Frost, Roger Waters doing the Wall

I slept OK but woke a few times during the night surprised that it was still so early. Each time I fell back asleep without a problem. Come 530am I didn’t really want to get up but did. I planned wisely and had my eye drops, exercise shoes, and last does of Prevacid waiting on the table by the front door, all in an effort not to wake the puppy. Not sure if it’s the grunts during sit-ups or what, but she always starts her whining before even seeing me. I didn’t give in, however. I left her whine until my exercise was behind me. By the time I let her out of her pen she had already pee’d on her puppy pad. I was marginally disappointed but also mindful of the fact that she’s only 8 weeks old. She was excited to see me giving me lots of kisses and bites. I took her out soon after. I knew right away that she wouldn’t be so warm to the idea. It was cold, and she was shivering like nobody’s business. I wouldn’t pick her back up insisting that she take care of business. My diligence paid off. She finally pooped. We headed back inside where she went for food and water while I went for coffee. During coffee and PC time she sat on my lap. I kept my time online to an absolute minimum, checking only the weather and a couple headlines. It was a chilly 36 degrees. Expected to reach into the low 60’s later with abundant sunshine. I did my meditation with Frankie resting on my lap, although I had to endure her persistent nipping. I took her back out before taking her to Mindy. She pee’d this time after several minutes of waiting. Again, she wasn’t too excited about being out in the cold. We woke Mindy around 615am. Mindy was happy to see her pug. I headed back downstairs to stretch and ready for a run. I didn’t get out of the house until almost 640am. Not sure why I took so long, but time flies. I ran four miles, and just like the day before, my achy left, lower back didn’t play into my run much at all. There was scattered frost throughout the subdivision, but probably not enough to kill the annuals people have already planted. I noticed that our newest hibiscus that I bought two weeks ago was looking limp all day Sunday after Saturday night’s big temperature dip. It snapped back nicely though late Sunday afternoon. Funny thing is, the one we stowed inside all winter wasn’t bothered at all. Maybe a more substantial/mature root system? Without being asked, I snatched Mindy’s keys from the cupboard and started the Honda after returning home. There was just a light coating of frost on the windshield that was easily taken care of by running the wipers, but I warmed it anyway. Inside, my breakfast was ready. Mindy hurried through her last minute prep then bolted for work just after reminding the kids to bus home with Noah. We didn’t discuss dinner plans. She did ask if I’d try to come home at lunch and check on the puppy. Yes. The kids and I were ready for the bus stop by 755am. I put Frankie’s collar on her along with a thin leash. Bella wasn’t pleased after seeing Frankie’s reaction. She’s not used to it and tries relentlessly to scratch it off. But I want her on a leash at the bus stop. Bella asked to hold her while we waited. Out the corner of my eye I caught Bella sheepishly, deceptively removing the leash apparently thinking I wouldn’t notice. I quickly snapped that I would spank her if she didn’t put it back on right then. She scrambled to reattach the leash. Jacob made some little disapproving gesture, but stopped short of getting himself in hot water. He wouldn’t make eye contact from that point forward. Too bad for him. I headed home to drop Frankie and take care of any last minute work prep. I left the house just before 815am. The pace of work picked up quickly and to near Friday levels. But I was determined to manage my response to it much better than I might’ve last Friday. One of my guys stopped by to chat around 915am. He shared news of Roger Waters coming to town in October and that tickets would go on sale at 10am this morning. Funny, I was just out on his website I know less than a month ago and there was no mention of a tour. He further shared that this would be the Wall tour – Pink Floyd. I was stoked, and immediately surfed out to try and learn about the venue and ticket prices. Found the show would be Friday, October 22nd at the Schottentstein Center. Tickets ranged $55 - $200. But I still had 30 minutes to wait before sale time. I worked through a couple issues while keeping an eye towards the clock. Word was, the tickets would sell out quickly. Come 10am the flood gates were opened. Of course, Ticketmaster has exclusive rights to sell the tickets and their webpage and process is annoying at best. You have to select a series of choices: quantity, price range, bowl area then enter a visual code to ensure you’re not an automated purchasing program, I guess. I stumbled through that for 20 minutes or more trying to find the ideal seats I was hoping for, which were lower bowl. But they were $200 each plus all the additional charges. I decided that $900 for 4 tickets was too much. I ended up buying four $75 seats. In the end, that was $360. I remember when concert tickets were $6.50 each. I was excited to have my tickets already in the bag. Not sure who’ll be joining Mindy and I, but I’ve got five months and more to figure that out. The rest of morning flew by. It was crazy busy. But as busy as we were, I was as determined as ever to take a lunch, not only to for my sanity, but to tend to my puppy as planned. To that end, I left for lunch at 1240pm and headed towards home. The Trooper really needed gas for which I was equally determined to head to the nearest Kroger with gas pumps cashing in on my $.50 per gallon benefit through the month of May. That’s roughly $10 per fill-up. The closest Kroger with fuel is at Roberts Rd and Hilliard-Rome Rd. I decided it made a lot more sense to stop there on my way back to the office rather than on the way home. I called Lindsey on my drive home to make sure she planned on planting the knock-out rose bush I gifted her for Mother’s Day. Said she planned to have her mother help later that evening. She also shared that Rocky fell asleep minutes after he got home Sunday night – surmised that he must’ve played hard. He did. At home, Frankie was resting quietly and didn’t immediately leave her pen when I opened the door. I was a bit surprised. I was gonna follow the ticket master email link to print my Roger Waters tickets but left the receipt at work. Crap! I resigned myself to doing it later. I played with Frankie for about 10 minutes and then took her out back for another 10 minutes. She wasn’t happy getting back in her pen. Didn’t understand. She did relieve herself outside, however, which was the idea in the first place. I left for Kroger. It took some doing to get the pump to read my Kroger card but it eventually worked. Got gas for $2.25 – a $.50 savings from their stated price of $2.75. The Trooper took 19 gallons. I headed straight up Hilliard-Rome to Davidson Rd heading back to work. I was back by 140pm – making excellent time. The afternoon was very busy. I had a 230pm customer call that lasted until after 4pm. That helped the afternoon soar by. It was 530pm before I knew it. When I left for home the skies were beginning to cloud over but peeks of sunshine were still rather abundant. I arrived home around 550pm. Mindy said she was surprised that I didn’t phone first. The kids were both on the sofa. Somehow the topic of Frankie being on a leash at the bus stop came up. Bella chimed in about how stupid it was even though I hadn’t yet shared her poor judgment to remove it with Mindy. I sent Bella to her room for being rude and disrespectful. Jacob couldn’t help himself and started in about how he didn’t agree either. Mindy quickly supported my handling of the situation – both during and right then. She emphasized that they are to follow directions regardless of opinion. I let Bella stew in her room while I printed off the Roger Waters tickets, but then headed up to talk to her about her earlier remarks. She seemed to get it. I made sure that she made eye contact the entire time we chatted, reminding her a couple of times as we spoke to direct her eyes towards my own. We hugged and headed down for dinner. Mindy stopped at Kroger on her way home and bought dinner – roasted chicken and mashed potatoes. That sounded good. Haven’t had rotisserie chicken in quite a while. The kids ate in a hurry then headed out to play. Unfortunately, Jacob couldn’t find a friend at home and came back depressed and bored. No matter what Mindy offered as something to do he found it boring or stupid, and that included riding the new 'something' stick he bought with his own birthday money. Said he wanted to take it back. Can’t ride it. Truth is, he tried only once. Buyer’s remorse. After washing all the dinner dishes I decided to take a brief nap on the familyroom floor. I slipped in and out of sleep while Frankie occasionally attacked my ears. Eventually she stopped and I got a decent nap. I woke maybe 30 minutes later feeling refreshed. I woke craving the brownies we had leftover from our Mother’s Day celebration Saturday. I cut myself a few small pieces. Yummy! The kids were outside playing. Mindy and Frankie took to the sofa for a rare nap. While she did that, I wrote in my blog. And speaking of my blog, I’m more than a week behind with publishing, but just short of caught up with my daily writing. It was 830pm when I finished writing Sunday’s entry. At that point I walked away still choosing not to spend anymore time on the PC. I found Mindy and Frankie both asleep on the sofa. Frankie was practically on her head. I fetched my camera and took a picture. Mindy woke and asked me to holler for the kids to come in. I did the ‘dad’ whistle thing. Mindy likes that. Both of our father’s did the same thing when we were kids. The kids slowly made their way home. We asked one or the other to take the pug out to potty. After some strife, Bella volunteered. There’s only problem with Bella taking Frankie out. After a couple of weeks, we’ve learned that almost all of Frankie’s indoor accidents can be traced back to shortly after a Bella outing. Watching her form the door, it’s becoming clear why. She picks her up after a few seconds and carries her around. She also mistakes sitting for squatting. It’s funny and cute, but also not. I had to open the door and ask Bella to put her down four different times. She finally pee’d. Bella means well. That’s not in question. She also cries when we close the door to Frankie’s pen at night or when we leave. The kids got into the PJ’s then returned for a snack. Bella had two Nutty bars, but she still came to the railing after tuck in to tell us she was hungry only ten minutes later. By then, Mindy and I were tuned into Stephen Hawking’s, Into the Universe. I eventually allowed Bella to come down and join us knowing how much she loves these science based programs. After Hawking’s program, we watched Alien Galaxies. Very cool! Mindy sent Bella to bed around 930pm. Mindy headed to bed around 945pm leaving Frankie and I sleeping on the sofa. I put Frankie to bed at 1015pm and soon joined Mindy.