Celebrating Kaileigh at 8

I woke at 5:30am and quickly transitioned from sleep to exercise. The irrigation system was on and the sunshine shining. The day had indeed begun. Soon, Ykraps and I were taking our usual morning stroll. I was eager to check out the watering pattern of my newest sprinkler head to make sure that it was doing what I hoped. It was. Good aim, good call. Back home around 6:00am, I got some coffee then took to the PC. Not too worried about the time, I read some of Glenn’s blog along with my other favorite reads. I must say, reading Glenn’s blog is more often than not much like looking out the window hoping to find lovely weather, but instead finding cold, gray clouds moving in - lots of negative overtones. Sometimes we simply need to manufacture good news and then before we know it, good things start happening all around us. Funny, I can almost hear him defending his writings, of which there’s really nothing to defend, by stating that he’s simply sharing it as it happens without adding any sugar & spice. My point, however, is simple. Create your happiness – the world will follow. And if it doesn't, what's lost? But back to me ... After PC time I moved immediately to meditation and stretching. Stretching has been so good for me, the medicine I needed but never realized. If I really dedicated myself to it, I could see it curing most of my minor aches and pains. By 6:35am I was dressing for my run. This time I left the shirt behind entirely. It was a few degrees cooler than the morning before but still reasonably warm – about 64. Running shirtless felt a tad cool, but that quickly subsided as soon as the sweat started to brew. My run went extremely well. Back home, I made a simple cheese omelet. This time I didn’t try to be like Lolita. It was good. I didn’t need to pack a lunch since I still had yesterday’s resting in the fridge at work. It must’ve been about 7:35am when I finally headed up for shower. I was ready to depart for work by 7:55am. I walked around the backyard for a few minutes before heading out. Mindy and the kids remained in bed. Work was calm and remained that way for most of the day. Come lunch time I drove to Home Depot to pick-up the stuff I wanted to fix the patio benches out back. I needed some screws for the large bench, and needed a new oak board and bolts for the little bench. I spent a lot of time trying to find the exact match to the missing bolt. I ended up settling on one similar. I bought a 7 foot long oak 1x2” board. I felt instantly that it looked a smidge to narrow even though I measured at home. I headed back to work after Home Depot. It was noticeably more humid than it has been. I headed back to work. The afternoon kept me hopping. I didn’t catch any air until it was time to head home. At home I knew we’d be celebrating G.D. Kaileigh’s 8th birthday. Mindy made arrangements for her to have dinner with us, and also fetched her a couple birthday gifts. Courtney would be there too. I was looking forward to seeing both, but especially Kaileigh. Like often happens, I was overwhelmed with sleepiness as soon as I got home. Mindy understood and allowed me to take brief nap before dinner. We were having leftovers: hamburgers, hot dogs, chops, and potato salad. The kids, meanwhile, were playing and somewhat loudly. I took it in stride. After my nap I gave Kaileigh a big ol’ grandpa hug. At dinner, I noticed how Kai’s stretching out, looking rather slender. Courtney, I noticed, dyed her hair black. In general, I don’t care for dyed hair, especially such a stark transition. Looks artificial – forced. Meanwhile, I was still sleepy but battled through it. After dinner we celebrated Kaileigh’s birthday with a chocolate chip cookie cake decorated accordingly. We sang, took pictures, and gave her gifts. Honestly, she didn’t seem too enthused with her gifts, but that’s OK. After dinner I wanted another nap but knew there wouldn’t be time. I needed to cut our lawn and neighbor Kenny’s, too. Both of our lawns were thick and tall. I started with the John Deere, and on Kenny’s. His is a difficult cut with a tractor. There are many planted trees to cut around, that and his putting green. It took a while. The grass was so thick that my twin-mulching blades couldn’t mulch it all and dumped clumps of clippings back onto the lawn. I took the time to mow over those areas twice, some even three times. Onto my own. I fetched my push mower and did all the major slopes, valleys, and edges. For one reason or another, I was sweating profusely. It was more humid than normal but I can’t recall ever sweating so much. The t-shirt I was wearing was soaking wet, and my face was dripping too. The mowing seemed to take forever. And then, out by the bridge, I accidentally snagged the accelerator line of the mower on one of the large bolts holding the bridge beams in place, all without realizing what was catching. I kept trying to pull it way which only made it worse. I ended up bending the metal tube protecting the cable at 90 degrees. Good grief! At the same time, the electric start wire became disconnected. I was a mess! At roughly the same time, Mindy just so happened to venture out to look at the yard. She witnessed my mini tirade. :) I quickly regained my composure. And boy was I sweating! I cut 2/3s of the yard with the push mower. After all the rain and watering, I figured it best. Before putting the push mower away, I headed back to Kenny’s to do the cutting-in around the trees and beds. Looked good. I thought about skipping whacking, edging, and blowing, but in the end decided to stay after it even as daylight waned. I had our yard in ship shape well before dark. Somewhere in there, Kaileigh’s aunt came and picked her up. And I never saw daughter Courtney leave. After finishing the lawn we all headed in to shower. I went first. Mindy asked that I leave it run for Jacob. I followed her orders. That shower might have felt better than any other in recent memory. As it turned out, we weren’t too long for the night. We headed to bed early.