Com-Til & Beef Kabobs

I woke around 6am after a much better night of sleep than I got Friday. Thinking it much to early to get up on a weekend, I forced myself back to sleep. I woke again around 715am and popped out of bed eager to begin my day. Immediately noticeable was the blue sky. That helped my mood considerably after a gray, rainy Saturday. Franki was excited to have company. I left her in the pen while I prepped coffee, but fetched her soon after and took her outside to pee. Bella got up soon after to help take care of her. I played around online, among other things, catching up on the details of the NFL draft. Come 9am I readied and left for a run. For the time being, it was sunny and 55 degrees – really quite nice. The forecast called for temps nearing 70 but with afternoon thunderstorms possible. Like most Sundays, I ran three miles through the subdivision and out along Trabue & back down Hague. It looks like Modlich is selling the huge house he built some ten years ago on about 5 acres just south of my dad place. Wonder what he’s asking. I was back at home by 930am. I had no definitive plans for the day, or at least until Jacob’s late afternoon soccer game. Meanwhile, I stressed over missing out on getting Com-Til yesterday due to sleeping late. That’ll put me behind by an entire week. At that point I realized that it may make sense to pay more for it elsewhere and get it today (Sunday). I checked Ohio Mulch’s website to check their price. It’s $25 for a cubic yard, or about $8 more. But given that it’s 20 miles closer than the Com-Til plant and open on Sunday, that price seemed more than reasonable. I was determined to go get my Com-Til. Before notifying Mindy, I asked Jacob if he wanted to go along, perhaps stopping at Tim Horton’s for donuts along the way. He did. I let Mindy know that Jacob and I were heading out. We left Franki with her. Before leaving the house, I filled my air compressor tank with air just in case dad’s trailer tires needed some. After the debacle from two years ago, I always check the tire pressure before taking his trailer to fetch dirt, mulch, wood, or Com-Til. It dawned on me during our drive to dad’s that I didn’t bring a tarp to cover the Com-Til. I decided we’d forego it. It’s only a two mile drive. Ohio Mulch had just opened for business at 10am. We arrived just after. There were already a number of customers waiting, but we definitely beat the early rush. Must’ve been 5 or 6 customers pull up right after me. Just a load of Com-Til, please. We were out of there after less than 15 minutes. Cool. On to Tim Horton’s. Tim Horton’s had a line of 3 or 4 guests in front of us. It moved fast. We ordered a dozen donuts and 20 Timbits - $8.50. Jacob was excited that I let him pick most of the donuts. The way he saw it, at least four were just for him. We were home by 1040am. We hammered on the donuts right away. Mindy & I both opted for the chocolate walnut crunch. They were good. Later, during a break, I tried the chocolate frosted crème filled. I was disappointed. Not even close to being on par with that of the Der Dutchman. I headed out to start spreading Com-Til. Unfortunately, our sunny skies turned cloudy in a hurry. It looked like rain even. Just after I got started Mindy left for the grocery store. I filled my Deere trailer with a load and headed out to the Sparky flower bed, figuring I’d start with the furthest most point working my way towards the front. I didn’t get half of the first trailer load spread before it started to thunder & rain. Not wanting to take a chance with lightning, I headed inside, but not before throwing a tarp over the mother load of Com-Til out front in dad’s trailer. I used the time to add some pictures to my blog. The sun popped out after about 15-20 minutes. I headed back out. The radar was spotty. The forecast pretty much said to expect pop up showers all afternoon long. I could deal with that - forced breaks! I got all the rear beds covered in Com-Til pretty quickly. As expected, the sky alternated from sunny to cloudy numerous times, and I had to head in to avoid brief but heavy rain, lightning and thunder a couple more times. I was working hard to get all the Com-Til spread before Jacob’s soccer game. After topping off all the flower beds and trees, I used a trailer load as a topping for the sod I laid late last April. There’s a number of bare spots in that area. Still with quite a bit left, I hauled some to Kenny’s and covered his flower beds as too. While I was finishing up Mindy advised that it was time to go. Asked that I finish and meet her there. She also said she’d call if she got there and found the game was canceled. With spotty showers/storms all about town, it was hard to gauge. I tried my best to get the tools cleaned up and put away fast enough to make Jacob’s soccer game. Mindy called 15 minutes later to let me know that it was a go. Meanwhile, I was covered in Com-Til and still needed to hose out dad’s trailer. It would be an hour before I could be there. Mindy understood and gave me a hall pass. I wasn’t out of the shower long at all before Mindy & the kids got back from soccer. Jacob’s team lost again, 5-0 according to Jacob. Yikes! Mindy shared that she made plans to grill out with the neighbors. We’d be having beef kabobs. I placed a handful of the Great Lakes Pale Ales she bought me in the fridge and freezer so they would be nice and cold come dinner time. We headed to the neighbors around 530pm. The temperature dropped and the clouds thickened through the late afternoon. However, we wouldn’t let the less than desirable weather stop us. The pugs played (wrestled) for at least an hour. They were a lot of fun to watch going at it like brother and sister. Kenny grilled the meat to perfection – always does. Our kabobs were outstanding. Mindy had him grill all six of them. She said we’d eat the rest later in the week as leftovers. We had grocery store potato salad and blanched/grilled asparagus too. Everything was superb. Mindy suggested we head home around 730pm so the kids could get baths and be in bed at a reasonable hour for school Monday. Although, that 730pm curfew turned into 815pm when neighbor Kapil stopped over at K & C's for a brief visit. Mindy got the kids showers going as soon as we got home. Bella wanted a snack so I popped some popcorn. Franki was tuckered out after wrestling with her brother all evening. Chrissy and Mindy treat these pups like babies almost. Made plans to send Franki down to spend Monday with Kenny since he’ll be off work. I’m a fan of getting her used to real life sooner rather than later. All in our PJ's, we watched a program about missions to Mars, then a new program hosted by the infamous Stephen Hawkings about the possibility of alien life form somewhere in the universe. In a nut shell, his position was simply this: In an ever-expanding universe with at least 100 billion other galaxies out there, how could there not be? Sound rationale, I think. Somewhere along the line, I fell asleep. Big surprise. Mindy woke me for bed somewhere near 10pm. We put Frankie in her pen before heading up. She cried like nobody’s business, but only for a few minutes. Once in bed I couldn’t sleep. That happens every now and then. After laying there hopelessly for about an hour I gave up and got up. I played mindlessly on the PC for an hour hoping the sleepies would eventually come, but they never did. I headed back to bed hoping to force myself to sleep. It must’ve been almost 1am before I got my first real hint of sleep.