Yankee Doodle Casey & Frostie

It was Monday and the 4^th of July. I was up at 7am and eager to get the day underway. Once again, I was careful not to make to much raucous getting going for fear of having to share my morning solitude with my mom. The kids as you may remember were still with their dad. Eiknarf was peacefully lounging in our bed and showed no signs of wanting up and out. Fine with me.

I started a pot of coffee then calisthenics. I whipped out 55 sit-ups then 55 push-ups over the next ten minutes. As for the weather, well, it was warm but also mostly cloudy. Not exactly what I was hoping for. However, the forecast claimed a chance of early rain then clearing towards late afternoon.

I enjoyed some coffee while fooling around on the PC for about an hour. Still no word back from Germain Honda on locating the black on black Accord. Somewhere in there I was overcome with a case of the sleepies and retreated to the sofa where I remained for the next 20 minutes or so. Near 830am I headed out for a run and ran the full 4.1 mile track. It was a sweaty run, too, with humidity levels in the 80% range.

I passed dad early on in my run. The evening before, Mindy mentioned that she invited him over for coffee in the AM. I half expected him to be at the house when I got back, but he wasn’t. Mom was up, though. She was already tuned into the Casey Anthony trial.

Not sure the time when Mindy finally got up. I wanted an omelet and asked both mom and Mindy if they wanted one. Both did. Neither of them wanted anything but cheese. I planned to put spinach and real bacon crumbles in mine. While making the omelets dad arrived. Mindy answered the door. I offered to make dad an omelet but said he was already something else. J

We all listened to the Casey Anthony trial. Unless I’m mistaken, it was the prosecutions rebuttal, which of course can’t be countered by the defense. It was slow to develop but convincing despite their being only circumstantial evidence at best. Despite all of that, the shoe surely seemed to fit. Everyone believed Casey Anthony was doomed. I wasn’t so sure.

It remained a drab looking morning absent of any sunshine. Discussion of Linda’s grave marker came up again with mom and dad working out how it would be paid for. Collectively, me, Glenn and Tommy were contributing more than half the total cost. I’m pretty sure that my mom was paying the difference.

I napped while the others watched more of the trial. That’s the kind of day it was. When I woke, mom asked that I load the 20” TV that we agreed to give her into the back of her Blazer. She and dad were heading to the cemetery to adorn Linda’s grave with some flowers. It had to be near noon, and low and behold, the sun was finally coming out. The sky was blue to the north/northwest but remained partly cloudy overhead and to our south. It took a while for the clouds to move completely out.

As soon as mom and dad left, Mindy headed up for a shower and I headed out to cut the lawn for the 3^rd time in the last eight days. I wasn’t very motivated but knew the lawn needed the attention. I did the push mowing first then the tractor. I tend to like that approach much better. Reason being, I get so darn sticky and grungy when weed whacking and edging. So when I do that first the push mowing seems even more like a chore. I’ve been altering my cutting path all season, north and south one time, then east and west the next, but only out front. I made fairly quick work of the lawn chores.

Mom and Dad pulled up again just as I was finishing up the edging. After they headed inside I got out the blower to fully complete the bigger chore. I was just about done blowing off the walk when mom and dad were already coming out to depart. Mom was heading home after her three day visit. I stopped to say goodbye. Dad reminded me that the trailer was ready for my use at anytime. Cool!

I headed inside briefly to get more lemonade. I might’ve mentioned something about how nice it was to have a quiet house all to ourselves again. Mom was pretty low maintenance however. That trial kept her preoccupied. Not wanting to fretter the day away, I snatched up all the vehicle keys and headed out determined to top the Trooper off with more transmission fluid, getting her ready for a possible trade-in. Not sure if I shared this already, but last Thursday I disconnected the battery, both positive and negative terminals, to try resetting the computer. Sure enough, that killed the check engine light. Here’s hoping it stays out until it’s traded in. To accomplish the transmission task, I needed the Honda moved and the BM’er backed out of the garage. Mindy moved the Honda while I backed out the BM’er. I pulled the Trooper in next.

I asked Mindy if she’d mind watering the back flowers. She agreed to do the deed. She’d only gotten part way done when I went for her help pumping in the new transmission fluid. It would be a huge help having extra hands to hold the quart of fluid while I pumped it out and into the Trooper. She agreed, and her help made the job go faster and simpler. Just one minor glitch, but that was easily overcome.  I was surprised that it took almost an entire quart. That’s about 2.5 quarts I’ve put in over the last 6 weeks.

After finishing with the Trooper I moved the BM’er back into the garage then headed inside for some more lemonade. At some point I headed out to the deck to read and relax. It turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous afternoon after such a gloomy start. It had to be near 330pm when Chrissy yelled over asking if we planned on grilling steaks with them later in the afternoon. I didn’t answer. Wasn’t sure what Mindy’s full intentions were.

While I read and relaxed, Mindy napped upstairs from bed. Once she got up I shared Chrissy’s question and suggested she let her know our preference. However, regardless of whether we’d be joining them or not, I shared that I didn’t want a steak. Sounded too heavy for my liking.

Mindy walked down to talk with the neighbors while I showered. And boy did a shower ever feel good. Mindy let me know that Kenny was starting the grillin’ even before 5pm. I was shocked. They’re typically not early grillers. Come to find out, they planned on attending the Hilliard fireworks and wanted to be done with dinner early. Well that made total sense.

We walked over to their place a little after 5pm. Kenny already had steaks on the grill. Most were drinking beer, but I was sticking to lemonade and water, especially given that it was a work night for me. Soon dinner was ready. I plated only salad, though Mindy threw a few slivers of her own steak my way.

After dinner, me, Kenny, Josh and Ivan played cornhole. Played three games. Kenny and I were partners and lost all three. Josh is unbelievably good at cornhole. Crushed my ego!

Knowing the neighbors planned on going to the fireworks, Mindy & I headed for home around 730pm. I suggested that we go on a bike ride. Mindy was in a sun dress but changed so she could join me.

I’m guessing it was near 8pm when we headed off. We pretty much traveled my running trail except for a brief cruise through the neighborhood park. We need to buy a bike rack for the Honda so we can ride remote. Riding through the neighborhood every time gets a little boring.

I did more reading from the deck after our bike ride then headed in to watch some TV. I poured myself a Frostie Rootbeer that we bought back around Xmas time at Giant Eagle Market District. It was really tasty!  I enjoyed it with some pretzel squares. Can’t recall what we watched on TV.

We didn’t expect the kids home until 1030p or so. They were at the Hilliard fireworks with their dad. They arrived home around 1015pm. By then I was about half asleep. It was all I could do to tuck them in. Good night Frostie!