Sun & Soccer ... What?

I woke with a throbbing headache around 5am. I wisely made my way to the medicine cabinet to throw down some Advil. I think I took three. An hour later my headache was gone. I forced myself out of bed at 750am knowing that we needed to be at Jacob’s soccer game by 10am. Mindy remained sleeping, but did wake long enough to request that I bring her coffee.

My first priority was starting coffee, which I took care of that while trying to be extra quiet since Bella and Makayla were crashed out on the sofa. I had enough alone time to enjoy a little coffee and also deal with an unexpected work related escalation.  I wasn’t on-call but didn’t want to leave my customer hanging, either. 

I never did get around to delivering Mindy’s coffee before she woke on her own. I was still knee deep in work when she came downstairs. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind for a weekend. Mindy wondered if work was going to keep me from Jacob’s soccer game. I hoped not, and thankfully, after about 45 minutes everything was under control. While she headed off to the shower I headed out for my run.

I’m thinking that was just after 9am. It was gorgeous out, about 60 degrees and sunny. I ran the usual abbreviated track – 3 miles. It was a good run, too. Jimaken came by to pick-up Jacob early since players & coaches are expected there 30 minutes prior to kick-off.  Mindy & Bella were just about ready by the time I got back from my run. I had enough time to towel off, grab a cheese stick, some water, and my personal electronics. We opted to drive the Accord. Bella & Jacob would be leaving with Jimaken after the game to go apple picking, something they do together every October.

We arrived at the soccer field at 1005am. Sure enough, the game was already underway. This might’ve been the first nice weather soccer game we’ve been to since last fall season. This past spring and the early part of this fall season has been cloudy, rainy and cool. It felt good to sit in the sunshine, and there wasn’t a cloud anywhere to be seen. I saw Jacob score two goals. They ahead for a while.

Some time during the second half the other team scored three goals in the span of about 4 minutes. I could tell that Jacob and a couple of his team mates were upset. And while I didn’t know the official score, I assumed it 3 to 3. Just before the game ended the opposing team scored another goal. I felt bad. I thought we lost 4-3. I toted all three of our camp chairs to the car while Mindy went to hug Jacob and hand-off Bella. I walked back to the family to learn that it was a tie, 4-4. I guess Jacob scored a goal just before we got there. Given where they’ve been, he was happy simply not to lose.  We were happy for him.

 Jimaken figured to be gone with the kids for a couple hours. Mindy and I headed home. It was 1120am. We planned to clear all the empty boxes from the basement, the second move in our larger plan to rid the basement of all the unnecessary junk.

As we pulled into our subdivision we encountered a city dump truck sideways in the road dumping dirt into two giant holes they made repairing the water main earlier in the week. They were blocking my lane completely and even some of the oncoming lane. They didn’t have any one flagging traffic, either. With the on coming traffic passing through the narrow opening we sat back waiting for our turn to mosey on by. I was careful and deliberate as I poked out from behind the dump truck. A car coming down the road from the opposing direction was giving no deference to me. It basically became a game of chicken. But the thing is, I had to commit sooner or later and poke out there. He had tons of room to slow and give me and the few others behind me space to pass. As we passed vehicles he was giving me the stink eye and espousing some unkind words. Rather than acknowledge I flipped him the bird and kept going. Mindy wasn’t happy, but neither was I. After all, I had little choice once I pulled out from behind the dump truck.  The car turned quickly into a driveway acting as if he was gonna come back after me. At the time I was like bring it on. He must’ve thought better of it and headed on his merry way. And a good bet his wife was giving him an earful.

Once at home, Mindy and I both went for some food. I ate Jacob’s leftover wings and Mindy made and ate some avocado wrap. Out of the blue, Mindy pulled all the burners from the stove and soaked the porcelain tray just below with Fantastik. In 17 years, I’ve never seen our stove so filthy will spillover.

The first thing we carried up and out of the basement was the kids play kitchen and all the accessories. Mindy has a teacher friend with young girls who she plans on giving it to. She wanted it on the deck so she could clean it. While she started cleaning the play stove, I started deep cleaning the real stove. This was a job only I could do right. Not only was there a ridiculous amount of spill over, but the underside of the burner shelf was tarnished from all the spillage. I’ll bet I spent 30 minutes getting it looking like new. The only thing I didn’t do was pull it out away from the wall to clean the sides and underneath.

We headed back to the basement to do the boxes. I started by giving up the boxes for my newest PC, now almost two years old. What the hell. Mindy agreed to tote them up as I sanctioned them keep or pitch. We got rid of a bunch of boxes. Next up was my old running shoe boxes, which I’ll bet there were about 40 of them. There were only about a dozen with old running shoes still in them. We separated those to give to charity. Most look fine on top, but all have worn out soles. We made sure to remove any receipts from the boxes. Back in the day, the left the card# on the receipt.

We loaded all the boxes into the Honda. Both of us were surprised that we got them all in. Mindy planned to drop the boxes at the Grandview/Arlington Kroger recycling center and then do some grocery shopping.

The next step is to donate/throw away the stuff in the basement we no longer want/need.

Next on my agenda was cutting the lawn. I hoped to get all of my lawn chores done on Saturday enabling me to golf on Sunday, something I’ve done comparably little of this season to date. I worked on the lawn for the next couple hours. Sometime in there Mindy left for the grocery. After finishing the lawn I took a few minutes to put new string around my new grass out by the curb to keep dogs and kids off. One of the lengths broke.

All afternoon I half expected the guy I flipped off to drive by to chat about our run in. Sure enough, while I had my back turned to the street I heard a car pull up and stop behind me. I knew without looking it would be him. Sure enough, it was. An older gentleman, probably mid 50s with his wife and another adult in the back He asked if I was the one that flipped him off. At first I played dumb, but then walked to his opened window, leaned in called him out.

No, not really. I acknowledged that it was me and that I was disappointed in myself for doing so. I reached to shake his hand and apologized. I told him it wasn’t the kind of person I want to be. He was more than eager to be friends and quickly introduced his wife, and then we started talking about the poor logistics the city employed to do their work in the first place. I felt a lot better afterwards. I think he did too.

As soon as I was done with the lawn chores I moved on to washing the Accord. Mindy still wasn’t home from the grocery. While she was gone, Bella was inside helping her momma a big bunch. She was busy sweeping and vacuuming the floor, but wanted to help wash the Accord too. Sure. As soon as she finished the floor she came out to assist. What a big helper! We tag teamed the Accord and were done in no time at all. I was relived to finally give it a thorough bath. It was filthy inside and out.

Mindy was soon home from the grocery I’m guessing around 3pm. She and Bella started making an apple pie with some of the apples the kids picked with their daddy.  Kenny, I could see, was getting ready to stain his deck. And given that he’s helped me with so many projects, I wanted to help him. At the same time, the boys, Jake, Jacob, and Evan, wanted me to play football – all time quarterback. I threw a few passes but excused myself to help Kenny. I went inside first, though, to change into my staining clothes – a stained t-shirt and an old pair of Jams I’ve used for staining/painting many times over the years.

And since Kenny’s deck is all deck and benches – no rail or pergola, I knew it would go fast with two people. I guessed in a 3-5 hour job alone. Two people even faster. I think it took us about two hours. That’s it. I was envious given that it took me 12 hours or two full days.

We had plans to cookout at our house with the neighbors before the Buckeye game.  I think we finished staining around 600pm. Mindy pretty much did all the cooking, though each of the neighbors were bringing something.  At the time I wanted/needed a shower and then a cold beer. As always, after a run, a long day of chores, a shower felt terrific. Felt like a new man.

Mindy grilled the steaks while I took my first break of the day. I poured myself a Galaxy 500 IPA. Oh boy was it ever delicious! The Buckeye game was slated to kick-off at 8pm. The idea was to have dinner done and out of the way by then. Mindy had the food ready by roughly 7pm, and all the neighbors, kids included, were down about then too. The mom’s made sure all the kids were taken care of first. I ended up only taking half a steak. I wasn’t really that hungry.

I did the clean-up immediately after dinner so we could watch the game. It kicked off a little after 8pm from Lincoln, Nebraska. Things started well for the Buckeyes and they steadily built a 20-6 lead going into halftime. Nice work. As a side, Jacob and I had a bet. He gave me the Buckeyes and 16 points. I teased him throughout the game, adding 16 points to the Buckeyes existing lead.

After the half, the Buckeyes came out firing again and built their lead to 27-6. We even stopped Nebraska’s next possession forcing them to punt. It looked like we were gonna keep pushing the gas peddle, too. We were driving again when all of the sudden our quarterback was stripped of the ball as he rushed for about 8 yards. Folks, that’s where the game ended. Nebraska ran off 28 unanswered points over the next quarter and a half. The won 34-27. Ouch. That one hurt.

The house cleared of guests soon after the game ended.  Everyone in our house headed off to bed. I stayed up a while longer cleaning up what little mess remained. I’m thinking that I was in bed around midnight. Good night moon!