Lunar Influence

I slept well and woke a few minutes early. Was downstairs by 527am. Once again the sky was clear with many stars still visible, a welcome change after an entire week’s worth of clouds and rain.

I started sit-ups then remembered I hadn’t yet hit the go button on the coffee maker. As soon as I finished sit-ups I made sure to hit the go button. Then, after a few minutes on the PC, I whipped out 55 push-ups. Wide awake, and my blood now flowing, I headed back to the PC with a cup of coffee. Right away I noticed a discernable difference – a good difference - in the flavor, much more robust than usual. It hit me then that this was Folgers Black Satin as opposed to the Gourmet Supreme Roast Mindy more often buys. And by the way, Folgers coffee is mountain grown. Yeah, Mrs. Olson told me as much. J

Before pulling myself away from the PC, I read about the MNF results. No surprise, the Patriots easily won their game against the Dolphins. But what was a surprise was the late game – Broncos vs. Raiders. The Raiders won. Now close to 6am, I headed to the family room for meditation.

Morning Thoughts:

There are times when staying positive, centered, and in the now becomes painstakingly difficult. And I’m sure that’s true for almost everyone. For me, more often than not, the triggers are my daughters, and more specifically, the paths they’ve chosen. I frequently allow that to throw me off course. It then takes considerable effort to regain my center and positive focus. Right or wrong, life’s biggest rewards or disappointments are often centered around our children.

Time to deliver Mindy’s coffee. It was close to 615am when I woke Mindy by placing a cup of coffee on her night stand. Back downstairs I completed the usual stretch routine then dressed and left for a run. Given that it was only 62 degrees, I had to choose the right shirt. That is always a tough call this time of year. And I typically err towards being too warm over being chilly. To that end, I chose the winter weight wicking shirt again.

I noticed the wolf spider, who’s spun its web in the sidelight window of our front door, had a small praying mantis lodged in its sticky clutches. I touched the mantis on my way out to see if it was still alive. Appeared not. Often times a spider will strike a killing blow well before it actually eats its prey. Using the nearby Ivy as additional shelter, I couldn’t tell if Wolfy was home or not.

I headed off on my run just a couple minutes after 630am. I ran the full 4.1 miles without incident. It was trash day. Jacob rolled our can to the curb the evening before. It was emptied while I was off on my run. The run went well. I rolled the emptied can back to its home then continued on around to the deck and in the back door. Jacob saw me and let me in right away. We keep the door locked almost all the time.

Mindy was busy making cheesy scrambled eggs. With the Pilot still in the shop, I was reminded that she was taking the Accord and I’d be driving the BM’er. It was supposed to be a lovely day, so it wouldn’t be much of an inconvenience at all. The eggs were finally ready. I topped mine with green Tabasco. Mindy gave me too many, so I shared them with Eiknarf just like most other days. This time, however, she threw them up soon after woofing them down. Honestly, they didn’t’ look any different than they did before they went in – a good indication that she swallowed them without any chewing whatsoever. She seemed disappointed when I scooped them up and placed on Bella’s unsuspecting plate. Uhhh- just kiddin’!

There was still a little left in the frying pan. After Bella put some real food in her dog bowl, I topped it off with what remained of the eggs. She ate a bit slower this go round. Mindy left for work around 730am. I tried not to concern myself with the fact that she was driving my new car. Yikes! Just don’t think about it and you’ll be fine. I headed off to the shower at 733am.

Spent about 20 minutes getting a shave, showered, and dressed.  With the time I had before the school bus, I did some more reading about how to get the best moon shots. Learned quite a bit. I hoped to try some of the tips later that night provided the weather gods cooperated.

While hanging out, Bella came to me sharing that she needed some cash for her lunch account. I was fine giving her some money, but asked that she call her mom real quick to confirm if she might’ve already added money to her account online. She hadn’t. I gave her more than enough to cover the day’s lunch ($3), though she said she likes to get a 2^nd beer and leave a 40% tip. What? Oh, wait, no, that’s Mindy. J

The kids and I headed out just ahead of 810am. Chrissy was out with the girls and quickly shared how excited she was to be going to the Kate Perry concert that night. The bus arrived right on time, or at 815am. I walked Eiknarf out front for a few more minutes. She beared no fruit

I finished my 2^nd cup of coffee then headed off to work. I thought about unloading the dishwasher, which I ran overnight, but thought better of it. I really needed to scoot. Headed out the door at 825am.

Arrived at the office around 840am and was inside and settled a few minutes later. The first hour or so was spent catching up on routine matters. I thought I might spend the rest of my day putting together my customer’s detailed monthly report, but my priorities were quickly changed when my boss came by and asked that I take over a conference call he’d been on for a while. He needed to beg off for something else. Sure. I ended up dealing with that issue for the next 4 hours. Believe me, it was a challenge.

I decided not to venture out for lunch, but did take some time to eat at my desk and then scrawl out a Lowes/Home Depot shopping list. The list included most of what I’d need to stain the deck starting Friday. I also exchanged texts with Mindy. She let me know that the Pilot was ready to be picked up. We’d coordinate that after work. That being the case, I planned to swap her cars on Thursday so I could get those things on my shopping list.

I stayed busy all afternoon and didn’t get out of the office until 540pm. But because it was a smooth drive home, I got there still just ahead of 6pm. Like the evening before, Bella was just making her way up the driveway with Eiknarf presumably after an early evening walk.

Jacob was already off to soccer practice with his dad. Mindy and I had already agreed to go after the Pilot ahead of having dinner, which would consist of leftovers. Before heading out I took a few minutes to rinse my lunch dishes and then prep Wednesday’s coffee. I’m guessing that it was about 615pm when we left for Hugh White.

Mindy said she needed to pick-up a few items at Kroger (veggies for salad). She asked me if I wanted to make that stop after dropping her at Hugh White, or if I wanted to head straight home and start dinner. I opted to make the Kroger stop after she expressed that as her preference too. Bella opted to go with me to Kroger.

I dropped Mindy at Hugh White and then Bella and I headed across the street to the Georgesville Rd Kroger. We each pushed a cart inside from the parking lot, doing our good deed for the day. We kept one and stowed one. They had their Halloween stuff out, so we spent a couple minutes checking out all of it before taking care of our business.

Onto the produce section all the while Bella managed our cart (scary). When it was all said and done, we had picked up some leaf lettuce, Roma tomatoes, cucumbers, and bananas. As we passed the rotisserie chickens we decided to get one. They were only $5 and we love them. Bella picked out some candy in the checkout aisle. Our total was a whopping $13. Not bad at all.

I called Mindy as soon as we got moving anxious to learn how the Pilot sounded and handled. Bella, meanwhile, was absolutely astonished with the handsfree Bluetooth feature in my car.  She couldn’t believe that all we had to do was tell it to call Mindy. In fact, she thought I was talking to her. Too funny! Mindy said the Pilot was all but silent – no noisy vibrations and it handled well. Said she’d forgotten how quiet it was.

We arrived home a couple minutes later. Mindy got a chuckle out of us picking up the rotisserie chicken. Both Bella and I wanted that for dinner. Of course, I still ate some leftover mashed potatoes, and then some of the fresh buffalo rice Mindy whipped up. The chicken was delicious and moist. You just can’t beat it for $5.

Makayla came over midway through our dinner. We offered her dinner after she shared that she was home with only Kenny. Chrissy, you may recall, was off to the Kate Perry concert. Makayla accepted food, but only mashed potatoes. She and Bella played the Wii Fit after dinner and during clean-up.

It was approximately 715pm once dinner clean-up was completed. I took to the computer to work on my blog and then review the aperture/f-stop document I was reading earlier. Provided the skies remained clear, I planned to take more moon shots later that evening. 

Jacob got home from soccer practice around 745pm. He was indecisive in regards to his dinner. He initially opted for only cereal, but then later pleaded with Mindy to make him a grilled cheese sandwich. After saying no, she had a change of heart and granted his wish.  Rare for Mindy to change her mind that easily.

While the kids played and showered, Mindy and I chatted in the livingroom and from the same perches we held the evening before – she in the recliner and me flat on my back with my feet/legs propped up on the other Queen Anne chair.

As darkness set in, I headed out to the deck to see if the moon was visible. It was, but still too low in the eastern sky for some clear, unabated shots. I headed back inside for another ten minutes. While passing time, I decided to open the Anthony Thomas chocolate covered pretzel rods that Mindy brought me home on Monday. She knows how much I love those things. They looked awesome, but unfortunately, their looks were deceiving. The pretzel rods were stale and chewy. In contrast, the ones I picked up at Giant Eagle a month or so ago were still to die for delicious. I had Jacob try both, too. He agreed with me  100%.

. While setting up my tripod on the deck, I saw a giant spider milling about on his web attached between the deck rail and one of our patio chairs. It’s one of those spiders you see this time every year with black and yellow stripped legs and a big round belly. I took a couple close-up with no flash. I had the camera in the manual mode so I didn’t really expect the shots to turn out too well.

With my camera now set up on the tripod, I waited for the moon to clear the neighbor’s big red maple. While waiting, I brought the spider’s whereabouts to the attention of the kids. Jacob came out to see it first. Bella soon followed. Bella is totally spooked by spiders. Mindy came out too. I decided that it would be at least another 10 minutes before prime photo time. Instead of waiting outside, I headed back in.  Mindy and the kids decided it was time to head to bed. It was only 920pm.

I waited another ten minutes then headed out to snap some photos using what I learned earlier. Those shots turned out far better than any of my previous attempts, but I quickly learned that my relatively weak zoom was a liability for such shots. It’s clear that this type of shot was really beyond the scope of my small camera. The experts recommend a 300mm zoom – f/11 and 1/400. I might try my 20X optical zoom on the next clear moon rise.

Inside at my PC, I worked quickly to finish up Monday’s blog entry anxious to plop down on the sofa to catch a little Science Channel. But I was fighting the clock the entire time. It was 950pm when I finished writing. I headed quickly to the TV and sofa. Turned out, there wasn’t much of interest on any of the knowledge channels. I parked on the Human Planet but only briefly after seeing that it was a repeat. I headed up to bed at 1005pm. Good night almost full moon.