Post Haste

I woke when I heard the irrigation stop abruptly. After glancing at my bedroom clock I realized that it was only 520am. The irrigation system should not have stopped. Not only that, but I could tell from the sound that it stopped in the middle of a zone transition. I popped out of bed to seek out the trouble. Mindy thought I was crazy. I went immediately to the garage where I opened the panel box and saw that it was stuck on zone 4. Still gathering my bearings, I eventually decided to try a manual override. Nothing. I then decided to try other zones. It worked. I tried zones 3 & 5. Again, both worked. Back to zone 4. Nothing. Hmm? I left zone five run and headed back to bed. Fifteen minutes later zone 5 ended without moving on to zone 6. Once again I sprang from bed to investigate. Silly me, I left it in manual mode. I moved it to zone 6 then laid down on the couch. While falling in and out of sleep I contemplated what might be amiss with zone 4. Thinking it through logically I surmised that it had to be something related to the zone 4 solenoid. I slept for about an hour from the sofa before getting up for good around 630am. I started coffee then my exercise regimen. I was still a tad tired and a little stiff, much like I get after playing 18 holes the day before. No biggie. I took my Dexilant then took Frankie outside. I had about an hour to myself before Olivia and Bella joined me downstairs. As usual, Olivia was loud. I reminded her numerous times to use her whisper, but she forgot each time.  I got her some chocolate milk and a Poptart on demand. Bella wanted nothing. At one point between 8-830am Mindy gave the girls hell for making so much noise. I made sure that they kept it quiet from that point forward. Mindy got up somewhere close to 9am. As I prepared for my run, Bella asked if she could follow on her bike. I talked her out of it. The train wheels thing might have been a disaster.  It was warmer than Sunday morning by a long shot. I wore shorts and a long sleeved wicking shirt. I completed my 4.1 mile run in about 35-36 minutes. After my run I had designs on spraying for weeds and also spraying round-up on the ‘bad grass’ out front that I plan to replace. Mindy, meanwhile, announced that she’d be taking a shower and then going to Whole Foods. As I headed out to work in the yard, Bella and Olivia headed over to Makayla’s. While spraying for weeds, I spotted Kenny out back. We convened briefly and talked about starting on the tree house – at least digging and setting the four posts. I figured we’d travel together to get the wood. First, however, I needed to finish spraying my lawn. Jacob and Evan asked me to get the field goal post from the shed. I did and then helped them set it up. I gave them a couple pointers on kicking accurate field goals too. They didn’t listen. After spraying for weeds, I moved on to the Round-up application. That took no more than ten minutes. And while I was at it, I sprayed all the nuisance grass and weeds growing up through the curb and sidewalk. After finishing the spraying, the kids asked me to play football. I was all-time quarterback for Jacob and Jake. The game lasted no more than 15 minutes. By the way, while I was busy earlier, Kenny put up the bounce house. That kept the little ones entertained for a while. Olivia eventually tired of the bounce house and came running over asking me to push her on the tree swing. While entertaining her request, the other girls came a running. I ended up giving each of them a turn. After all the swing pushing I retreated towards the house. As I made my way to the foot of the deck I heard the faint cries of Olivia calling after me. She’d somehow fallen in the pond and was a little traumatized, wet, and muddy. Looked like one leg slipped in. I went after her. I assured her that we’d get her cleaned up and changed. I was a little spooked and thankful at the same time. Thankful, that is, that she was OK. Mindy found her some of Bella’s old clothes to wear after I put her in the shower to rinse away the mud. After that was all dealt with, Mindy walked down to Chrissy’s to see what their dinner plans included. She came back minutes later to let me know that Kenny already left to get the wood for the tree house without me. Mindy left for Whole Foods shortly after. I hung out at home waiting on Kenny’s return. While waiting, I headed out to the area where we plan to build the tree house and started clearing the brush and clutter without disturbing as much of the wild growth as possible. Lots of mature honey suckle and thick wild vines – some as thick as 3” in diameter. Kenny got back and visited the site. Said he picked up the 6X6” posts and concrete. We went to load it up and carry it back with his Kubota and trailer. Out front I spotted Kapil working in his yard. Called him over. We chatted briefly, all of it light hearted. Pabina is home for Labor Day but heading back to Boston again Tuesday morning. Kenny and I toted the materials to the build site to get started on our joint project. The first order of business was placing stakes where we planned to put the posts. Kenny squared it up by measuring diagonals before we started digging. Quickly we determined that the ground was as hard as concrete. And because we were digging right beside big mature trees (tree house) there were all sorts of mature roots to work through. After about 15 minutes of picking away with the spud bar and shovel we agreed that fetching his Bobcat and drill made a ton of sense. To ease my mind, Kenny said he’d drive it through his yard. Fine. Let’s do it! Mindy was back from Whole Foods. Told her we were heading off to get the Bobcat. We drove off to his place of storage and picked it up. We’re talking some real heavy-duty equipment here, not your Sunbelt rental stuff. We outfitted the Bobcat with the auger and 12” bit. Kenny said he has ‘em as big around as 36”. Storage is only a mile from home. We were back on the jobsite with the Bobcat in no time. Kenny made quick work of the four post holes. We’re talking less than 10 minutes to drill all four of them. Good idea! Before proceeding any further, we took the Bobcat back to storage. And given the extra-dry weather, there was next to no damage where the Bobcat tracked through the yards. We were gone about 30 minutes. Actually took longer to fetch and drop off than it did to do the work. It was already approaching 4pm. Where had the day gone? We set the posts in the four holes then proceeded to level and brace them. Running a diagonal showed that we were 5 inches out of square. Kenny assured me that because we were cantilevering the base, the 5 inches wouldn’t be a problem. We started mixing and pouring concrete using pond water since it was right there. We moved through the 7 bags of concrete in a hurry. We’d need five more to finish. I volunteered to run off to Home Depot. I was in H.D for no more than five minutes having parked right outside the loading doors. In fact, from when I left the house to when I retuned was less than 30 minutes. Kenny drove the Kubota around to fetch the concrete from the back of my Trooper. We headed out to finish what we started. I failed to mention that Stephen and Ashley came over to have dinner with us. But apparently they thought we were eating sooner. They had been there for 90 minutes. They left with Olivia just as we finished up the concrete work. The girls, Chrissy & Mindy, were ready for us to grill. I quickly cleaned up our tools then headed in for a shower. Kenny did the same at his place. A shower felt terrific considering I hadn’t had one since before golf on Sunday and had run, worked in the yard, and started on the tree house. I’m sure I stunk! I emerged from as shower feeling totally refreshed. I took two Advil for preventative purposes. Mindy was already off to the neighbors. I poured myself a Diet Coke, secured the house, and walked on down. Kenny’s sister, brother-in-law, and kids were over for dinner, too. Mindy was inside holding/feeding their infant daughter while Kenny finished the grillin’. Mindy grilled sweet corn at our place and made a tomato, cucumber, onion, pepper salad. Mindy put my meal plate together. I opted for a big ol’ cheeseburger. And boy was it was delicious. I worked up one hell of an appetite working outside all day. It felt like I was burning the calories as soon as I was pouring them in. I ended up eating one of the turkey brats Mindy brought over as well. They’re surprisingly good, especially when grilled well done. Yum-yum! After dinner I slipped over to the leather sectional to watch the ballgame. And it should come as no surprise that I fell asleep. However, I was surprised to wake about 20 minutes later to an empty house. Everyone, I guess, was down at the O’Connell’s having birthday cake celebrating Emily’s 10th b-day. Still groggy, I decided to slip off for home. I plopped down on the sofa with Frankie and turned the TV to the highly anticipated Monday Night college football game pitting Boise State against Virginia Tech. No sooner had I gotten comfortable when the door bell rang sending Frankie through the roof. She’s definitely a good watch dog. Kind of funny. It was Jacob wanting me to put the garage door up so he could stow his bike. While helping Jacob, Mindy & Bella came in from the deck. Mindy ushered both kids upstairs to get showers while I prepped Tuesday’s coffee. When the kids came down for their bedtime snacks, I caved and had a bowl of cereal. I was still hungry after burning right through my dinner. I tucked the kids into bed then returned to watch more of the football game and write in my blog. Mindy watched until just after halftime. I promised that I would be up to bed shortly. I finished writing then caught another Boise State drive that put them ahead. I went to bed around 1030pm.