DeMonye's Delivers

I crawled out of bed just before 7am. While brushing my teeth I glanced out the bathroom window towards the west. Looked like gray skies overhead. Sadly, the sunny weather from Saturday was short lived. I headed downstairs without disturbing Mindy. It was Sunday – my break from calisthenics. I went right for Frankie, who was sitting, waiting in her bed. Frankie and I headed outside. The temperature was mild and the cloud cover thin. In fact, there were even breaks of blue scattered here and there, but far more gray than blue. Back inside I started some coffee then headed to my PC to check the weather forecast. Cloudy day predicted but only a small chance of rain with the high nearing 70. Unfortunately, though, lots of rain on the way for the next three days along with temperatures struggling to hit 60. Given the immediate forecast, I planned to get flowers after my run. I found Demonye’s website and verified their hours. Open at 8am on Sunday’s. Cool! I wanted an early start. To that end, I did my stretch right after coffee and close to 8am. Knowing Mindy wouldn’t want to be woken so early, I returned Frankie to her pen while I left for a run. She wasn’t too pleased. I ran my usual Sunday three miles and chose to stay within the confines of the subdivision. It was a pleasant run, one that I finished well ahead of 9am. I released Frankie from the pen and made a quick sandwich. I prepped Mindy’s coffee then took it and Frankie upstairs. Mindy woke as we entered. As usual, Frankie was very excited to see Mindy. I shared my plan to go fetch flowers. Mindy was confused, didn’t realize I had already run. Also asked about meeting Ben & Ryan at the Starliner diner, plans we tentatively made last night. I nixed it in favor of what I deemed more pressing matters: I. E. flower retrieval and planting. The day would be busy. We had soccer at 215pm and Sunday dinner at 430pm. Not much time for summer prep. I left the house just after 9am. I took the Honda. Demonye’s is located just off I-670 and the Cassady Ave exit. You can easily see it from I-I-670 heading east, but somewhat difficult to figure out how to actually get there from the exit, especially the first time. I’ve been there a number of times now and relied on memory which served me well. Not crowded at all. Perfect. Not only that, but the sun was shining now too. They had oodles of Wave petunias, and in all the colors. This year I wanted 6 flats in all: 3 flats of deep purple (they call it blue) for out front, and then 1 flat of the white for the back, and lastly two flats of magenta for the side beds. Demonye’s is a real landscapers paradise, lots and lots of lovely, healthy plants of all varieties. I kept this trip simple – just the petunias. I’ll need to make a few more nursery trips before our annual planting is complete. Back home, Mindy was up and sitting at the table at her laptop with Frankie on resting on her lap. I took a couple photos. Mindy agreed to do the deck pots while I planted petunias out front. I got her all set up on the deck before moving out front. I left my long running pants on and also put on knee pads. And taking a page from neighbor Kenny’s book, I filled a bucket with water and Miracle Grow to douse the roots before covering the tender plants with dirt/mulch. I spent the next two hours planting petunias out front and along the west side. The deep purple Wave petunias were a bit stemmy (mature) but should be OK. I could tell that they’d been trimmed back a time or too. I doubled them up using three flats in total in the two front beds. Mindy brought me ice water somewhere along the process. The deck pots were done. Looked nice. Mindy headed in for a shower. I proceeded to plant more petunias along the western side bed. It was 130pm when I finished up and headed in for a shower of my own. Mindy reheated my Big Fat leftovers and had them waiting in the microwave. They were good. It was already 210pm by the time we left for Jacob’s soccer game. We’d be a tad late. Lucky for us, we made good time making every light and hitting no traffic snarls. We arrived just after 220pm. Bella must’ve spotted us right away and came running to greet us. And she was very happy to find that we had Frankie in tow. Meanwhile, the game was already underway. We learned that Jacob’s team was already up 2-0. In fact, Jacob scored a goal at our end shortly after we got settled. Thankfully, it was a whole lot warmer than last week’s game. Jacob’s team won 6-2. Unless I’m mistaken, they’re record is 3-2-1 with only one game remaining - next Sunday. It was 315pm. Mindy explained to the kids that we wouldn’t have much time before we needed to leave for Sunday dinner at 415pm. I planned to take a brief nap on the deck from the chaise lounge. And that’s exactly what I did as soon as we got home. At the same time, Kenny walked down and shared that his sister, Sarah headed to the hospital to have her baby. Now, not only did he have his two girls, but he had his sister’s three kids too. He asked Mindy if she would watch the kids while he quickly went to fetch more mulch. She willingly agreed. Again, I dosed off from the deck and didn’t wake until just before 415pm. Mindy was already back from helping Kenny. We made final preparations and left for her mom’s place. House looked empty, not a single car in the drive. Odd. I asked Mindy if she were certain about Sunday dinner plans. Yes. She went to the door while we waited. No answer to her knocks. She then called from her cell phone. Turns out, her mom was on the back patio. Didn’t want to leave the door unlocked. Understandable. Told Mindy we should have thought to come around back. Really? Does that ever happen?  It wasn’t long before others arrived. We’re not used to being the first to arrive these days. We hung outside on the patio until dinner was served. Mindy nailed it; we were having sloppy joe’s. We started dinner at 530pm. I remember glancing at the clock after washing my hands. It was very hot in the dining room. I turned on the ceiling fan just above my place setting. That helped immensely. I had two sloppy joe’s along with home fried potatoes and green beans. After dinner I headed back outside to play ball with Jacob. In fact, most everyone headed back outside. We sat outside chatting until dessert was served. Dessert was Gloria’s famous peanut butter fudge (not my fave), orange fluff, and chocolate chip cookies. I had some orange fluff (kind of like five cup salad) and a handful of cookies (they were small). After dessert I headed to the living room to veg. Mindy soon followed with orders to prepare for departure. It was almost 730pm. We needed to get home and prepare for Monday morning. Jacob and I made a deal at dinner. Although the details I can’t readily recall, the end result was that I told him he was allowed to stay up an extra 30 minutes. He asked if we could throw the baseball for a few minutes before his shower. I agreed. He fetched both gloves and a ball. We headed out back. Mindy and Bella soon followed with Frankie and walked over to see Kenny, who was out with all the kids as well as Woody. We hung outside until almost 830pm or until it was too dark to safely throw the baseball. I started the shower for the kids while changing into my own PJ’s. I retreated to the sofa after tucking in the kids near 9pm. We watched some Learning Channel program about woman having babies late in life – late 50’s early 60’s, and one as old as 70. We watched to its conclusion. Weird! We headed for bed soon after that. It was 10pm.