Manifested Dysfunction

Sunday morning arrived gracefully. I was up at 8:20am after almost 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Mindy stayed in bed but said she’d be joining me downstairs in short order. The sky was a lovely blue and the early temperature a chilly 38 degrees. I started some coffee then completed my exercise regimen. Ykraps and I head out for a walk around 8:40am. Even though it was chilly, the sunshine was warm and felt terrific. I decided not to deliver Mindy’s coffee bedside for wanting to let her sleep. She joined me in the kitchen somewhere close to 9:00am. We chatted briefly about the boys and then the day’s plans. Mindy planned to go into school to work on report cards while I did yard chores, which includes getting fertilizer down, and then cleaning/prepping flower beds. Before anything else, I wanted to complete my run. I left while Mindy started breakfast. I ran along Trabue and Hague doing just three miles. I encountered an unusually high number of cars heading north on Hague, figuring I must’ve hit the ‘mass exodus’ from St Margaret’s. It was a very enjoyable run. Back at home, Mindy had sausage and scrambled eggs just about ready. We decided to make some Mimosas, too. The Bob Evans sausage links were supposed to be fresh through early April, but after one bite it was apparent that something was amiss. We threw out the entire batch and stuck only with eggs and mimosa. That worked! One mimosa quickly turned into two. They were yummy. Immediately after breakfast, Mindy headed off for a shower and me outside to fertilize the lawn. I had about 1/3 of a bag of fertilizer left over from last fall in addition to the new bag. I had to dump fertilizer from the spreader back into the bag twice in an effort to fix the spreader. It wouldn’t open fully. I discovered that the plastic locking mechanism was catching prematurely. Simple fix. After getting the spreader fixed, it didn’t take long at all to get the entire lawn fertilized. Mindy was just about to leave for school when I asked for her assistance with getting the new gas grill on the deck. I wanted to get it in place and fired up for the first time. It’s been setting in the garage fully assembled since last September. First, I moved the old one aside. It’s about 14 years old but still going strong. I pulled the new one around to the deck by myself but needed help lifting it up onto the deck. As soon as we got it up and in place, Mindy bolted for school. I fetched the directions before attaching the propane tank. I followed the directions carefully testing all the connections for a gas leak with a dish soap/water mixture. Testing went without incident. All four of the main burners worked well, as did the side burner. It comes with a rotisserie, but I didn’t test it. But I did take the time to read how to use it. To complete the setup, I got out my new lock and cable and secured it to the deck. The last task was to cover with its new cover. While working on the grill I could see my two neighbors, Pat and John, out working in their yards. John was in his hip waders cleaning debris from the pond. Pat was busy raking his back yard. I walked over to talk with Pat. I haven’t talked with him since his New Year’s Eve party. We spent a good hour talking. I shared the latest about our family dysfunction. Pat shared that he’s taken a new job. I wondered. He’s been a custom home builder for a few years now and I knew the economic downturn had to put a squeeze on the business. That was confirmed. Just recently he started selling roofs for Feazel Roofing. With the recent onslaught of wind storms, business is booming. He said he doesn’t really like crawling around on roofs, however. But hey, gotta pay the bills. I was impressed. While Pat and I talked, John continued his work in the pond. Along with loads of drift wood, he pulled out two dead animals – a musk rat and a raccoon. They stunk to high heaven. Yuck! The pond’s only about a foot deep and it keeps filling with debris from storm sewer runoff. Time was wasting away. Pat & I agreed to get together soon and then parted company. Back at home, I drug out my 9X12’ tarp and electric hedge trimmers and began cutting back the many ornamental grasses in our landscape. I filled the tarp twice. I drug the trimmings to my compost pile out back. I spent the next 15 minutes putting all of my stuff away. For the time being, I was done. But there’s so much more to do. It was after 3:30pm. By then the kids were home from their weekend with dad. Mindy was still not back from school. I took a shower so that I’d be ready to head off to Sunday dinner once she got back. She probably got home around 4:15pm. We left the house at 4:33pm. Short Jodie and Larry, everyone else was in attendance. We didn’t get started with dinner until after 5:30pm. We waited for Julie, Katie, and Joe, who were playing organized softball. Dinner included baked chicken, spaghetti, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy. It was all very good and very filling. It was after 7pm by the time we returned to the dinner table for dessert. Surprise, surprise, my favorite chocolate pie! Yummy! I managed enough discipline to have only one piece. We left for Kelly’s and to pick-up the boys at 7:40pm. I had already called Kelly to let her know we were a bit behind schedule. We could see Lindsey and the boys down the street several houses playing with other kids. Because there are no sidewalks, they were all gathered at the street’s edge. But that all changed as we pulled into Kelly’s drive. Rocky came towards us on his bike, and Lindsey and Landon followed close behind carrying a toddler-sized riding toy apparently belonging to another. Just as they approached the “T” intersection directly across from Kelly’s place, Lindsey put Landon down in the middle of the road and walked forward carrying the riding toy. He lingered close behind but still in the middle of the road. WOW! I was speechless, and before I could pursue him, Mindy instantly raced toward him, swooping him up into her arms while at the same time berating Lindsey for the ignorant maneuver. I must admit, it caused quite a stir, drawing looks from the neighbors and children who were already gathered around. Meanwhile, Lindsey went straight to her mother’s ear uttering disdain for how Mindy handled the situation. I heard her say just how embarrassed she was to have Mindy do what she did and make such a scene. Granted, I didn’t want a scene either but in the end, Landon’s well being is far more important. Of course our on going worry is that he’ll thinks it’s OK to be in the street unattended. In fact, we’ve already witnessed the same behavior out of Rocky more than once. One would think that this would be instinctual to a mother/father, but not for Lindsey. She wouldn’t/couldn’t understand. We loaded up the boys as quickly as possible. Once a bit down the road Landon fell asleep, a sure sign he hadn’t had a nap. Lindsey rarely if ever sees that he gets one. Rocky pointed out that he saw his daddy again over the weekend too. If Mindy wasn’t pissed earlier, she was absolutely fuming now. Sadly, the only label that fits is ‘white trash’. And like every other time we pick up the boys from Kelly’s, the boys smelt of cat piss. We never make mention of it to them. It’s not their fault. All of their belongings coming home smell the same. We have to wash most of them twice – some even more. Rocky did ask why he had to take another bath when he’d taken one earlier that morning. Mindy told him it was because he’d been out playing all day. And besides, he actually was filthy head to toe. By the end of bath time both boys were adequately readjusted. Landon was smiling big and seemed happy as could be. We quickly got them into their PJs and tucked all four into bed. Already 9pm, we sat on the sofa contemplating the week ahead. Mindy exhibited anger, sadness, and despair all rolled into one. I felt a little hopeless relative to the boys, but also offered up that what is meant to be will be. We just need to be opened to it. I poured a Jack & Coke to help myself believe it even more. :) We headed to bed after some Science Channel TV time. Must’ve been just after 10pm when we headed up.