A Busy Day Indeed

I woke initially around 7am but wanted more sleep. I must’ve woken three or four more times between then and 8am when I finally got up for good. Mindy didn’t move. I left her sleeping. Downstairs, I started coffee then completed both my sit-ups and push-ups. I put some lubricating eye drops in. I was encouraged and surprised at how good my eyes felt after being so dry the evening before. Not only that, but I could see at multiple distances with great clarity, something that has been slow to come now day nine after LASIK. I played around on my PC while also checking in with work via my laptop. Things were going fairly well. I was careful not to spend too much time on the PC not wanting to dry out my eyes. Come 945am I headed out for a run. The weather was superb, 60 something and sunny. I could’ve comfortably worn shorts but didn’t. I ran four miles without any complaints. Just lovely! Mindy remained asleep even after my return from the run. I made a quick sandwich then headed out to wash the BM’er. It was dirtier than ever before, and that my friends was driving me crazy. Before doing so, though, I had to turn-on the exterior water feed and make sure the hose wasn’t leaking. All good! And because I leave the top down virtually all the time, the BM’er was as dirty inside as out. I did the exterior first. And because it’s so small, that went quickly, although, as always, cleaning the wheels took some time. Mindy came out to greet me just as I was starting on the interior. She was skipping yoga. Not sure what time it was but figured it had to be nearing noon. Mindy kindly brought me the shopvac from the cellar. The interior was covered in dusty dirt. After vacuuming the interior I took the time to scrub down the entire interior, including the underside of the convertible top. Man, it looked nice when I was finished, inside and out. I thought about moving to the Trooper, but also knew that Mindy planned to leave for the grocery store sometime soon. I didn’t want to do half a job, so I decided to cut the lawn instead. However, before I could start cutting, I had to put the freshly sharpened blades back on the mowers first. This being the first cut of the season, I didn’t plan to edge or whack, just mow. I put the blade back on the Toro first. I did a quick spring tune-up, too. All good. Started first pull. Mindy left for the grocery while I was busy mowing. The freshly sharpened blade seemed to make a difference, but the real test will come down the road a couple of weeks when the spring rains come & the lawn really thickens up. Right now it’s growing in patches. The good news is that the large area that I painstakingly restored fall of ’08 is really flourishing. I cut the entire front with Toro and then got out the Deere. I used auto ramps to raise it high enough to easily replace its two blades. I cut the back in less than ten minutes using it. Most of the rear lawn wasn’t long enough for cutting, but now it was even. I was happy that both mowers started easily. I secured the shed and headed inside. The sky clouded over and temperature dropped considerably. I wasn’t sure what the weather was gonna do. In fact, I hadn’t bothered checking the forecast all day. I wasn’t inside long before the Sears repair dude phoned to let me know he’d be there in 15 minutes. It was approaching 2pm. He was right on time. He seemed oblivious to the comments we added to the service request where we supplied the make and model number along with the most likely culprit, the heating coil. I left him alone to troubleshoot after pouring him a Fresca. It didn’t take long for Sean the dryer man to holler for me. Yep, it was the heating coil. The bad news was that he didn’t have one on the truck, or anywhere local for that matter. Said it rarely goes out. Would have to order one, and that could take up to a week. He set us up for the install a week from then – next Saturday sametime. I had to pay today, however. Mindy arrived home with her groceries while Sean and I were settling up. Mindy wasn’t at all pleased when I informed her that it would be another week. She thought I was kidding. Sean quickly chimed in to explain. Mindy, uncharacteristically, gave him a bit of an earful. I was surprised at her obvious bitterness. Not like her to be so unkind. Sean did say that the part would be direct shipped to our address and that if it arrived early, we could call and they would most likely send someone out immediately to do the install. That did little to improve Mindy’s mood. It wasn’t this kids fault. After Sean left, I carried in what was left of the groceries, which amounted to nothing more than a few 12-packs of soda. Afterwards, I headed upstairs for a much needed shower. We had designs on hanging with the neighbors again Saturday night. Chrissy was hosting an Easter party that would include a glow-in-the-dark Easter egg hunt for the kids. To that end, we made arrangements to pick-up the grandkids minus Kaileigh, who was out of town visiting Shelly's poppa in Alabama. Mindy suggested that we pick-up the boys around 330pm. It was 240pm when I left the house first for Giant Eagle intent on getting some fresh beer. The Eagle was packed with shoppers stocking up for what I assumed was Easter dinner. Lucky for me, I would be checking out in the 12 items or less aisle. I bought two 6-packs of CBC, one Pale Ale and one IPA. I picked Mindy up some of the Sam Adams Imperial Stout she likes. It's expensive - $10 for a four-pack. While there, I decided to buy another box of preservative free eye drops. Ouch! They were $12 there, a $1.50 more than Target. It was already pushing 330pm. I was hungry, having eaten nothing but half a sandwich after my run. I drove through the Burger King drive-thru and picked up a combo meal. Bad, I know. It made more sense to pick Olivia up first. As always, she was excited to see me. She always makes me feel good. Even though she wasn't staying the night, she wanted to bring her "nee and pillow". OK, sure thing. We headed to Lindsey's next. The boys were waiting with baited breath. Wasn't sure of Lindsey's plans, whether she intended to come along or stay home. She stayed home. We arrived back at our place just after 4pm. The kids were eager to see Mindy (mimi). Without wasting a minute, Mindy started the egg coloring exercise. for all the kids. We ended up having Makayla and Lillian down to color eggs too. Mindy has a good system that leaves no mess or fuss afterwards. She essentially covers the table in a throw away table cloth that can simply be rolled up and thrown away when down. The kids colored about 3 dozen eggs with Makayla, Bella, and Lillian doing the lion's share. After coloring eggs, I went outside to push the kids on the tree swings. All the neighbor kids came over too. We pushed them for about half and hour. We headed down to Kenny & Chrissy not long after to join their Easter party. There was a lot of food, including a Honey Baked ham & turkey breast. I ate my fill while also sipping on a CBC. As darkness approached Mindy & Chrissy headed out to hide eggs. The kids were excited for the glow in the dark egg hunt. The hunt started at 830pm. Chrissy wisely had eggs for the really small kids up close by the deck. That area was off limits to the older kids. The 4-7 year olds had their won area too, close to the putting green. The big kids were relegated to the far back by the shed. The system worked well. Included in the bounty were three golden eggs holding $20 each. Embarrassingly, Jacob and Bella each found one. There were 20 kids, what are the odds? Ashley & Steven were there now too. They came to pick-up Olivia and the boys, something we worked out an hour or so earlier. That way I could safely drink beer. The egg hunt was over by 9pm. We walked down to our house with the grandkids to give them the Easter baskets we prepared for them. They bolted for home by 915pm and Mindy & I headed back to Kenny & Chrissy's. We hung out with the neighbors until 11pm or so. We headed home to get the kids to bed and hide eggs for the morning. Mindy did all of that.