Turning Heads and Trimming Hedges

1) Dad & Mindy at Bob Evans
2) Bobby & April w/Boat in tow
3) Ashley's flowers
4) My old friends Dan & Mary E.

Sunday morning was even sunnier and warmer than Saturday. Perfectly timed with the onset of June, the morning air smelt & felt like summer. It was g-glorious!

I was up at 6:50am because this was the first Sunday of the month, thus a Wright family breakfast Sunday. For the first time, we failed to make prior contact with others to make sure that they would be in attendance. But we’ve been doing this for coming up on a year, we figured that everyone knows the routine.

And speaking of routines, I completed mine. I exercised, walked Ykraps, enjoyed some coffee, and left for a run. I woke Mindy just before setting out. At the same time I delivered her coffee bedside. I ran along Trabue and Hague. I was back by 8:15am. In an effort to conserve a little time, I jumped in the shower before Mindy was out. Even though she had a head start, I was showered and ready to go ten minutes sooner than her. But that’s pretty typical.

Before leaving the house we discussed the entire day’s agenda, or at least the lions’ share of it. I was a little surprised that Mindy had yet another graduation party she wanted to attend. In fact, she expected the kids and I to go too. Crap! I countered with another option, which included me staying home and then meeting her later at Lindy’s graduation party. That didn’t sit to well, however. For whatever reason, she really wanted all of us to go. And because this is my blog, I’ll attempt to put myself in the most positive light. J I offered up a third alternative that I hoped would make everyone happy. I proposed all of us going together provided we could leave the house at 1:30pm. That way I could still finish the chores needing done, and Mindy could still attend the 99th graduation party for a former student. That seemed to do the trick.

We left for breakfast with a few minutes to spare. We didn’t see any familiar vehicles at first, but soon spotted Dad sitting in his minivan. We parked a spot or two over. Still no sign of Bobby or brother Tommy. I don’t think anyone expected to see Tommy, however. He’s shown only once. It’s a pretty long drive from Picktown. We basked in the morning sunshine while waiting on Bobby and family. Eventually we called his house and left a message. Meanwhile, Mindy thought it a good idea to put our name in for a table for nine. A few minutes later Bobby phoned to let us know that they were indeed on their way.

As I half expected, they pulled up with their boat in tow. Bobby admitted that until he received our VM he had forgotten, and instead was ready to head up to the river for a day on the boat. But after retrieving our message they decided to stop for the family breakfast. Right on queue, we were called to our table.

Breakfast was good. We had a really nice time catching up on the family scuttle. This might’ve been our longest breakfast to date. We didn’t head for home until nearly 11am.


Finally home, I wasted little time jumping into my yard work attire. My plan was to give all of the shrubs a trimming. That’s always a big job, especially considering all the honey suckle bushes along the water that needed trimmed back. I used my electric hedge trimmers that have served me well for nearly 20 years. Over that period I’ve manage to severe only one extension cord. I must’ve trimmed for nearly two hours and filled a 9X12’ tarp about half full with the clippings/trimmings. I didn’t have time to do the back. I’d have to do that next weekend. It was time to shower up for the graduation parties.
By then, Mindy was willing to concede to having Jacob and I stay home a little longer and simply have us meet them at her sisters around 2:30pm. But I had already put my tools away and was ready for a shower. I told her that we were going as family to both even if it killed me. :()

We left for Peter’s graduation party around 1:30pm just as we had planned. This party was a bit smaller than the other’s we had previously attended. His mother was very familiar with Mindy. They struck up quite the conversation. She shared that Peter received a full-ride scholarship to Miami of Ohio for music and something else. She also shared that they recently bought him a new used string bass, his instrument of choice. He brought it down to show us. It’s said to be 90 years old, and just like many other classical musical instruments, the cost goes up with the age. Apparently the sound quality improves as the decades roll on.

We stayed at Peter’s for about an hour. We really needed to get to niece Lindy’s party. But because we were literally within a mile of daughter Ashley’s place, we made a quick stop so that I could say hello and squeeze my grand baby. Turns out, Ashley wasn’t home, or at least she didn’t answer her door (a tactic she may have learned from her mother). We took a photo of her flowers and left.

We arrived at Larry & Jodie’s around 2:45pm. We were late arrivers compared to most other family members. They had a nice food spread along with plenty of soft drinks. After about an hour, Mindy and I walked down to see some old friends, Danny & Mary Elswick. They live just around the bend. I hadn’t seen them in maybe two years. Danny was the only one home. We visited with him for a short while before Mary returned home. We talked about kids and grand kids. Like me, they have four grand children. I saw pictures of them all as well as pictures of their sons. Boy, have they grown up fast! But that‘s life!

We headed back to Mindy’s sister’s after about a 30 minute visit. We stayed there for another hour or so before calling it a day and heading for home. It was after 6pm. I still hoped to get some small yard chores done.

After we arrived home the kids headed out to play with the neighbor kids. I planted leftover flowers. I’ve learned over the years to keep extras on hand to account for the few that always die off. That plan served me well again this year. Afterwards, I watered the front flower beds. Meanwhile, Mindy was out on the bridge chatting it up with some neighbors and their young kids. I joined them after I was done watering. We headed in with the kids around 8pm.

The kids were in bed by 8:45pm – a little later than usual. But it was the eve of the first Monday of their summer so we weren’t overly concerned. Mindy and I stayed up until just before 10am. We were both sleepy.