Bringing Home the Boat

After waking a couple of times and going back to sleep, I was finally up & out of bed at 7:30am. Mindy appeared to be out cold. I was careful not to disturb her. For the next couple of hours I exercised, walked Ykraps, logged into work, and played on the computer. I was in no hurry. In fact, short of cutting the lawn, I had little else planned for the day. After all, I was on-call. Mindy got up around 9:30am, about the same time that I was finally ready to run after finding a lull in the activity at work. At the same time, Mindy invited me to sit on her patio sipping coffee, but by then my mind was already running. I had to go. It was a warm run – about 75degrees, and by 9:30am the sun was high enough in the sky that it made a real difference. By run’s end, I was covered in a thick gelatinous glaze. While I ran, Mindy prepared a fancy omelet. She asked if I wanted mimosa. I did not. I stuck with straight OJ. I spent a little more time dealing with work matters then found another lull. I decided it a great time to visit my dad’s place to pick-up some of the min-boulders he said I could have. While there, I planned to invite him over for Courtney’s birthday celebration on Sunday and also ask if he’d help me do the plumbing work necessary to move my hose bib to the deduct water meter. I’ve had the material for about 6 weeks it seems. I headed over around 11am. Dad wasn’t home, but I vaguely remembered where he said I might find the boulders. Sure enough, I found about 13 of them. They were slightly larger than I envisioned but still ideal for my project. I planned to place them at the edge of Mindy’s patio and down into the pond giving it a more natural, rustic look. A couple of them were all I could handle alone. I worked up one heck of a sweat, too. It was heating up fast. Back at home, Mindy convinced me to wait until later to cut the grass. That way the lawn would be much drier, thus easier to cut. I agreed. In the meantime, I handled more work related stuff and then decided to go fetch the boat and give it the once over getting it water ready. Mindy suggested that I fetch it with the Honda but I didn’t want to do that just yet. I took the Trooper – a proven entity. I arrived home with the boat less than 30 minutes later. It doesn’t take long. At that point I still wasn’t sure how deeply I wanted to plunge into boat prep. After all, I was on-call and that remained my first priority. The first thing I did was remove the two rotted support rails that I was already prepared to replace. Next, I installed the battery and tried firing it up. It started on like the third try. I let it run with the water muff shrouding the engine for at least 20 minutes. I checked the oil and belts, too. All good. Sometime during my toil, Mindy prepared to leave for a shopping spree. For one, she was headed to Kohl’s. I suggested while out that she get Courtney a birthday card. She agreed to pick up a gift card, too. Just before she backed out, I offered to vacuum out the Honda since I already had the shop-vac out for the boat. The Honda really needed it. She waited while I vacuumed. It took no more than 5-10 minutes. She then left. After seeing that work was under control, I got more involved with the boat. I detailed/cleaned it inside and out. I put both the trailer and boat license stickers on too. In addition, I lubed the bearing buddies and checked the tire pressure on the trailer. Dad pulled up around 4pm best guess. He took an interest in what I was doing. Said he’d been out and about all day. I responded that I knew having been to his house earlier. I shared that I got the rocks I asked about. In the same breath, I asked for his help with the plumbing job Sunday morning, and then extended and invite for Courtney’s birthday dinner. He accepted on both accounts. We agreed to start on the plumbing at 1030-11am. Cool! About then, Mindy arrived home. She greeted dad with a hug. Always does. Shared with both of us some of the deals she got while shopping. Dad soon left agreeing to see us both tomorrow AM. Mindy hung out around the boat as I was winding down. She suggested that we order Sporano’s subs for dinner. We had earlier talked about attending Comfest but neither of us seemed up to the idea by then. I was on-call and looked forward to a more low-key kind of evening. Getting old, I guess! However, I still wasn’t done with all my chores. Nope! I planned to cut the lawn. I wasted no time transitioning from the boat to the lawn. I spent the next 1.5 hours cutting grass. I push mowed about half, maybe more. It looked great when I finished. Before putting the tractor away, I attached the trailer and hauled the 13 boulders I had in the back of Trooper out to Mindy’s patio. The tractor made it as easy as possible but I still had to lift them all. Ugh! The lawn still needed a whack, edge, and blow, but I decided to save that for Sunday. I was beat and needed a shower. After my shower, Mindy ordered those subs we talked about. She went and fetched them too. After seeing my way through a couple more work related matters the coast looked clear for a care-free & kidless summer evening. Wahoo! Mindy bought two subs, but we shared just one. We saved the other for Sunday lunch. While sipping a beer, Mindy suggested that I take my new putter down to Kenny’s and try it out on his putting green. Great idea, Mindy! She followed. While they ate their dinner, I putted. They eventually joined us. Meanwhile, neighbors Mike & Teri were out on their patio two houses down making some raucous. We eventually joined them. They were celebrating another neighbor, Katie’s, 37th birthday. Mindy shared the latest news on Gold Grill, the neighborhood menace. According to a SWAT officer friend, this guy is a convicted felon from Florida (robbery and murder), who was invited to stay with his aunt but later thrown out. He’s rumored to be living in the woods in our neighborhood park all the while praying on older house wives and befriending neighborhood kids. The local teenagers say he’s packing. I’ve talked to him a couple of times, extending only a casual greeting. We’re all concerned, especially if he’s packing. I made a couple beer runs back to the house. We hung out with the neighbors until almost 11pm. I checked in with work before heading to bed. Things were quiet.