Stormy Gray Day

More than once through the night, I was rattled awake by vivid lightning and booming thunder all the while heavy rain pounded against the house. I slept until almost 8am when I quietly slipped out of the room and headed downstairs to start some coffee. Mindy didn’t budge. Because it was Sunday, I didn’t do any calisthenics. Planned only a run.

The storms had passed, but it remained completely cloudy. I checked the forecast. It was still fairly warm at 71 degrees and expected to reach into the low 80’s during the afternoon. As she did the morning before, Mindy sent Eiknarf my way about 30 minutes later.  I could only assume that she was whining to be set free from the confines of our room. Barely down the stairs, I leashed her up and headed outside where she relieved herself right away, though we continued our walk down the street a ways.

Back at home, I made sure she had fresh water and food then headed back to my PC with a fresh cup of coffee. Probably sat at the PC for nearly an hour before deciding it time to do my Sunday run. It looked like it might rain again soon, at least judging by the radar. The storm system s seemed to be tracking parallel to I-71 which runs diagonally across the state. Everything to the south of I-71 didn’t appear to be getting much if any rain at all. 

I headed out very close to 930am and ran the usual 3 mile weekend trail.I was really happy that it rained overnight. Most landscapes were starting to look pretty ragged, drying out after such a wet summer. In fact, we might’ve gotten too much rain in July. And until I left for NYC, the lawn and flower beds were looking springtime lush.

The run was easy. Back at home, Mindy still wasn’t awake. I poured more coffee then spent time downloading pictures and starting Saturday’s blog. As far as I knew, we had nothing major planned. About the time that Mindy got up, it started to storm again. Rained hard, too. And I’ll admit it, I was staring out into the yard feeling almost helpless. It would be one of those lazy, do nothing days.

Mindy planned on going to the grocery store. The kids wouldn’t be home until mid-afternoon. Bella was still with Chrissy in Johnstown and Jacob was with his dad. It was sometime between 11am and 12noon when Mindy headed up for a shower. She made a remark about how nice it would be to have an omelet. And though it was nearing the lunch hour, I went ahead and whipped up a turkey, cheese, and spinach omelet for the two of us. It didn’t’ take me long. It turned out well.

After Mindy finished her breakfast she left for the grocery. Said she’d most likely invite my dad over for dinner later. That was fine with me. It continued to rain on and off through most of the early afternoon. I spent a lot of time playing around on the PC. I got a shower around 1-130pm. Felt good. I carried a week’s worth of running clothes down to put in the washer soon after. By then, Mindy was back from the grocery. Already had most of the stuff carried in.

While she finished putting groceries away, I folded the load of towels that was ready in the dryer. Mindy called my dad around 230-300pm to invite him to dinner, though at the time not entirely sure if he could eat with his surgery scheduled for Tuesday morning. He accepted the invite and shared that he could pretty much eat anything up till just before midnight Monday. Mindy shared that we’d be eating around 5-530pm.

With next to no football on TV and it raining outside, I was getting bored. I ended up getting out my Canon SX10-IS and taking some shots around the house. Haven’t used it since I got my new versatile pocket-sized Canon. In addition to fooling around with my camera, I took a nap never feeling that I got all the sleep out of my system from the overnight. Mindy said she felt the same way, too. Lindsey called at some point late afternoon or early evening to ask about coming over the following day for a visit. Sure. We agreed to pick her up near Ashley’s.

I continued tweaking the finished basement design using Excel up until dad arrived, which had to be pretty close to 5pm. By then both Jacob and Bella were home. Jacob wasn’t home even five minutes before he was off on his bike. Bella looked incredibly sleepy having stayed up most the night with her peeps at the Johnstown sleepover. She headed up to her room before dinner. We didn’t think she’d be awake long. In fact, Mindy guessed that she might fall sleep and remain that way all night.

Mindy made meatloaf for dinner. She didn’t say until later that she made it with half ground beef and half ground turkey. It was good. I doused mine in buffalo sauce. Dad liked it too. Dad said he was recently by Linda’s cemetery plot and said they had the foundation ready for the tombstone we bought her. He was eager to drive by and see if it was already in place.

It was near 630pm when he begged off for the night – early departure. I gave him a man hug and wished him well with his knee replacement surgery on Tuesday. He discouraged having visitors, at least that day citing the risk of infection.

Around 730-8pm, I tuned to ESPN who was showing a replay of the Oregon/LSU game from Saturday night. We already knew who won but watched anyway. I really like the Ducks new uniforms – dull black and electric green, just like my new running shoes. I made a Jack & Coke, the first such concoction in a long while. By the way, Bella was awake and down playing with her friends. Guess we lost that bet.

We might’ve watched the football game for  about 20 minutes or so when there came a knock at our front door. It was nephew Joe and his pal Chris. Mindy offered them a beer, but once they spotted the half gallon of Jack Daniels sitting out they immediately asked for some of that. However, instead of mixing it with Coke, they wanted it mixed with Orange Crush. They had me try it. I took one small sip. Reminded me of an orange Tootsie pop.  Not my thing.

Bella eventually called from the neighbors asking if she could spend the night. Mindy quickly nipped that in the bud. Told her she needed to be home soon. Bella came in and went right upstairs expressing her displeasure with Mindy’s decision. I reminded Mindy to go easy on her since she was overtired.

We hung out with Joe and Chris for a couple hours having fun talking and sipping some Jack. Jacob hung with us the entire time too.  Joe had quite a buzz going. In fact, I’m quite sure he had a good buzz going even before he got there. Not to fear. Chris was driving, and he seemed fine after having only two small drinks during their visit. I’m thinking it was around 1030pm when they left.

We weren’t up too much longer. All four of us headed up to bed about the same time. Eiknarf was sleeping with Bella.