Where's the Snow, Dammit?

I was up and out of bed about 10 minutes early, but the good sleep ended as much as 30 minutes before that. I felt darn good after falling asleep at roughly 830pm the night before. It was Wednesday which coincides with rain. For whatever the reason, the two have gone hand in hand for several months running now. It was raining pretty hard too. After sit-ups and push-ups, I checked the weather forecast. It was 41 degrees with steady rain, conditions I utterly abhor. 

I enjoyed coffee and internet until 555am, which was more than enough time to surf the net end-to-end. :)  I made it a point to dedicate more time and effort to meditation, something I sorely needed. Inside, I’m still horribly tormented with the crappy weather,  or the absence of snow having so much wrapped up in its presence both her at home and then in HV. And I know I am stressing over things completely out of my control, but I need to be honest. It’s what’s eating Gilbert Grape.

I delivered Mindy’s coffee just before 620am after both meditation and stretching.  I wasn’t at her side long. I was back downstairs, dressed, and out the door for my run by 625am. Thankfully, the rain was reduced to a light sprinkle for most of my run. I got wet but not drenched. There’s a big difference. I hardly noticed it at all. It picked up again as I neared home, but that’s never an issue. By then I’m usually a hot steaming furnace.

Before setting out on my run I had the wherewithal to place Eiknarf’s leash by the door along with a Kroger bag. All I needed was the pug. From the front porch, I spotted her sitting atop the stairs almost as if she were awaiting my return. I rang the door bell and it worked. She came running, barking. I promptly opened the door, leashed her up, and headed out. We walked for a while before she finally relieved herself.

Back at home, my eggs were ready and so were Eiknarf’s. I left hers in the pan while I enjoyed my own. Bella was heading back to school following her illness Tuesday. She came down wearing a Santa hat with a tiara attached. She was doing the Beacon Singers Xmas show for the student body that day in the gymnasium. Said here throat was still sore. Mindy reminded her that she’d need to tough it out since neither one of us could leave work. She acknowledged Mindy’s request. Mindy soon left for school and I headed off to the shower. I dressed up a bit, this being a customer site work day.

Bella and I waited in the garage for the bus. It made no sense to stand out in it like Jacob was doing. I noticed that only Lillian boarded from Chrissy’s house. Apparently Makayla was still sick. Too bad.

I wasted no time grabbing my gear and heading off to work. The rain was coming down pretty hard when I left the house. Another rainy drive around I-270 in the pouring rain. It’s almost comical.  Traffic wasn’t an issue, although the pace was somewhat slower due to the rain. Even still, I made it to the office by 850am. With a fairly long walk to the building from the lot, I was happy that the rain was once again reduced to only a sprinkle.

I hadn’t sat my stuff down for even a minute when the customer brought me an escalation needing immediate attention. It took about 20 minutes to get my laptop booted up and on the network, but as soon as I could, I got their issue addressed. I had a 10 and 11am meeting planned, the former to review current issues and the later to review the November monthly report. I’m liking 11am time slot far better than the old 1pm time frame. We wrapped up the second meeting in something less than an hour. I hoped to head to Easton for some Xmas shopping if time and work load permitted. And as luck would have it, I headed out near 1230pm.

I planned stops at Target, Dick’s and Macy’s, but Target first. I used my Droid not only for my shopping list, but also to zero in on the Easton Dick’s, which I hoped to make my 2^nd stop. Very cool. Thanks to GPS, the Droid already knew where I was and pointed out that Dick's was just around the bend. I headed in Target where I spent about 30 minutes getting almost all the items on my list.

Feeling a bit pinched for time, I thought better of my vanity stop at Dick’s and instead headed over to Macy’s. Though I’ve shopped this one before, I wasn’t familiar with the layout. Took me a while to find the departments I was interested in visiting. Probably spent another 45 minutes there. Got most of what I had on the list. Felt good about that. But what’s even better, I saved a ton of money between the sale price, extra discount for Wednesday, and then a special 20% coupon I received in the mail. Nice! Could NOT have picked up the same stuff at a discount retailer for less.

I’d been gone for about 90 minutes. As much as I wanted to keep shopping, I made the responsible choice and headed back to work. The afternoon went smoothly. I joined a scheduled call/meeting at 4pm that lasted until 430pm. As luck would have it, I got involved in a significant issue at day’s end and didn’t get out of there until almost 545pm. With a 30 minute drive home, that would get me there close to 615pm.

I called Mindy once I was on the freeway. She said she tried calling, but I had my phone on do-not-disturb mode for most of the afternoon. Said we had dinner guests, her friend Jennifer and niece Lindy. Both, she said, were staying for dinner. I love them both but also was tired and crabby after a long, rainy day. At first Mindy said she’d wait for my arrival before serving dinner. I asked that they go ahead and eat.

Hit the normal slow down near Sawmill but otherwise it was smooth sailing until I hit the reconstruction near

Roberts Rd

, but even that kept moving. I was home by 615pm as predicted.  Sure enough, everyone was engaged in dinner when I entered. I felt a bit awkward. I went through the normal after work paces of unloading my lunch containers,  stowing my jacket, then a little banter.

Hungry, I went ahead and prepared myself a plate of the chicken and pasta concoction Mindy whipped up. I joined the others who were all but done with theirs. Asked Bella about her concert to which Jacob butted in to share his perspective. Mindy quickly asked him to stop talking and let Bella share. She said it went OK but that her throat bothered her throughout. It hadn't dawned on me until I was halfway through dinner that Lindy was over post surgery. Looked great, exceptionally even. I apologized for not asking how she was doing earlier.

Mindy's pal Jennifer made some comment about this being the first time she's seen me at a non-booze related event. Not sure how good that is, I retorted. As I understood it, Lindy worked on everybody's hair save for Jacob.

Jennifer left while I was in the middle of the clean-up. We've been wanting to hook her up with Tom Clark for some time now. She's attractive, fun, and smart. Lindy hung out playing Wii with the kids for about an hour. At some point Mindy shared that she saw & talked with Rene at the professional development class. I miss Rene. We used to hang out almost weekly.

I'm guessing that it was after 800pm when Lindy departed. Jacob promptly tuned the TV to the Buckeye basketball game. He watched the entire first half from the family room but spent halftime in the basement playing with his new mini-basketball hoop setup. Think loud!

Mindy headed to bed shortly after 9pm asking that the kids find themselves there by 915pm. Not five minutes later Jacob headed to his room to catch the rest of the basketball game. Growing bored with the basketball game well well before it was over, I tuned the TV to the NatGeo channel where I watched a far more interesting program about massive black holes and how we now know that they reside at the center of each and every galaxy in the universe, including our own - the Milky Way. Whereas in the past we've  associated black holes with epic destruction, now the prevailing thought is that they may in fact be the 'machine' that cranks out the actual galaxy. Makes total sense to me.

I popped some popcorn to enjoy while watching TV.  Bella's highly evolved sniffer must've smelt it from her room and soon found her way to my side on the sofa where we shared what remained of the tasty snack. She didn't hang that long. She headed back to bed near 945pm. I stayed up until 1030pm.