Raining Wrenches

I was up just after 5:30am. A few short minutes later, I was downstairs engaged in exercise. It was raining. How hard or how much, I hadn’t yet figured out. Turns out, it was raining at a good clip. I had to use the purple umbrella walking Ykraps if I were to stay at least somewhat dry. The upside to all this rain is that our drive and street gutters were cleaned of all residual dirt left from last weekend’s dirt project. Plus, the grass that was damaged or matted down after the heavy traffic was springing back to life. It badly needs cut. I was back home sipping coffee by 6:00am. After reviewing the day’s weather forecast I took Mindy some coffee and woke her for work. It was 6:10am when I returned downstairs for more PC time and my pre-run ritual. I don’t think that I’ve mentioned that my back/shoulders are peeling after last weekend’s sun burn. I had little blisters along the base of my neck and across my shoulders. But now it’s just a scaley mess. Should’ve used sunscreen. After a stretch and meditation I readied for my run. Still weighing heavily on my mind was the whereabouts of my two missing wrenches. Sadly, I thought about it most of the night. I planned to look more carefully around the yard after my run when it’s a bit brighter. It was only 50 degrees. I wore long running pants and a winter weight wicking shirt – no jacket. My run went well. Among other things, while I ran, I weighed the progress on my spring project list. To make sure that everything’s done before our vacation, I may need to schedule a couple days off mid-week. Of course, if I do, they’ll be planned to coincide with favorable weather. But even that can be tricky in May. Mindy was doing scrambled eggs for the three of us (Me, her, and Bella). Jacob was already up in his room. After my run I was feeling slightly better about my wrenches. I wasn’t as distraught. I shared how I felt with Mindy, who wasn’t too pleased with my antisocial behavior last evening. I explained how obsessed I was and how easily I can go from happy-go-lucky to depressed over such matters. She commented that I’m a little OCD. Maybe/probably! She and Bella departed at their usual 7:30am time frame. I cleaned up the kitchen and prepared the dishwasher for a running. I left the door open so I wouldn’t forget to start it before leaving for work. I was still readying for work when Jacob headed out to the bus stop. While gathering my keys, badge, and Blackberry, it occurred to me that I should give the kitchen tool drawer another once over in search of my missing wrenches. Holy crap! There they were, nestled under a screw driver or two. I was elated! Mystery solved. I could finally move on. I watched Jacob get on the bus from the front porch. Just as he boarded the bus, I spotted the city water dude walking through our yard. He was there to do the final inspection of our water meter/irrigation system. He was a nice fella, and took a real liking to Ykraps. He checked the plumbing and both meter readings. Said we were a go. Now, the water that flows through the irrigation system will not be assessed sewage charges, which make up approximately 70% of a typical water bill. He was done by 8:10am. Suddenly my world was falling into place. I left for work with a skip in my step. This was Friday. I anticipated a tough day. Turns out, though, the day went much smoother than expected. I sent Mindy and email letting her know that I found my wrenches. I knew she’d appreciate that. We joked earlier that I might find them in Bella’s room under her bed. At lunch, around 1pm, I left for Home Depot to return the edger blade I bought yesterday. It had the wrong sized center hole. The return went smoothly. I looked again in the two places where I know they have them on display. I couldn’t find the one I needed, 2”X9” with a 1” center hole. Crap! However, much to my delight, I found a third locale for the replacement blades, right next to the “Expand-It” attachments. Logical place. It’s as if the world was smiling on me. I found my wrenches, and now I found edger blades. They came in a two-pack. After a brief browse around the store I checked-out and headed back to work. The afternoon was as calm as the morning. I forwarded home an email that contained the long list of lottery numbers we jointly purchased. I also planned to purchase a couple of my own on my way home. The Mega-Millions was up to $220 million for Friday night’s drawing. Mindy advised that she’d be leaving for the grocery once Jimaken picked up the kids. I headed straight home leaving the office just after 5pm. During the last hour of work, we had several heavy downpours and then a few bouts of sunshine. The clouds looked rather ominous and were racing by at an alarming speed. Mindy was just pulling away from the house when I pulled up. It was raining hard again, too. We acknowledge one another in passing. Inside, the house was organized and clean. All the kids’ knick knacks that build up through the week were put away. That always calms me. It rained hard on and off for the next 20 minutes or so. I decided to take a brief nap before walking Ykraps. I woke just before 6pm and leashed up Ykraps and headed out. We didn’t get but a block or two before tornado sirens blared. It looked scary to our immediate east and a perhaps a little threatening to the far west, but nothing too ugly directly overhead. Regardless, it worried me some. I didn’t want to be out with Ykraps in a severe thunders storm, or worse yet, a tornado. Almost on queue, he got a little lackadaisical going his business. It annoyed me. I gave him a mild jerk as if to hurry – no time to lolly-gag. We hurried back home. It was raining hard once again. Back home I went to the PC all the while the tornado sirens continued. According to Weather Bug, the tornado warning was for the area just to our east. The storm had already passed us. Over the last few years they’ve changed the system to be more preventative. When I was a kid there actually had to be a tornado/funnel cloud spotted before they’d sound the horns. Today, they do it when the conditions are right. That was the case this evening. I spent the next few minutes unloading the dishwasher. It began raining so hard that our gutters were overflowing. Of course that’s about when Mindy pulled up with the groceries. And, because of the large pile of dirt in the drive, she couldn’t pull in. She had to park curbside. Thinking and reacting quickly, I checked the radar. I then celled her to tell her to wait a few minutes, it would pass shortly. But it was too late. She was already walking in. I opened the garage door for convenience sake. And just like the radar showed, the rain slowed in short order. We teamed up to get the groceries from the curb to the house. She carried them from the Honda to the garage; I carried them from the garage to the kitchen. After getting everything put away, she readied for an evening at Barley’s. I was already prepared. We must’ve arrived between 7:30-8:00pm. We sat at the bar and ordered our favorite beers, me an IPA and Mindy a St Joan’s. We struck up a conversation with the couple sitting next to us, Bob & Mary. Turned out, she’s a physical therapist for Southwestern City Schools, not sure what Bob does. We briefly talked about running until Mindy & Mary realized their common bond. They talked for a while about the upcoming levy vote. Tom Clark arrived during that timeframe. I moved to a nearby table to talk with him. Things are going well at Time Warner seems. He’s in contract on a house close to us in Scioto Trace up by the river. Hope that works out. Bob & Mary Ann strolled in around 9pm. My guess is that she worked late. Bob and I talked about the possibility of golf Sunday. However, given the weekend forecast, it didn’t seem probable. Regardless, he got a tee time for Sunday AM at Darby Creek in Plain City. Nice course. We stayed at Barley’s until 11pm, or close to it. Mindy drove home. For the time being the rain stopped.