Wayne "Dryer"

Up just a couple minutes after 530am I quietly went about brushing my teeth then headed downstairs with my running clothes firmly in my clutches. I breezed through sit-ups before leaping to my PC where I did a temperature check. It was chilly – only 36 degrees. The good news was that the sky was clearing, and according to the weather gods, it was expected to stay that way through the Easter holiday while the temperature climbs into the mid 70s. Yeah! I didn’t spend too much time online. Next, I did 53 push-ups then started my eye drop regimen. I was ready for meditation and stretching early. It was just after 6am. Both went extremely well. I felt terrific, inwardly and outwardly. Before leaving for a run I delivered Mindy’s coffee. It was just after 630am. Feeling good, I ran the full four miles with not as much as a word from my once achy calf. That was especially good news. I was home by 710am. Mindy was just putting my fried eggs down at my usual place. I noticed she’d already started moving things (plants, books, chairs etc) off the downstairs carpeted areas in preparation for the carpet cleaners, who were scheduled to arrive sometime after 930am. Like most days, I saw the kids onto the bus at 805am. Back home I helped Mindy move more stuff off the carpet. In particular, I took care of my PC. That went easier than I imagined, but was still a pain. Mindy planned to have the entire downstairs along with the steps and upstairs hallway cleaned, deodorized, and scotch guarded. I was driving the BM’er to work leaving Mindy with the Trooper while her Honda is in the shop. They called late last night to advise that the new mirror was already on and that they’d be proving a new key fob to resolve the intermittent issue we’d been having with it. Unfortunately, he advised, the service guys quickly dismissed the heating vent issue as a non-issue, but said he knows it’s a real issue and would have to address it with them again in the AM. Said it should be ready by the end of the day (Tuesday afternoon). I left for work after moving the Trooper to the street. It was a cold drive in – only 36 degrees and under a shroud of fog. I turned the heater on and had it blowing on my hands during the entire drive in. Invigorating comes to mind!  The fog eventually gave way to sunshine some time early morning. That was nice to see. And speaking of seeing, my peepers were doing great. I could see really well at multiple distances. Mindy phoned early on to tell me that the carpet guy was almost done. He arrived early. Sometime around noon Honda called to share that the Pilot needed a part buried deep in the bowels of the dash and that they’d have to have it shipped in. Wouldn’t be ready until sometime Wednesday afternoon. Lovely! Mindy picked Rocky up from school for Lindsey and took him home. Got a chance to talk with Mrs. Dent, his teacher and our neighbor. At lunch time I drove to Lowe’s to checkout track lighting fixtures after Mindy & I both agreed that black track lighting would work over the fireplace. I found the ideal set-up but it came with only three light heads. We really wanted four. Fortunately, they sell extra heads. I picked another one up. I also bought a dimmer switch. Cool. It was a sunny afternoon, but still a tad on the cool side – only about 53 degrees. Instead of heading back to the office I drove across Mill Run lot to Jack’s Pet Shop where I bought two dozen crickets for Mr. Lizard. I was back at the office around 2pm and quickly got into my lunch, sliced veggies and a can of tuna. The afternoon went well. I talked with Mindy during lunch. She shared that the dryer was on the fritz. Turning and blowing, but only cool air. Excellent! I didn’t have the mind set to deal with it at the time. I took the bad news in stride doing my best to convince myself that having things also means things will brake. I left for home at 530pm. Mindy reminded me that Jacob would be at soccer. We’d be having burgers for dinner. Earlier, the choices were pizza and something else. Not sure what changed. But that was fine with me. The house was all out of sorts after having the carpets cleaned (things everywhere), and I was pretty much the same way - out of sorts. We have to wait 24 hours before putting everything back. Ugh! I took a quick look at the dryer while waiting on Mindy to finish the burgers. Yep, nothing but cold air. Figured it to be the heating element. I told Mindy I wasn’t even gonna screw with it. Instead, we’d call Sears after dinner. We enjoyed our dinner, just the three of us. Kind of quiet. Mindy was quick to finish her burger then headed down to Chrissy’s to fetch the load of laundry she put in her dryer. It’s good to have great neighbors. As luck would have it, Mindy was in the middle of washing our bedding when our dryer stopped. For some reason, there seemed to be a lot of dishes to clean-up. Took me a while. The house already cluttered, I hand washed and dried everything then put them away. While Mindy went after another load of clothes at Chrissy’s, I started scheduling our Sears dryer repair online via Mindy’s laptop. Set it up for Saturday morning. It would be $129 for the trip and labor plus whatever part needs replaced. Before clicking finish, however, I decided to take another quick look to see how easy it would be to replace the heating element after seeing that the typical price is only about $40 for the part. I was able to remove the front panel with ease ( 2 screws and two clips). The heating element appeared to be tucked neatly into a sheet metal housing with a handful of screws. I wasn’t sure how to get it out. Mindy returned and found me tinkering and just laughed. Not a minute later and feeling overmatched, I reverted to my earlier stance – have Sears deal with it. I finished the service request order online. Mindy asked if I wanted to walk down to Chrissy’s. According to Mindy, Kenny was busy removing his new Jeep’s hard top and installing the soft one. However, when we got there he was gone, off to get a part from the dealership. Apparently they gave him the wrong one. According to Mindy & Chrissy, he wasn’t too pleased. We stayed and chatted with Chrissy, but after only a few minutes I felt the urge to head back home and do some reading. I took the keys and walked back home and snuggled up in the family room chair with my latest Dyer book, Excuses Begone! Mindy wasn’t far behind. I expected her to stay there for a while. I read for about 45 minutes or until the urge for sleep overcame any other. I sat my book aside and threw my legs over the side and started into a glorious nap. Ahhh! Next thing I knew it was almost 9pm and Bella was asking me to tuck her in. I sat my book aside and headed up to tuck both kids into bed. Jacob was home from soccer practice by then too. I returned for a little more reading, and around 920pm I decided to pop some popcorn. Bella’s sniffer quickly sought me out asking if she could come down and enjoy some too. I begrudgingly agreed. She was pleasant throughout our snack. Mindy sent her back to bed and then we soon followed.