Mother's

I slept rather soundly and woke around 7am feeling completely rested. The sky was a deep blue, which only aided in my eagerness to get up and out of bed. Like the day prior, I started a pot of coffee and then engaged in exercise. I did just sit-ups and push-ups after such a strenuous workout with the patio project on Saturday. I had big plans for the morning. After my run I planned to detach the trailer, now filled with Com-Til, and then return what was left of the patio prep supplies (about $40 worth) along with the $60 bag of grass seed I bought for the grade change project. Obviously, buying sod rendered that much seed unnecessary. With that $100 I would buy some other stuff I need/want. But more important than that, I wanted to visit Ohio Mulch to pick-up more stepping stones and gravel, enough to complete the patio. I knew Courtney was coming at 10am to drop off a Mother’s Day card for Mindy. Even if I finished my run before then, I couldn’t take off until she was over and gone. I did some blogging and carried up Mindy’s gift before setting out on my morning run. I delivered Mindy’s coffee and dressed for a run just before 9:00am. I wished her a Happy Mother’s Day, too. I ran just three miles, through the subdivision, up Trabue, and down Hague. I was back home by 9:30am. I drank some coffee and walked around the yard snapping a few landscaping photos. Included were a couple pictures of our new purple flamingos. Courtney showed up while I was outside on the deck. Startled me, even. We hung out outside for about ten or fifteen minutes. Mindy was still in the shower. I could hear it running. She and the kids eventually joined us outside. Courtney and the kids gave Mindy her cards and gifts. Courtney scrawled a thoughtful note and recorded a special greeting in the recordable greeting card she got her. My card wasn’t that fancy, although I realize that those are all the rage. Mindy seemed pleased with her fire pit and earrings. She and the kids bolted off for church around 10:15am. Meanwhile, Courtney was on call for work, but after placing a call learned that she had the morning and early afternoon off. Before she left, I helped her check her engine oil, topped off her coolant, and replaced a couple burnt out brake light bulbs. At roughly the same time, I emptied out the back of the Trooper to make room for hauling stone. Before departing for Home Depot and Ohio Mulch, I loaded the leftover patio materials and grass seed. I made sure to take my receipts, too. I stopped at Home Depot first. My credit was $102. Wahoo! I turned around and gave $90 right back after buying a new hose reel, two more florescent flood light bulbs, and a small bag of grass seed to fill a few bare spots. Onto Ohio Mulch. Ohio Mulch was bustling, but no where near as much as they were last Thursday when I stopped in at lunch time. A nice fella came over to assist and eventually fetched a skid. Said their scale was working again. I loaded about 20 stones of various sizes then alerted the same guy that I was ready. With a forklift he moved the skid over to the scale. He couldn’t get it working so he called Chris, the manager over. He’s the same guy that helped me Thursday. He got the scale working. It read 400lbs. He subtracted 30lbs for the skid – 370lbs. Next, we loaded the stone into the back of the Trooper, and then pulled forward to the bagged gravel where I loaded eight bags of river-washed regular sized gravel to use as fill around the stepping stones. I went inside and paid - $62 dollars. In a no so brilliant move, I decided last minute to pull into Straders to see if they had any regular Hibiscus in stock. Being Mother’s Day, they were packed to the hilt. Cars were waiting for others to leave just to get a parking spot. I didn’t bother going in. I turned around in the lot and headed back home. I could see the checkout lines were ridiculously deep, too. Getting flowers there for many years, I know how slow their checkout lines move. At home I got out the tractor and moved the new stone and gravel to the patio area. I was eager to get the project finished. As it turned out, I bought the right amount of stones to fill the area to the desired density. Before backfilling with the gravel I decided to peel back the weed cloth and add more fill dirt to some low spots that were made very apparent with the stepping stones in place. Glad I did, too. I dumped all eight bags of gravel onto the patio and used a broom to sweep it into the crevices. There was extra gravel lying atop the stones. Mindy came out to admire her new patio and willing agreed to do the tedious job of removing the excess. I appreciated that. I was able to move on to other tasks. I thought that I’d get started with the Com-Til, which sat covered in the trailer at the curb. However, I really wanted to get the overseeding done first. I fetched my spreader from the shed and filled it with some of the Com-Til Plus. I set the spreader to its widest opening and tried top dressing the area needing over seeded (the front lawn restoration area from last fall). That didn’t work. Too damp. It simply clogged the spreader. It’s never easy. Instead, I had to spread it by hand/shovel. I wanted a thin layer down to serve as a natural fertilizer. I laid the grass with my hand help spreader. That worked well. I overseeded last fall’s restored area and then did some bare spots out back by the tree swings. I watered it all in as well as watering the new sod. While I worked, Mindy relaxed on her new patio with the neighbors. She asked me to stop and relax but there was too much to do and not nearly enough time. At 4:15pm I put all my toys away and headed in for a shower. We needed to be at Gloria’s for Mother’s Day We left the house around 4:40 and arrived just before 5pm. We were the last family faction to arrive. After grabbing a soda, I headed out to work on Gloria’s roof hell bet on removing that gutter guard which I feared was sending rain water over the edge nad down her wall and eventually ending up in her basement. However, on closer inspection,. The guard couldn’t readily be removed without leaving the roof vulnerable to other problems. The shingles don’t run into the gutters without the gutter guard flange. I’m not sure if we’ll ever be able to resolve the problem. It’s just one of those things. Poorly designed. Dinner was lasagna. There was a vegetarian variety and another with meat. I had some of both. We had some yummy cheesy garlic bread and salad too. For dessert, we had lemon cheesecake and brownies. We also celebrated Todd’s 39th b-day. He was actually born on Mother’s Day. We left Gloria’s at 7:20pm and headed to Kelly’s to visit with Rocky & Landon. They seemed shy at first, especially Landon, almost like he did when he first came to stay with us. He warmed quickly, however, and soon was buzzin’ around in his little electric car. The kids, Bella and Jacob, were very happy to see the boys. We didn’t stay too awfully long. It was getting late. We arrived home around 8:00pm. Jacob walked Ykraps with me. Afterwards, I finished watering in the sod. The kids were sound asleep when I went back inside. Mindy and I headed to bed around 9:30pm after she rubbed my aching shoulder/back.