A Gathering of Friends

As expected, I got up right at 5:30am. I didn’t have a lot of wiggle since I needed to be in the office by 6:30am. Also, by design, I skipped sit-ups and push-ups in an effort to rest those tired and overused muscle groups. Given the day’s early schedule, this was a good day to do it. After some water I headed out the door with Ykraps. The lawn looked incredible and the pond was still quite high after a ton of rain the night before. We were back by 5:45am. I poured myself some coffee and spent a few minutes on the internet before readying myself for work. I packed my gym bag with running clothes and shower supplies the night before. I was kind of looking forward to running my old work trail, something I haven’t done for almost two years. It was difficult to leave for work without a shower, but I managed. I left the house at 6:10am. At first I planned to drive the Trooper but last second I opted for the BM’er. I put both new golf clubs in the trunk thinking that I might go to the driving range at lunch. It was a lovely morning – brilliant blue and particularly warm. The parking lot was almost barren save for our over night crew, but that I expected. Unfortunately, the guy that I was supposed to meet with wasn’t in. I wasn’t too pleased. After all, I rearranged my entire morning routine to do this meeting, and he wasn’t in. Good grief! I called his boss, who was on vacation. After a short call and a little work, I headed down to the gym and readied for a run. For nearly ten years I used the company gym as the launching point for my daily. Hasn’t changed much, if at all. I did a cursory stretch before heading out the door. It was 7:15am. My work running trail is a rather simple 5 mile trek. Through the neighboring subdivision, down Davidson Rd to Avery, then north on Avery to Hayden Run and then back. It was nice to hit it again. However, there are two things about a lunchtime run that I don’t miss. One, the stress of having my run pending (lurking) each day during the heat of the battle. It took a huge amount of discipline to put work down to go run every single day at lunch. And secondly, running at 12:45pm, as I often did, meant that I was running at the hottest point of the day. There were a few times that I wondered if I’d make it. This morning, it was relatively cool compared to a lunchtime run. It was only 72 degrees, but still extremely humid. The run went very well. I was back for a shower by 8:05am. I felt really good after a shower. The rest of the day took shape like most others, save for a couple really important meetings. As the day began to unfold, I could see that I wouldn’t get away for lunch. But just as well. I needed to leave the office by 2:30pm to be home in time for Mindy to make her cardiology appointment. I packed up and left at 2:25pm. I’d be on-call over the weekend, so I planned to log back in as soon as I got home. It was sunny and hot when I left work – a lovely summer afternoon. I arrived home around 2:40pm. Mindy left for her appointment at 2:50pm. Meanwhile, the kids were lazy and lethargic, just hanging out watching TV. I made myself a light lunch, Triscuits with cheese and turkey and then logged into work. However, before diving in head first, I took to the livingroom recliner for a brief nap. I didn’t sleep too long. I woke to the sound of a subtle buzz. I wasn’t sure if it was coming from a neighbor doing lawn work, or if it was from inside the house somewhere. Turned out, it was Bella playing with my back massager. Hmm? I sat in front of my laptop on and off until Jimaken showed up to pick-up the kids for the weekend. Mindy had their bags already to go just in case he got there prior to her own return. Good thing. He was there around 4pm. They departed quickly. Mindy got home around 4:20pm. She thought the kids might be out playing. I advised otherwise. They were already gone. I worked until just after 5pm, then tried taking yet another nap. I got some rest but never fully fell asleep. I was still tired, however, but just couldn’t sleep. Mindy worked on her summer licensor class until I offered that we walk with Ykraps. We ended up walking over to neighbor Pat & Lisa’s. They were sitting out on their screened in patio basking in the summer shade. We invited them to Barley’s later. We stayed there chatting for about an hour. We shared the Justin story as well as the one about Gold Grill, the neighbor felon. They hadn’t yet heard. We headed back home around 6:15pm. I did a little writing and even tried taking another brief nap, but to no avail. We got ready and left for Barley’s at 7:15pm. No trouble finding parking. Great! We expected quite a few friends to show after inviting many. Nephew & friend Danny were already there. They phoned just as we were pulling in. I chatted with Scott & Linda for a good 30 minutes, mostly about our Mexico trip and their experiences diving the Caribbean. Neighbors David & Becky were already, too. They were having dinner at an inside table. About 30 minutes later neighbor Lisa, her daughter Jamie, and sister-in-law Lori showed up. But that wasn’t all. Nope, a bit later Tom Clark, Rene and a couple of here peeps showed up. We had a regular ol’ party going on. Aside from eating some of nephew Joe’s Barely burger, I hadn’t eaten a thing all night. That changed later. Around 10pm I ordered a brisket quesadilla. It hit the spot. The evening began to wind down around 10pm. We stayed until almost 11pm. Mindy drove home. Through the entire evening I drank three beers: one of their new Red Molly’s and two Centennials.