Rain Sun Rain

I overslept a little and wasn’t downstairs until 542am. So I’m guessing I was up somewhere near 537am. Not too bad. I could see that it rained again overnight but wasn’t at the time. I was hopeful that it would remain that way at least through my run. I was still a little tired after getting about 2 hours less sleep than I’m used to. You may recall, I was up late tending to a work related matter.

I completed calisthenics with my back and shoulders feeling considerably better after taking two doses of Target brand Aleeve the day and night before. I checked headlines and weather. A good chance of rain throughout the day with the high reaching the mid 60’s. At the time it was 56 degrees. I planned on wearing a fleece pullover atop my shirt.

Just ahead of meditation I sent a status update concerning last night’s work issue. After meditation I woke Mindy with coffee. That was near 615am. She asked that I shut off the ceiling fan as I exited the room. I headed back downstairs where I did a thorough stretch before leaving on a run. It was trash day. Jacob placed our can at the curb the evening before. It was near capacity, which is unusual for us these days.

I ran the full 4.1 miles. It was about 15 degrees cooler than it was on Monday. Felt good though. Our can was emptied by the time I made it back to the house. I drug it around to its usual resting place then went to the deck door seeking entrance. As luck would have it, neither Mindy or Jacob was around to open the door. I might’ve waited about three minutes before giving up and walking around to the front.

Jacob was at the breakfast table by the time I was back inside and Mindy just coming out of the restroom. Bella was still upstairs. When she finally made an appearance I quizzed her on the b-day count down. How many days? FOUR! During breakfast, Mindy reminded us of the day’s after-work/school agenda. Jim was taking Jacob to soccer early, but we’d need to meet them there at the Gahanna soccer field before 630pm. I planned to leave work a little early. Traffic across town is never fun that time of day. Weren’t sure what we’d do about dinner.

Mindy left at her usual time and the kids and I carried on with our routine too. After Jacob walked Eiknarf I fed her some leftover eggs. I also reminded Bella to fill her food bowl. I headed to the shower at 735am.

I dressed in black head-to-toe. Felt good. Was having a horrible hair day, though. Not a lot I could do about it. I moved on. Before heading out to the bus stop, I logged off my laptop and packed it for work. The kids and I headed out at 810am.

We met Chrissy and the girls at the bus stop. Chrissy said that Woody hasn’t been himself and wasn’t eating well, either ever since Molly’s passing. I wondered if it wasn’t more them than him. In a poor attempt at cheering her up, I suggested that at least they could get grass to grow around the base of the deck now. Molly used that area as her personal urinal, and she was one of those dogs with grass killin’ pee.  Chrissy didn’t seem amused. We talked Tuesday evening soccer games, too, ours in Gahanna, theirs in Canal Winchester.

The bus arrived on time. With the kids aboard the bus, Eiknarf and I headed for home, but not before she took a dump out front. Glad I had a bag in tow. To avoid walking across the wet grass in my dress shoes, I left the bag on the front porch, just like I did the morning before. But now with two poop sacks setting there, I knew I needed to properly dispose of them both quickly. So on my way out to the Accord, I walked both bags to the trash can.

I pulled out of the drive near 825am and arrived at the office about 15 minutes later. It didn’t take me that long to get logged on and set for my day. I finished my proactive month end reports first. Glad I did, too. The rest of my day was a reactive versus proactive nightmare. Did find the time to change this week’s customer-site work day from Wednesday to Thursday, however.

Mindy called after school to check on my ability to leave work around 5pm so we could get to Jacob’s soccer game in Gahanna. Seemed doable. I told her I’d try to leave by 510pm. And as things turned out, I was able to leave even earlier. I left at 455pm. It was fairly cool when I exited the building with a mix of sun and clouds. My car said it was 61 degrees.

Called Mindy while in route home. Jacob and Jimaken were just leaving the house for the soccer game. Arrived home around 510pm. Mindy and Bella were getting ready when I got home. I changed out of my work clothes into something comfy, and namely jeans, a t-shirt, and sweatshirt. I planned to wear my casual fleece jacket too. We were all set to go even before 530pm.

Of course it started spitting rain again as we backed out the driveway. It wasn’t a pretty evening. We jumped on eastound 70/670 despite knowing we’d almost certainly run into killer traffic. Aside from doing the I-270 thing, it’s about the only way that made any sense – pretty much a straight line there. Traffic was slow through downtown and then again once on 670 all the way into Gahanna, but at least it kept moving. We were fortunate. I could tell, one little miscue and this route would be a mess.

The soccer field was in east Gahanna, meaning we had to cross town once in town. The park was really nice though, but only one soccer field that I could see. There was a sign up, visible as we pulled in, advising that the fields were closed. Oh no! Despite the signage, both teams were out warming up, and the refs were there, too. Looked like a soccer game was happening after all.

Surprisingly, there were blue skies directly overhead but really dark clouds moving in from the WSW. Looked like heavy rain was a certainty. The only question was how long until it would hit. When the game started, Mindy & Bella set up camp chairs along the sideline. I finished reading about some Pilot features I wasn’t fully aware of prior, like the telescoping steering wheel. Promised Mindy to be out in a minute.

They had my chair set-up and waiting for me. I joined them a few minutes into the game. Like the other two games I’ve attended (they had played three) the game was played mostly at our defensive end, meaning we couldn’t get the ball down to our offensive end to save our lives. Our little goalie was good, but it was just a matter of time given all the scoring chances they were getting. It was 2-0 at the half. Jacob had two decent shots on goal but both narrowly missed going in.

And once again, our kids were getting frustrated with one another and giving each other the dickens. That’s when I knew our goose was cooked. It never did rain. Still not sure how the threatening skies skipped over us.  In the end, Jacob’s team lost 3-0 dropping their overall record to 0-4.

Jacob always waits for his dad, and since Jim’s the coach, he’s always the last one there. By the time the game ended it was pretty much dark. Jacob had his head down as he walked towards the car. Mindy knew what was coming and so did I. And so it began.

Not one positive thing came out of his mouth during our drive home. And once again he blamed everybody else but himself and his dad. Even referred to his team as they, which bothered me. He also picked on Bella profusely. It started raining once we got just east of downtown. Jacob wanted to stop for McDonalds. Mindy threatened not stopping to get him to stop. I’m thinking we were in Grandview by then. J It was getting really hard to take.

We went through the McDonald’s drive-thru at Wilson & I-70, the first time I’d been there in 10 years, I’ll bet. I think Courtney worked there when it first opened. We got food only for the kids. Both Mindy & I planned to have some chicken & noodle leftovers. Sounded good given the rain and chill.

I’ll admit, Jacob was a lot more tolerable once he had some food in his belly, pleasant even. Mindy sent them both for showers as soon as they were done eating. After finishing my noodles and then tidying up the kitchen, I laid flat on my back on the family room floor. I eventually rolled over onto my belly completely face down and fell asleep. Not entirely sure how long I slept but I’m guessing for only about 10 minutes.

Mindy declared it time for bed around 930p. She was really surprised when I agreed and joined her heading up. I think she’d forgotten that I was up late working the night before. I was exhausted. Pitter-patter, pitter-patter. Are we in Oregon?