Ground Hog Returns

I was up at my planned rise time of 530am feeling well rested and ready to get after another work week. While brushing my teeth I heard the irrigation system sputtering (starting & stopping) once again in zone #4. Not sure why. It wasn’t long before I was downstairs grunting out 55 sit-ups and push-ups. In between those I checked the weather and the final score from the SNF game. The Colts crushed the Giants, pretty much as expected. The weather, meanwhile, was quite nice, clear, mild, and about 56 degrees. Warming into the 80’s by afternoon. Frankie and I headed outside together. She was fairly prompt with her business. Back inside I poured coffee. Forgot to mention that I failed to prep the coffee maker the night before. Had to do it right before sit-ups. Coffee was delicious. I enjoyed a cup while sitting quietly at the kitchen table in dim lighting. Very nice. Very relaxing. It was shortly after 6am. Time to do meditation and stretching. Both went extremely well. I can’t say enough about the benefits I garner from each. The meditation helps align my thinking with my ideal state of being, and then the stretching awakens and warms my physical self. I end the session feeling eager and ready for not only my morning run, but also the work day ahead. Before heading out I delivered Mindy’s coffee and the pug. Mindy was already in the shower, so I left her coffee on the dresser. I let her know it was there. Frankie, of course, went straight for the bathroom trash can.  Hitting on all cylinders, I felt absolutely terrific during my run. I ran the full 4.1 mile track. The sun was just cresting over the horizon as I finished. I noted the length of the lawn as I made my way up the driveway. It needs cut again. Looking very lush. I noticed that the ground hog was back to digging holes around our foundation behind the American boxwood. Note to self. I think I’ll try the Pine sol trick that my dad shared with me. While I was snooping behind the boxwood three deer, a momma and two fawns, dashed through our front yard and into the back. I quickly shared the experience with Mindy & Jacob. Turns out, Jacob was just heading out back with Frankie. Mindy advised Bella to look out her back bedroom window. Mindy had breakfast ready and waiting in the microwave. Jacob came in sharing that Frankie spotted the deer but was slow to react. Mindy reminded the kids to bus home with Noah, this being her late night. It wasn’t long before she was out the door and I was off to the shower. The kids and I regrouped downstairs at 750am and headed out for the bus five minutes later. Jacob took Frankie on her leash. I handed Kenny the detailed instructions for cutting/building the hip roof for the tree house. Several complex. cuts. Kenny said it should fit together like a puzzle. He used the same program for his shed and had excellent results. Just plug in the dimensions and hit enter. Kenny figured he would spend a few hours working on it during the day. I promised to hurry home after work to help. The kids loaded onto the bus at 805am. I headed home to power down my laptop, grab my work gear, and head into work. I drove the Trooper. I arrived on time. It was a very lovely morning, honestly, too lovely to be working. But … The morning went well. Our recent changes are having the positive impact we had hoped (planned) for. I decided to bull straight through my day skipping a formal lunch break. Of course, I still took the time to eat my mid-morning snack and packed lunch. I called brother Tommy while eating my lunch. Hadn’t talked with him in quite a while – maybe a month. He shared that Kelsie, his step-daughter, had her baby. I think he said she had a girl. He also shared that he recently painted Wally’s room to look like a jungle. I shared our most recent Domino’s experience, where the pizza lacked quality toppings. Tom shared that that particular franchisee has a reputation for poor quality. Sometime mid-afternoon I remembered I had one of the apples the kids picked over the weekend in my backpack. I reached for it. And boy, was it ever delicious! I didn’t talk to Mindy until just before 5pm when she called to share that she was just leaving school. She reminded me that Jimaken would be picking up the kids each Monday this quarter since Bella has gymnastics on Tuesday’s, Jim teaches on Wednesday’s, and Jacob has soccer on Thursday’s. We discussed our plans, which included me helping Kenny on the tree house. Mindy figured to spend the same time grading papers. I left for home right at 530pm and arrived 20 minutes later. I listened to sports talk on the drive home. Brett Favre is taking a beating for the Vikings’ 0-2 start. I’m not one of those piling the blame on him. At home, Mindy was busy in the kitchen packing tomorrow’s lunches. I quickly headed up to change into my tree house grubbies in order to get outside to help Kenny, who according to Mindy, had just headed back to the tree house himself. Mindy agreed to take care of my lunch dishes. Kenny had all the pieces cut for the hip roof loaded in his Deere trailer. We worked as a team to get them up and stacked on the main deck. Before putting the roof framing in place, we had to square the existing three walls then finish building the front wall and then attach bracing across each of the four walls for stability. That went systematically. We then put up the roof piece by piece. And just as Kenny had described, it fit together like a puzzle. Nice! We designed the roof with a 1’ overhang, but after getting it up I didn’t like the fact that I could hit my head on the rafter ends due to the rather short 6’ walls. We agreed to knock the overhang down to 6”, but on another day. Kenny had a window guy stopping by to give them a sales spiel. He needed to get inside. In total, we spent about an hour on the tree house. What’s left is sheeting the roof, siding, shingling, and then the hatch and rope ladder. Before heading our separate ways, Kenny said don’t be surprised if you come home tomorrow and the thing is sided and sheeted. Said I could do the shingling on my day off. Before heading inside I proceeded to water the flowers out back. Even though I watered everything well on Saturday they were almost bone dry again. I made sure to water everything thoroughly, especially since I just applied a heavy dose of Miracle Grow on Saturday. I’d like to keep the flowers going until the frost takes them naturally. I topped off the hot tub again too. It was once again down about 3”. I headed inside after all the watering. By then, hunger had come over me, but after Sunday’s gorging I didn’t really want to eat anything too heavy. I went with the roasted red pepper hummus, mini-pitas, and some organic cheddar cheese. Not exactly filling but at least it curbed the hunger. The kids got home around 8pm while I was busy editing my blog. As soon as Jimaken departed, Jacob began giving his momma a difficult time by talking back, being loud, and basically all around obnoxious. I decided to stay out of it. Mindy seemed to have it under control. His antics continued through shower and snack time, pushing her buttons at every opportunity. I finally chimed in, however briefly, advising him calmly that he needed to stop and show his momma some respect. We’re not sure where all this comes from. Both kids were in bed by 9pm. I tucked in both. However, both eventually made their way back downstairs. Can’t recall why. At any rate, Bella requested a 2nd tuck in. At the same time Jacob espoused his desire to have neither of us tend to him. I tuned into MNF but remained largely uninterested. Mindy headed to bed before 930pm. The Saints were ahead 9-7 when I headed to bed.