"Snowing like the dickens"

It was Monday and time to return to work. However, the doldrums typically associated with a Monday were minimal given the scant two-day work week lying ahead. I was up early – about 520am. I did my usual routine of exercise and walking Ykraps. Our newly hung Xmas lights were still burning bright under dark skies. The wreath’s on a mechanical timer and the house lights are on a dusk-to-dawn timer, but for the time being I had it set to a hard ‘on’. During coffee time I read Glenn’s blog and checked the snow pack on Mt Hood. Snowing like the dickens! I also tracked the delivery of my new PC. Slated to be delivered on Tuesday. At 6:10am I woke Mindy and delivered her coffee, although it didn’t sound like she got up for another 15 minutes. Meditation and stretching went really well. I gave both their due focus. It was fairly mild outdoors, mild enough to wear a double wicking shirt, gloves and ear covers during my run. I ran four miles comfortably. Mindy made fried eggs, my favorite. We enjoyed a brief burst of family time before Jacob headed upstairs, Mindy off to school, and me off to the shower. The kids and I reconvened at the front door destined for the bus stop at 755am. The bus received them openly. Their instructions were to ride home on Noah’s bus. Before departing for work, I changed the house light timer to the dusk-to-dawn mode. It was 815am when I pulled away from the house. Work went fairly well, but it was another difficult and challenging day. I was unable or unwilling to leave for lunch. However, I did close my door for a few minutes to do some writing. Mindy shared that we’d be having meatloaf leftovers for dinner. I didn’t mind. Sounded good to me. I called Ashley on my drive home – around 530pm. I asked about her TG weekend plans. She confirmed that she was hosting a family dinner on Saturday. When I asked what we should bring one could sense her uncomfortableness. I already knew better. We never do events where both Kelly and I are present together. I walked Ykraps as soon as I arrived home. Mindy had the house in order. Said she left school on time but decided to leave the kids at Deena’s until 5pm or so. She shared how much she enjoyed the brief alone time. I might understand that better than anyone. Our ‘leftover’ dinner was delicious. The meatloaf might’ve been better than it was Sunday, having an entire day to soak up the flavors. After dinner – sometime near 7pm – I took to the living room recliner for a brief nap. My brief nap ended up being just shy of two hours. I didn’t wake-up until 845pm. And when I did wake I was out of it and still sleepy. Mindy requested I tuck in the kids. Bella was still awake, and Jacob only half asleep. He was aware enough to acknowledge me being there. As she often does, Bella asked if I would be popping popcorn. No, not tonight. I headed back downstairs and tuned into the MNF game – Tennessee versus Houston. I slowly but surely began to wake-up, but unlike most after nap experiences, I never came out of it fully. I was still quite sleepy, but watched the game until after halftime. Mindy didn’t last even that long. She went to bed somewhere after the first quarter. I fell asleep on the sofa and woke well into the third quarter. I was so sleepy that I could barely muster the energy to shut down the house and make it up to bed. Somehow I managed.