Saving My Sanity @ Barley's & CBC

I agreed to take the boys to school because Lindsey’s car was in the shop. I planned to leave the house after exercise and coffee. To that end, I was up near 7am. I started some coffee then completed both sit-ups and push-ups.

I saw that Lindsey sent me a text reminding not to forget to take the boys to school. Believe it or not, I remembered my commitment. J I spent a little time on the internet enjoying some coffee before leaving to fetch the boys. I tooted my horn just outside of Lindsey’s apartment.

Lindsey had them ready and out the door a minute or two later. She verified once more that I would pick them up from school at 130pm and then take her and them to Rocky’s doctor’s appointment. Yes. I headed to Magdalene to drop the boys. Both kids seemed happy and eager to be at school. Makes it all worth it.

It was a lovely morning, sunny and about 45 degrees. I headed back home, arriving near 815am. I enjoyed a little more coffee, did a brief meditation and then a stretch before readying myself for a run. Everyone else remained asleep. I headed out the door around 830am. Aside from the already busy dredging team, the subdivision was eerily quiet.

I ran only three miles treating it much like a weekend day. It was an enjoyable easy run. The trash truck came by while I was off on my run. I dragged the empty can back to the side of the house before heading inside.

I spent time writing in my blog while enjoying coffee. Mindy must’ve gotten up somewhere close to 930am. And it wasn’t too long before the three girls (Bella, Makayla, and Emily) were up, too. Mindy agreed to make them a batch of waffles. She asked if I wanted any. No.

Around 10am I placed a call to Hatfield Hyundai to make sure that they were working on Lindsey’s car. I had to leave a VM for Rich. He called me back a few minutes later sharing the details of the necessary repairs. Said the rear brake pads were falling apart and the drums needed turned. Said it would be another $284. I wasn’t too happy and asked that they deduct what I already spent on the brakes four days prior. He insisted he did. Said he hoped to have it ready later that day.

Lindsey called within the hour giving me her version of the car’s repairs. Against my will, she had called Hatfield too. She thought the work should be free. I knew better. She once again verified that I would pick up the boys at 130pm. Shoot me … please!

Mindy & Jacob left between 1030-11am to pick-up the food Chrissy ordered for her brother-in-laws wake from the Sawmill Olive Garden. Mindy agreed to pick-up and set-up the food while Chrissy was off at the funeral. That was nice.

While they were gone, I began making sauerkraut balls. It’s quite a production. I used the Pampered Chef chopper to dice a red onion, apple, bell and jalapeño peppers, and then sauerkraut. I tried using it to cut up a block of pepper jack cheese too, but it was too gummy. I had to use another tool to dice up the cheese. Next, I browned a pound of sausage adding half of all the chopped stuff. I saved the rest in plastic storage containers for another batch on Saturday.

Mindy & Jacob were back after about 30 minutes. They took the food down to Chrissy’s and were gone for another 20 minutes. By the time they were back the sauerkraut ball concoction was in the fridge and the clean-up process underway.

It was about 12noon when Mindy headed back to the neighbors as a guest. She asked if I planned to stop down before heading off to pick-up the boys. Yes, but I needed a shower first. I was showered and ready in short order. I walked down to the neighbors around 1220pm where I greeted Julie M. who was sitting on the deck having a smoke. After a brief chat we headed inside.

Still a good crowd, and most enjoying the Olive Garden bounty. I decided not to eat anything and instead only visited with a few familiar faces. I couldn’t stay long. Meanwhile, Lindsey was texting both Mindy & I reminding me/us that we needed to get the boys and then asking what time I would be by to pick her up. I also agreed to take her to the post office to pickup her mailbox key. Toying with her incessant texting, I responded with a ‘yes’, which only prompted more texts. Mindy, Kenny, and Mike M. laughed at the prank and then kept it up even after I left.

I pulled up at Lindsey’s apartment around 1240pm. I had to call her cell to get her attention. She went on about the confusing texts. Said she’d be down in a minute. We headed off to the post office first, the entire time me thinking it was still at Westland Mall behind the Huntington Bank. It wasn’t until we exited I-270 at

West Broad St

that Lindsey pointed out that it moved to the old Central Hardware building. I think I knew that but had forgotten. Not too big of a deal, though.

One of the post office doors is boarded up. Looks pretty scary. Lindsey was inside for just a few minutes while I waited outside in the Accord. We headed off to fetch the boys at Magdalene. We were ahead of schedule. It was 105pm. I took advantage of the alone time to talk with Lindsey about a few things. One, being the rude comments she made about Mindy the night before when dropping the car. I told her that speaking ill of Mindy was the same as speaking ill of me. I went on to calmly tell her that I was willing to write her off and move on with my life if she continues as such. I also reminded her that Mindy treats her and the boys better than even her own mother. She agreed and apologized. I told her the apology needs to be spoken to Mindy more so than I. She went on to share how hard all of this has been for her. While I understand, this is the life she’s forged. We touched on a few other things too.

Arrived at the school 15 minutes early. Landon’s class was just making their way from the preschool building across the street to the main school building when Lindsey intercepted him. She then headed inside the school building to get Rocky. She was gone for almost 15 minutes.

All three finally emerged from the school near 130pm. Rocky was extremely quiet and somber – a dramatic change from the norm.  I couldn’t help but wonder if it was the new meds. He had a creepy, far away look in his eyes, too. Funny thing is, his teacher told Lindsey that this was his best behavior day in the last two weeks. Hmmm?

His doctor’s appointment wasn’t for a while yet – 315pm. I suggested I drop them there early to see if he could be seen sooner. Lindsey agreed, but said they’d most likely make them wait. So that’s what we did. I dropped them at the Pediatric Physicians building in Mill Run near 2pm. Meanwhile, Landon wanted to go with me to Home Depot and Jack’s Aquarium. Told Lindsey to text me when they were done.

Landon and I headed over to Home Depot to look at Xmas lights. In the door he asked if we could get a cart. Sure, why not? He then asked if we could get one that looked like a car and had a steering wheel. Sure, why not? He ate it up, driving the cart around however briefly. The Xmas lights are right around the corner from the entrance.

I thought I might buy a string of the new color changing 9” icicle lights. However, the sets I saw a week or two earlier were already gone. I stewed over other options but ended up nixing the whole idea. Instead, I thought we’d head next door to Target where I wanted to get 2 more sets of the large C9 colored LED lights. Landon asked if he could get a pretzel with cheese there, too. Yes.

In Target, Landon opted not to ride in a cart. We found the light sets we came for fairly quickly and headed to checkout.  Heading over to get a pretzel, I presented the McDonald’s/Burger King option instead. He liked that way better. No problem. Told him we’d stop there after our last stop at Jack’s Pets to get crickets for the lizard.

Landon loved Jack’s. I let him check out all the animals (fish, guinea pigs, hamsters, and snakes). He insisted that the large python was fake when it didn’t move after we knocked on the glass. We bought a dozen medium-sized crickets. Landon alerted the clerk that a big one was loose on the floor. Cute!

As we walked out of Jack’s Lindsey texted that they were already done with their appointment and ready to be picked up. I explained this to Landon. We headed around the corner to get Lindsey and Rocky, who were outside waiting. Lindsey shared that Hatfield called too, to say that the car was ready. She promised the boys that she would take them to McDonald’s after getting her car.

It was 3pm. We headed directly to Hatfield. Evening traffic was already starting to build, but happily we were able to take 270 without any snarls or abrupt stops. I headed in to settle up for the 2nd brake repairs. Talked with Rich. He went on and on about what they did this time and why they didn’t catch it the first time. Blah blah blah. He also shared that the auto door locks I asked about would be a $300 repair. No thanks.

I headed out to test the brakes myself before handing the car back to Lindsey. Seemed OK. Lindsey and the boys headed off in front of me. I was eager to get back home. Lindsey called me from her cell to let me know that the gas gauge was already on a half tank. Really? Was it that important that you call me while driving? Lindsey trusts no one. I explained that I don’t think the gas gauge is that accurate, having filled it up only 30-40 miles prior with it just above “E”, yet it took only 8 gallons.

When I arrived home, Mindy was in the basement sorting through all the kids toys with the idea being to purge ourselves of the stuff the kids no longer play with. Jacob already said there was nothing down there he wanted. Bella, on the other hand, wants to keep a few things. Mindy had  already made plenty of progress. There were 2 or 3 trash bags full of stuff for the trash, but even more to be given away to charity.

While Mindy continued her basement purging project, I fetched the existing LED Xmas light sets from the attic over the garage in preparation for hanging. It was 420pm. With a hour or so of daylight remaining I figured it a good time to give the Accord a bath. I went to Mindy asking if she had a couple $1 bills I could borrow to get my car washed. She gave me three.

I gathered my wash bucket and headed off to the

Wilson Rd

carwash. Every bay was full. I was a little surprised because it was a week day. But then again, it was the day before a major holiday and still quite sunny.  Everybody had the same idea as me. I was fortunate. The bay I pulled into was quickly vacated. I changed $2 into quarters and proceeded to wash my car. I used the hot soapy wash cycle and the hot rinse. Polishing the

Accord after the previous washing, I was hopeful that it would clean much easier this time, and then many times forward. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. Out in the sunshine, I used my shami to dry it off. I could see that despite the hot soapy power wash, a film of dirt remained. I had to wipe hard to get the grime off the car. A black car in the sunshine shows everything.

I was back at the house just after 5pm wiping away the few spots I missed at the car wash. Chrissy and Julie stopped by in the SUV on their way back from picking up beer and wine. We were chatting curbside when Jimaken pulled up behind them to pick-up the kids.

Jimaken was there just long enough to scoop up the kids. The plan called for him to keep the kids through midday Thanksgiving. Mindy and I would have a kidless evening. To that end, I suggested Barley’s or CBC, but leaned more heavily towards Barley’s. Mindy was leaning the other way.

It was about 530pm. Mindy headed back to the basement for more cleaning, organizing, and purging. I got busy making a cheesecake to take to her mom’s. I figured it could be done baking near 7pm, or just about the time we usually like to head out. Perfect! I methodically went about making my cheesecake opting to keep it fairly simple and plain to meet the tastes of many. It took about 30 minutes to prepare both the graham cracker crust and  filling. I decided to employ a trick I got from the Food Channel years back to help prevent the cake from cracking and collapsing after baking. The trick is to set the springform pan in a pool of water while it bakes. I used a deep baking sheet as the ‘water pan’. I also cranked the temperature down from 350 to 325 degrees. I set the timer to one hour.

While the cheese cake baked, I tested the Xmas light I got out earlier. The 3 LED sets worked fine. However, despite being brand new last season, the white lights on the 3’ wreath were not - not even one. Because not a single bulb was lit,  that lead me to check the fuse which appeared good. In the end, I removed the entire 100 light strand visually inspecting each bulb. After spending 15 minutes dissecting the light set, I determined them to be trash. I'd need to pick-up a new set, perhaps on Friday.

The cheesecake had about 15 minutes remaining on the timer, but I could tell by looks alone that it would need even longer. I figured I’d readjust the timer once the initial hour expired. I headed upstairs to freshen up for out night out. It didn’t’ take me long. I was back downstairs with five minutes remaining on the timer. I went ahead and added another 15 minutes.

Mindy was finally done in the basement for the night. She made a lot of progress. She poured herself a glass of wine to celebrate. It was closing in on 7pm. She headed upstairs to freshen up for our date. I checked the cheese cake after 72 minutes of baking. Satisfied, I turned the oven off, but left the cake inside with the door cracked to let most of the heat out. I planned to leave it set in the oven for a gradual cool down (recommended). So far, it hadn’t cracked and remained flat. If it held, it would mark the first time ever. I noticed that more than half the water in the baking sheet had evaporated.

Mindy & I agreed to pay a visit to both Barley’s and CBC, stopping at Barley’s first for one beer. Our thinking was that we might see a lot of our peeps there. However, there wasn’t too big a crowd at all. We ended up sitting with Calvin who was there by himself. He insisted on buying our beers. I tried their winter warmer but settled on a Centennial. Mindy opted for a glass of wine. Jim B. was there too. I chatted briefly with him, mostly about the OSU football coaching rumors. Lots of talk about it being Urban Meyer, the former Florida Gators coach.

We weren’t at Barley’s for too long, 45 minutes tops. We settled our smallish tab and headed off for CBC. CBC wasn’t busy at all. Might’ve been 20 cars in the lot and only a handful of those folks at the bar. Kate was working the bar. Jamie was serving tables. Don’t know that we’ve known Jamie to serve tables any time prior.

I knew what I wanted. I ordered a Bodhi. Mindy went with a barley wine. Talked quite a bit with Kate since there was only one other couple in the entire bar. Mindy eventually ordered a bowl of their soup of the day – a crab bisque - and a loaf of their freshly baked bread. I ordered nothing. I wasn’t that hungry having shared a basket of fries earlier at Barley’s.

Mindy didn’t care for the soup at all. It wasn’t what she expected. I tried it and liked it enough to enjoy a few more bites. Kate was quick to pick-up on Mindy’s disappointment and offered to comp us an order of the spinach artichoke dip, something she knows we both like. We accepted. I ordered a 2^nd Bodhi as well. We brought two empty growlers to have filled with Bodhi and Barley Wine. We waited until just before we left to get the growlers filled.

There were only four of us patrons in the bar when Robert, a fella we met previously at Barley’s, stumbled in. I quickly recognized his face but was slow to put the relationship together. It came to me while he slipped into the men’s room. He recognized Mindy and I too, and asked if he could join us. Kate must’ve known that he was drunk because while she offered to serve him the beer he ordered, she insisted he eat some food, too. Mindy and I were both very impressed with the tact she used to get him to agree.

Robert sat next to Mindy telling us a story about being on a ‘watch list’ at Barley’s for drinking too much. Went on to tell us a story about Dan, the manager calling the cops on him one night. After sharing his story, he pleaded that we not say anything to Dan about it. We assured him we would not.

We left CBC around 1030pm. Our tab was more than favorable. We tipped Kate extremely well. We left knowing that we’d be heading to the neighbors who were still up partying. Mindy had been exchanging texts with Kenny over the last 45 minutes. Mindy drove us home.

We were home long enough to fridge our growlers and leash up our pug. I grabbed two White Rajahs from the garage fridge and headed out. Mindy poured a glass of wine. We insisted that Eiknarf pee before heading inside the neighbors place. Mike & Teri were over as were Mike & Julie. Julie, however, was sound asleep on the sofa. The kids were playing upstairs or in the basement.

Mindy & I quickly polished off our beer & wine. I headed home to get more for both of us. We were having a good time with the neighbors. Soon we had the music cranking and Mindy was up on the counter top dancing. Suddenly, and seemingly out of nowhere, here came Julie from her slumber joining the others dancing. Now that was funny! We partied with the neighbors until after midnight. We left for home soon after Kenny begged off for bed even with the music still blaring.

We probably didn’t get to sleep until 1am.