April One & 80 degrees

Up on time, I was downstairs and all about my sit-ups just before 530am. Checked the temperature immediately after, it was already 50 degrees. Nice! After push-ups I poured some coffee and then spent another ten minutes online. Read some of brother Glenn’s blog. It looks like his home was broken into again. If I were him, I’d bag the house thing and go condo. He responded to my request to try taking back those tire chains I bought for the rental in February. April 1 is the first day they can be returned. I moved onto meditation and stretching around 605am finishing up just before 630am. I delivered Mindy’s coffee before dressing for a run. She asked that I turn the ceiling fan off. I adjusted my running attire for the mild temperature. Just about right. I ran four miles after cutting it short on Monday & Wednesday. I felt really good. Mindy was up and working on breakfast. Unfortunately, she wasn’t as jovial. Both kids were upset that Mindy told ‘em they couldn’t wear shorts even though the high was expected to top out at 80. Privately, I convinced Mindy that there was little harm in it, and she eventually changed her tune and allowed it. That made both kids happy. While Mindy went to help the kids find shorts, I took over cooking my eggs. Bella came down in what looked like knickers. She wasn’t too pleased. I told her to roll ‘em up, but she refused fearing her mother’s wrath. When Mindy came down she agreed and rolled ‘em up. That made Bella happy, at least temporarily. While enjoying my eggs I had a little April Fool’s Day fun with Bella. Unfortunately, she didn't see it the same way. Let’s see, I told her that school was canceled and later that she had a hole in her shorts. Both brought her to tears. Come on! Sometimes Bella can be overtly dramatic. This was one of those occasions. I encouraged her to April Fool’s me. She eventually did. I walked to the bus stop with the kids. As expected, Kenny & Chrissy’s girls were in shorts too. Had Mindy not conceded, there would’ve been hell to pay.  Kenny shared that he was staying home and working in the yard. I shared my hopes to golf after work, but still wasn’t sure I’d find a partner. I put my clubs in the BM’er’s small trunk after the bus left with the kids. I also put the kids rented snow skis in the back of the Trooper hoping that Mindy would find the time to return them to Aspen Ski & Board after her massage this morning. Her schedule was tight: a massage at 930-1130am, a hair appt at 1215pm, and then lunch with her BFF, Teri afterwards. She’d be doing a crazy amount of driving. I begged her to find time for the ski return since they need to back no later than the 10th. Without the Trooper it would be nearly impossible for me. I didn’t leave for work until 825am. It was a lovely drive in. I could’ve kept going, however, my sense of responsibility just wouldn’t allow it. The morning went along swimmingly. I forced myself to getaway for lunch and drove the BM’er home. There, I removed the mower blades from both the Toro and the Deere. Their removal went much easier than I anticipated it might. Chrissy had the same idea as me - no, not removing mower blades. She was home for lunch sitting on the deck watching Kenny do yard work. By getting the blades off that afternoon, I could have them back Friday and possibly due the season’s first cut this coming weekend. I thought briefly about washing the BM’er, too, but time was slipping away. I decided not and headed back to work. Mindy called me later that afternoon and shared more Honda drama. This time the guy told her that they got the correct part number sent was but that it still wasn’t the correct one. Now, said it might not be ready until Monday. Wanted to know if we wanted a rental. Honestly, a rental doesn’t buy us much. I advised Mindy that she should pursue other options, like a credit on our non-warranty work (mirror install and tire rotation) and perhaps even more. Said she’d take care of it. Mindy was done with all of her appointments and was visiting her friend Tara who lives in The Glen. And by the way, she found the time to return the kids skis, too. Mid-afternoon I phoned Tom C. to measure his interest in golf. He was home and interested. He took the initiative to call around the local course to see how busy they might be. Called back and reported that Thornapple and Bolton were very busy. Was told to expect a crowd. Tom campaigned for Indian Springs. Never a crowd and a nicer course. I agreed to play Indian Springs, although I insisted that it’s further than perhaps he thought – 30 miles from the office. We agreed to try and meet there near 5pm. I planned to leave at 415-430pm. I sent Bob I. an email letting him know our arrangements wondering if he was interested. Bob responded back shortly after. He and Bob B. were preparing to leave at 4pm and thinking of playing Fox Fire or Split Rock. Maybe next week. Almost on queue, my afternoon got incredibly busy until I left the office at 420pm. For a while I thought I might have to cancel. I took Hayden Run to Cosgray to 161 then west. I arrived just before 5pm. Tom wasn’t yet there. I did some work via my Blackberry until 5pm. Tom arrived a few minutes later. We saw one other twosome and one guy walking by himself. That’s it. The course was wide open, and we had fun. Indian Springs is nestled amongst many large lakes and lilly pad infested frog ponds in and around trees. It’s really quite beautiful. The wildlife was abundant. By sound alone, you’d of thought it was summer. Tree frogs were cricking and bull frogs croaking. We saw five deer scampering across a fairway too. My game was as erratic as it’s been since mid-summer last. Still shanking every other iron shot. I didn’t worry about it, though. I was happy to be golfing and without wearing prescription eye glasses. The greens were cut incredibly long making them super slow. In fact, the fairways were cut long, too. But this early in the year you’ve gotta give the course time to get into shape. As poorly as I was playing, Tom was playing that well. And he’s much easier to live with in that scenario.  We played holes 1-13 but started running out of daylight. We decided to skip 14-17 and drive all the way to 18 and play in. It was getting hard to see as we finished. My eyes dried out pretty bad during play. I didn’t carry any drops with me. Mistake! And even though I dosed up back at the car, driving home was quite difficult, especially against any on coming traffic on rt 161. I arrived home around 835pm. I was ravenously hungry first eating potato chips then a leftover cheeseburger. It was near bedtime in a hurry. I sipped a Jack & Coke while we watched a little TV before heading to bed.