Zoo - Grandkids - Good Cop Calls

No one was working or heading to school. Instead, we were planning a trip to the zoo, something we did on COTA day last year, too. I slept in until roughly 7:30am. By then, both Bella and Olivia were awake but not yet downstairs. I quietly headed downstairs to start some coffee, exercise and walk Ykraps. It was cloudy and cool – about 38 degrees. And while cloudy, the sky didn’t appear to hold much threat of rain. It wasn’t too long before the house was alive with Bella and Olivia scurrying about. Olivia was making most of the noise. Her volume button is stuck on loud. I got them juiced and then put Bolt in the DVD player. But that did little to keep Olivia quiet. Mindy and Jacob were up a short time later. I asked Mindy if she cared to bake some bacon. She agreed, and added that she would be whipping up some pancakes too. Perfect! As the morning progressed, Mindy asked if I still intended on zooing. Yes. I needed to pick-up Rocky from school at 11am but planned to pick-up Landon first. I needed to get moving. I left for my run around 915am. I dressed warmly and then ran off. My run went without incident. My legs and knee held up nicely. I was pleased! Breakfast was ready upon my return. I hurried through breakfast while Mindy headed up for a shower. Secretly, I wondered if I should’ve showered first but didn’t question it. Time was moving swiftly. I didn’t get in the shower until almost 1030am. It was pretty clear to me then that I’d have to alter my plans and pick-up Landon after fetching Rocky from school. I left for Magdalene around 1045am and arrived will five minutes to spare. I called Lindsey along the way to let her know that I’d be picking Landon up after getting Rocky. While waiting, I flashed back to last November when we took in Rocky & Landon. That first week, I was tasked with picking Rocky up from school a few times. Soon it was 11am and Rocky came running out. I greeted Mrs. Dent and asked how Rocky’s been doing this school year. She shared that his progress has been quite favorable. That’s good news! I arrived at Lindsey’s ten minutes later. Landon was raring to go apparently waiting by the door. We headed off for home. In my absence, Mindy contacted neighbor Kenny to invite he and his kids to the zoo along with us. They would be meeting us there. We spent the next 30 minutes readying everyone for a cold day at the zoo. We put Rocky & Landon in a change of clothes to suppress the ‘cat piss’ smell, although we couldn’t do anything about the odor in their new winter jackets. We opted out of taking snacks and a stroller but loaded a backpack full of bottled water. I took both cameras too. We arrived at the zoo between 1230-100pm. Kenny called just as we were entering the lot. All totaled, there were 11 of us – eight kids and three adults. Almost immediately, the older kids whined about being hungry and wanted to buy snacks despite being forewarned before leaving home that we wouldn’t be eating at the zoo. We visited the elephants first, then the tiger, lion, and aviary. Next, we moved on to the reef and aquatic exhibits, which host a multitude of sea life including sharks, manatees, and stingrays. It was chilly but fun. As we made our way to west side and under Riverside Dr and onto the African exhibits, I received a VM from the Hilliard officer who ticketed me for Tuesday’s accident. I missed the initial call ,but quickly dialed up my VM. I was very pleased that he all but admitted making a mistake, and went as far as saying it was the other woman’s fault if his drawing was incorrect, which it was. This, of course, was something I already knew, but wondered how he might respond. After all, it’s his ego. He offered that I should call him back at my convenience to discuss further. That lifted my spirits considerably. We spent the duration of the afternoon at the African exhibits, and most of it observing the apes (gorillas, bonobos, and chimpanzees). The kids love the apes, perhaps because they see in them so much of themselves. It was almost 4pm. The kids were getting cranky, especially Jacob and Rocky who were going at it all afternoon long. At one point I thought Mindy was going to pop ‘em both. We headed for the exits. It seemed like it was getting much cooler as the day wore on. My hands were nearly numb. By the time we made it to the cars, Mindy was more than a little upset with the kids. To raise everyone’s spirits, I agreed to stop for food. And after voting, the choice was Wendy’s. That frustrated Jacob who claimed disdain for Wendy’s and a single vote for McDonald’s. But Mindy quickly silenced his anger. We weren’t stopping twice. We stopped at the Wendy’s on Roberts Rd and I-270. We ordered for six. I didn’t get anything. We toted our food order home. I got the kids together with their lunch while Mindy dashed off upstairs. She and Bella were showing signs of wearing down due to their recent illness. Landon fell asleep on the sofa. Ashley phoned asking me to bring Olivia home within the hour so that dipshit could see her. But I wasn’t about to change our plans so drastically to accommodate him. He’s a poor excuse for a father. Ashley was frustrated with my response and made arrangements to pick her up instead. Ashley arrived 30 minutes later while I was busy downloading editing zoo photos. Between both cameras, I took about 100 photos. Even I was surprised. We said goodbye to Olivia and agreed to bring her birthday presents by on Sunday sometime. We had originally planned to take her birthday shopping after dropping Jacob & Bella later. We left to drop off Rocky & Landon and Jacob & Bella around 615pm. We stopped at Lindsey’s first. Next, we drove to Hilliard to drop Jacob & Bella at their paternal grandparent’s house where Jimaken planned to get them after his Friday night class. It was 715pm by the time we dropped all the kids and were on our way to Barley’s. Mindy asked, in jest I’m sure, if it was bad that she was happy to be without the kids. A break is always good – and for them too. We arrived at Barley’s just after 730pm. We hoped to find Doug Hamon as well as the Vidosh’s there. Nope – neither. Hmm? Oh well, you know what they say, it’s not who isn’t there but instead who is. We bellied up to the bar and ordered a couple beers. Mindy had a Founder’s Breakfast Stout and I had a Bitter Dan IPA. I wasn’t hungry. Mindy ordered some sauerkraut balls. By comparison, it was a low-key Barley’s night. We left for home around 930pm. Mindy promptly phoned the neighbors to measure their willingness for company. They were game. We had invited them to meet us at Barley’s after their earlier dinner date at J.Alexanders but they couldn’t make it because they had Jake. I took two beers – a Sam Adams and a Weyerbacher DIPA. We didn’t stay long – about an hour. Mindy was fading fast still battling her cold or virus. We headed to bed once back home.