when I went up to finally grab a shower. By then we had made plans to grill out with the neighbors. They were kind enough to pick-up t-bone steaks for Mindy & I. We’d be taking the grandkids along with us. I laid in bed with Mindy for a few just ahead of my shower. It wasn’t too long after my shower that Ashley dropped Olivia off. After a brief visit we all walked Ykraps together. Olivia still sometimes struggles to allow her momma out of her sight. But minutes after Ashley leaves, she’s back to her usual happy self. Saturday was no exception. While were walking Ykraps some weather moved in. It got freakishly cold, windy, and dark in a matter of minutes. The temperature dropped almost 20 degrees just like that! We hustled back home to safety. It rained for a brief minute or two but that’s it. We missed the brunt of the storm – thankfully! While waiting on Kaileigh to arrive I took to fishing the center channel speaker wire up the wall. It went rather easily. Easily that is until I went to mount the bracket. I had to switch gears from plastic mollies to the metal spring anchors. Using the metal spring anchors meant I had to make four ½” holes just to fit the spring anchor through. Geesh! The holes were as big as the entire bracket, or so it appeared. While I was tightening up the bracket the wire slipped back down into the hole. Crap! I was not a happy camper! What was seemingly a very simple task that I could knock out in minutes was turning into a mini crisis. Mindy came and gave me an assist. We got it pretty much knocked out in ten minutes. Shelly showed up with Kaileigh a short time later. The brief storm slowed down the start of the neighbor’s cookout, but petered out quickly. Mindy used the time to visit with Shelly, Kai’s step mommy, and her new baby Sienna. At the same time, Mindy fed all of our kids and neighbor Jake. Crissy phoned 30 minutes later to let us know that the steaks were on! Shelly departed and a few minutes later we headed down to Crissy & Kenny’s. Mike & Julie were over at Crissy’s. They’re always a real hoot! By the time we arrived the steaks were all but ready. I spent a lot of time chasing Olivia around the yard and through the house. She’s a handful and always very curious. I eventually found time to eat thanks in no small part to Mindy. She’s always so good with the grand kids. We hung out at the neighbor’s until after 10pm. Neighbor Becky came over for a while, too. The older kids have a taken a real liking towards her. She’s a Wii aficionado. Speaking of Wii, we headed home with all the kids at 10:30pm. Mindy got them all a quick bath while I blew up the air mattress in Bella’s room. By 11pm we had all the kids in bed. A miracle? Probably not, but an achievement just the same.