Chasing Waterfalls

I’d like to say that it felt great to wake in my own bed, but between the irrigation system kicking on in the middle of the night and then finding myself unable to stop thinking about the vandalism in our backyard I didn’t sleep that well at all. Instead, I woke around 2am and headed downstairs to try sleeping on the sofa. That worked fairly well. I woke again at 6:30am eager to start my Sunday, but discovered that I had a slight headache, no doubt a byproduct of the three Barely beers I drank the night before. I promptly took three Advil. After lying on the sofa for another ten minutes, my headache was gone. I happily jumped to my feet, prepped the morning’s coffee, and started my exercise routine. Having skipped sit-ups and push-ups for an entire week, it felt really good getting back in the swing. I did a set of 40 curls, too. The sky was clear blue and the air a touch cool, especially after a week in Mexico where the low never dropped below 76 degrees. What a contrast to home where it was 59. Before heading out with Ykraps I started downloading the 450+ photos I took while on vacation. I took both cameras but used only my pocket-sized, waterproof Olympus. My PC was slow to boot-up Corel Photo Album. Ykraps and I enjoyed our walk. Being outdoors did nothing but reaffirm my desire to get busy on the yard. Even though my neighbor cut our grass while we were gone, it already needed cut again. After our walk, I spent a good hour reviewing vacation photos and enjoying coffee. I didn’t bother surfing the internet. I’d been without it for a week, and honestly didn’t miss it too much. I was admittedly curious about any Vikings news, however. I took Mindy coffee at 8:00am just before heading out for my run. I wore shorts and a long sleeved wicking shirt. The 59 degree air and brilliant sunshine felt terrific. There’d be no chance of overheating today. Lots of folks were watering their lawns, I noticed, a sure sign that it’s been dry here at home. It felt good to be back to my routine. I half expected to find Mindy up and sitting on the deck sipping coffee when I returned, but she remained asleep. She must’ve got up around 9:30am. By then, I was actively engaged in tightening the kitchen faucet against the granite countertop, which had worked itself loose over the past couple of weeks. To reach the nut holding the faucet assembly tightly against the countertop I needed the special tool that came with the faucet. I had both supply lines disconnected and everything out from under the sink cabinet. All the wrenches I had were either too big or small, and none of my sockets deep enough. Mindy asked if I had looked in the miscellaneous tool drawer. No, but I was sure it wasn’t in there. Still, I humored and looked through it along with her. Just about to give up, I spotted it. How I didn’t see it right away is beyond me. In any case, the extra long socket-like took made the job a snap. I slid it over the bolt and onto the nut and finally resecured it to the granite tops. I reattached the water supply lines and gave it a test. No drips! I felt really good about having that nagging task behind me. And since I had the cabinet empty, I asked Mindy to bring me some ant spray. Afterwards, Mindy & I discussed the day’s plans. We weren’t expecting the kids until around 5pm-ish. I planned to do yard work. I asked Mindy if she wanted to head out to fish more of our backyard belongings out of the pond. She didn’t really want to but agreed to help. Among other things, still out there somewhere were three bags of mulch, cinder blocks, our gazing ball, drain cover, and both purple flamingos. Our neighbor had already pulled both benches and the fire pit from the water. I crept into the water to fetch what we could readily see – cinder block and two bags of mulch. While in the mushy pond, I pulled up a few medium sized rocks to add to our rock garden patio. One of our flamingos was laying in the mucky mud in the pond’s center. I was too afraid to walk to it thinking that I might sink. We were able to salvage some of the impatiens dumped from the missing planter too. Temporarily, I potted them in the planter’s base, which we’d already recovered. It was now nearing 11am. I decided it time to get busy on the lawn. Mindy figured the grass was still too wet to cut, especially the new sod, which if anything, is getting too much water. In fact, it’s getting so much that some spots have died out. It’s a fine balance. I took her advice and spent the next 45 minutes hand watering all of my flower pots, baskets and beds. They were more than dry. When I finished I started mowing. I mowed, trimmed, edged, and blew for the next two hours. After the yard was back in ship shape I got out my electric hedge trimmers and gave all the shrubs a haircut. This included the barberry, taxus, and cranberry bush. While at it, I trimmed more of the honeysuckle overgrowth away from the two blue spruce trees along the western edge of our yard. By then the sun was hot. I had my shirt off and could actually feel the sun warming my Caribbean tanned body. Oh yeah! I worked in the yard until about 4:30pm. During that time, Mindy headed to the grocery. While she was out, Jimaken arrived with the kids. Bella came leaping into my arms. Jacob was happy to see me too. Mindy pulled up not five minutes after they arrived. Jimaken was still busy pulling their gear from the vacation rental car. After unloading groceries, I headed up for a shower. Mindy invited my dad over for a low-key cookout. By the time I finished showering my dad was over. It wasn’t until then that I finally opened up an internet browser. I read an article about Brett Favre joining the Vikings. I started the grill immediately after. I haven’t yet cooked on it, although Mindy has many times. The meal would be simple, hot dogs (big reds and ballpark franks) along with freshly steamed green beans. It was good. After dinner, all of us, dad included, hiked back into the woods surrounding the pond. My primary goal was to seek more of our stuff. The woods are very thick with lots of mature honeysuckle and wild grapevines amongst relatively few trees. The growth provides a fairly low canopy that’s tough to navigate in a fully upright position. We meandered around the pond and finally to it’s edge. Right away, Mindy spotted her black planter floating rightside up in the pond. And not ten feet from where we stood was the second purple flamingo just off the ponds edge. Jacob and I fished it out. Of course the wire legs were missing. I’ll make more. Since we were already halfway back there, we all agreed to make the trek back to the falls. Dad had never seen them. We eventually made our way back through the thick brush. It’s been two years since the last time that Mindy, Bella, Jacob and I were back there. That time, Bella was crying from fear, and Jacob and I scared up a small deer in the brush. The falls were pretty. When they built the new damn a couple years ago they wisely added a few babbler blocks to promote the babbling brook sound as the water spills over the edge. I wish I would’ve taken my camera but didn’t. Shux! After spending about ten minutes at the falls we hiked back home. Jacob agreed to fetch Kenny’s tomato cage from perhaps the deepest, muckiest part of the pond. Success. We spent another 15 minutes on the deck before heading inside. Dad soon prepared to depart. It was already after 8pm. Mindy took both kids upstairs to ready for bed. Not one of them has to be anywhere in particular tomorrow. While the kids prepared for bed, I transferred all of our vacation blog entries from Mindy’s laptop to my jump drive. Once on my PC, I converted all of them from Works to Word docs. I laid on the sofa relaxing afterwards. It wasn’t long before I woke myself snoring. Mindy, meanwhile, was playing solitaire on her laptop. I rushed up to bed. It wasn’t yet 10pm. But sadly, once in bed I found myself wide awake. Go figure! Unable to get comfortable and back to sleep, I turned on the TV, but never intended to watch anything specific. Rather, I planned to use it as a sleep aid.