Cooler than a Cucumber

Friday was here and so was the end of July. This will undoubtedly go down as one of coolest July’s on record. Surprisingly, though, our monthly rainfall is significantly below average, yet it has rained seemingly every other day. I suppose that’s due to the lack of severe weather and heavy summer downpours. In their place, we’ve had a number of gentle fall-like rains. Even those homes that don’t water have lush lawns here at July’s end. Quite rare indeed. I was up and at my routine by 5:30am. It was partly cloudy and 61 degrees, although it did rain sometime overnight. But looking forward, there wasn’t a strong chance of rain forecasted for the entire weekend and even beyond. That was good news! The morning played out as expected. I ran comfortably and left for work around 8:10am. I hoped for an easy day leading into a weekend being on-call. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I was ridiculously busy. Even still, I forced myself to head out for lunch thinking I would hit some golf balls, fixing my errant swing. No chance! I turned left on Hayden Run only to find it closed just west of Wilcox. Crap! Getting to the range was now a minimum of five miles out of my way. I eventually turned around thinking that I might go to the mall instead, but by the time I got in the vicinity I had already changed my mind. I decided to simply head back to the office. I took the back way through Tuttle Mall to Hayden Run but found it closed for paving between the Mall and Britton Rd. Suddenly I felt snake-bitten. I had to turn around and take Old Dublin Rd to Davidson just to get back to the office! All that did was burn gas and time. But on a positive note, the benefit of course being time away from the office. The afternoon moved swiftly due to an even heavier than usual Friday afternoon workload. I was much looking forward to the end of the work day even though it would continue on at home. Despite being on-call, we made arrangements to have Olivia for the entire weekend. We haven’t had her overnight since last summer if I had to guess. I left work at 5:30pm and made a brief stop at Kroger to fetch Mindy some roses. I found some healthy white ones. She loves those. I also bought a half-gallon of 100 proof Captain Morgan’s spiced rum. I’d need it later. :) I drove to straight to Ashley’s place in Grove City to pick-up Olivia. I arrived around 6:15pm. She wasn’t yet there. I stopped at the Burger King drive-thru at the corner and bought a whooper junior. I was starving for some protein. Ashley & Olivia emerged from between two apartment buildings around 6:30pm. We went inside to get all of Olivia’s stuff. She was excited to be spending the night and asked repeatedly for Jacob & Bella. They, of course, were at home with Mindy. Actually, they were out running errands. Once at home, it would be just Olivia and I for the first 10 or so minutes. Bella, Olivia, and I walked Ykraps soon after everyone arrived home. Mindy started making dinner, leftover meatloaf (from her stuffed pepper concoction). It was quite good, but also filling. By then it was almost 8pm. Mindy took the kids, Olivia included, down to the neighbors for a visit. I took a nap on the sofa. I was exhausted after a long, hard work day. I slept until 9pm or so. I woke to an empty house and gave serious consideration to heading up to bed. I laid back down on the sofa for a few minutes while pondering my next move. I eventually mustered enough energy to go be social. I checked in with work just prior, and made a stiff rum drink before walking down to the neighbors who were hanging out front of Chrissy & Kenny’s. However, because of mosquitoes, we soon headed inside their house. I ended up fetching another drink at home and returning. We hung out with the neighbors until 10:30pm best guess. We headed home to put the kids to bed, and eventually ourselves.