Sultan of Sultry

Happy 50th Dennis Chilcote

I thought that Thursday was steamy, but Friday was even sultrier. It was 72 degrees at 5:45 in the morning. Too, that sweet smell of summer flora filled the thick air once more. I really wished I could stay home and enjoy this first real blast of summer.

My morning went as usual. I exercised, walked Ykraps, played, relaxed, and ran. Mindy was sitting quietly on the deck sipping her first coffee when I got back from my run. Incidentally, my ass felt incrementally better before, during, and after my run. The kids would be leaving shortly for vacation with their dad, but they weren’t yet up. Mindy and I enjoyed ten or fifteen minutes together on the deck soaking in the early morning summer sunshine. It was plentiful & pleasant.

Come 7:25am the kids came down still sleepy eyed, but also pumped for their trip. They were in incredibly good moods. I know that Mindy will miss them, but she tries hard not show any sense of loss, at least in front of them. She always tells them that it’s OK to miss her but that they’ve still gotta have fun.

To speed up breakfast, I simply fried two eggs. I packed fruit, nuts, and my leftover Chipotle burrito for lunch. I headed up for a shower at 7:45am. I was ready 15 minutes later. We had a group hug before I left. I wouldn’t see the kids again for about nine days. They’re headed to the Outer Banks, but also stopping overnight in DC. They’re very excited about that too. And actually, I was a little surprised that they expressed interest in such a stop at their young ages, especially Bella. We’d miss the kids, but also enjoy our week long reprieve. Last year, the two of us went to Mexico during their week away. But this year we’re staying home. Mindy’s mid-May surgery had a lot to do with that. Plus, this was originally supposed to be my on-call weekend, but that’s another story.

Off to work I went, once again in the BM’er. I have been driving it quite a bit lately. The weather’s been ideal. The side benefit is the gas savings. It does much better on gas than my Trooper, obviously.

I arrived at work unequipped. I forgot my badge meaning that I had to find someone to ‘tailgate’ in with. Work was as busy as one would expect a Friday to be. Meanwhile, outside, it looked like a lovely summer day was unfolding. My phone rang around 1030am. It was daughter Courtney. I really wanted to speak with her. However, no sooner had our conversation began, when my cell phone died. There was no call back number. Given our somewhat tumultuous relationship, I was all but certain she would think that I hung up on her. The thought of that troubled me for a bit. It wasn’t 20 minutes later that I spoke with Mindy. She was just heading out to have lunch with new friend Leiyah, the young woman she roomed with in the hospital. Mindy offered to bring me my phone charger. I declined.

Later, around 1:15pm when I took my lunch, I decided to drive home and get my phone charger and badge. I had already walked out of the center a couple of times only to realize I had no way back in except to knock or tailgate. That’s very frustrating. I wanted my badge.

It was steamy, but the drive home exhilarating. Mindy was still out and about. I quickly gathered the charger and badge then took a little walk about the yard to enjoy the fruits of my labor. I also checked the pump to our faux stone fountain. Sure enough, there was some debris lodge in the intake. I cleared it and restarted it. It was simple. Before heading back to work, I downloaded some pictures I took earlier that morning.

The afternoon went quickly. I talked with Mindy mid-afternoon. She had a nice time with Leiyah. Apparently, she’s going to meet us at Barley’s next Friday, and is looking forward to meeting our single friend Tom Clark. Mindy had also been Targeting, her favorite store in the world. Among other things, she went looking to see if they had either of the two pier shelves we saw on their web page.

I left work just after 5pm eager to begin the weekend. Mindy was upstairs when I got home. I’m still not sure if she was napping or what. Anyway, she was a little surprised that I was home so soon. We walked Ykraps together. She told me all about her day. More specifically, she shared how her conversation went with Rosemary, my ex-mother-in-law. She really likes Rosemary, and later commented that if she had met her before us, she just knew they’d be great friends. Rosemary is trying to help Courtney through some tough times. We’re willing to help as well. Rosemary & Mindy discussed the details surrounding such help.

Mindy also talked to Shelly today. Shelly is Grand Daughter Kaileigh’s stepmother. She just had a baby. Seems mother and new baby are doing fine. Mindy dropped a gift or two by her house earlier in the day. She also left a gift for Kaileigh. Back inside our tranquil home, I plunked my rear down into the sofa all the while Mindy gently stroked my head. I love that! I took a brief nap. Mindy soon got busy baking her mother’s birthday cake for Sunday. Her mom was rather insistent on the type of cake, and even went as far as to make her own icing for it. I saw the frosting resting in the fridge. Geesh, Gloria! But as Mindy said, it’s her birthday. She can have exactly what she wants.

While Mindy tended to the cake, I went out to water all the flowers, front and back. I started out back and worked my way around to the front. I was probably out there for 30 minutes or so. When I finished Mindy was just heading upstairs to freshen for our night out. I decided to update my blog. Afterwards, I freshened up, too.

We left for Barley’s at 7:40pm. We drove the Trooper so that Mindy could drive home if necessary. She wouldn’t be drinking much alcohol, if any. The lot was quite full. Inside, plenty of our Friday night peeps were already in place. Bob & Mary Ann, Steve, and Dan. Tom C. was supposed to meet us later. I had hoped they’d have their Centennial IPA on the tower, but they didn’t. Further, I hoped they’d have the much ballyhooed Hop Juice or HopSlam on the guest draft tower. They had neither. But rather than focus on the ‘not’ I chose to focus on the ‘have’. I had a Droughtfire IPA. It’s still pretty darn good. Mindy had water to start, but later asked for a sample glass of Cup O’ Joe (a coffee stout). Tom C. arrived just as I started into my second beer. Mindy had just finished her dinner. I didn’t order any food. I wasn’t hungry, although I did eat Mindy’s pickles.

We didn’t stay too late. I ended up drinking a third beer – a Bell’s Two Hearted IPA. We tipped Deidra quite well before leaving. She’s leaving on a Caribbean cruise Saturday morning. We wanted her to have some extra cash. She takes very good care of us, always. Our friend Tim was just arriving on his Harley as we were leaving. We joked about how much he looks the part - like a true biker. And to think, a year ago, he looked all yuppie!

We arrived home by 10:15pm. I talked Mindy into a brief visit with Kenny & Crissy, who invited us down earlier. At first Mindy wasn’t too keen to the idea, but eventually caved when I agreed to keep it brief, say 10 minutes. I grabbed a beer for the two house walk!

They were just preparing dinner. It looked like shrimp and steak. Kenny’s best friend, Ben and his wife were there too. We stayed a bit longer than ten minutes, but had a nice time chatting and laughing it up. We headed back home at Mindy’s prompting. She was melting fast.