Silencing the Water

I woke to my bedroom clock flashing 412am which meant that I had no idea the real time. Don’t recall the power bouncing. However, it was still pitch dark, so I knew it wasn’t yet dawn. I went back to sleep for a few more minutes until I decided to pop out of bed and glance over at Mindy’s clock, which by then showed it to be just after 5am. Mindy keeps her clock about 15 minutes fast. I judged it to be about 445am. I went back to sleep using my clock despite it flashing. I got up when my clock read 5am. I know that sound complicated but it really isn’t.

By the time I brushed my teeth and headed downstairs it was 527am. Not bad! It had rained through the night but by dawn the rain was past us. It was still mostly cloudy though. I planned to work from home until the water department paid me a visit to replace our noisy water meter. I planned to head into the office and work until leaving for my 6 month dental appointment scheduled for 310pm.

I proceeded with my routine like any other work day, the only difference being that I was ahead of schedule by a few minutes. And since I’ve been sleeping 10-15 minutes late a lot lately, it seemed I was ahead by a whole lot more. I exercised, enjoyed coffee and played on the PC until 605am. At that point I headed to the family room for a 12 minute meditation session. That went well. And since I was ahead of schedule, I did my stretch before heading upstairs to wake Mindy.

By the time I was done stretching it was 622am. I delivered Mindy’s coffee a minute or two later. She explained that she needs to fall asleep on my chest. Hasn’t been able to for the past few nights due to my headache. And speaking of the headache, I could still feel a little tension but the dull ache was gone. I didn’t take any Advil or Acetaminophen. It was 65 degrees so I was able to comfortably run in shorts and short sleeves. I was out the door just after 630am.

I ran the full 4.1 mile track without concern. Returned home sometime after 7am to leash up the pug. Bella had to wrestle her to the top of the stairs, but she came down them on her own. She and I headed west despite all the goose poop. I had to tug her away from it numerous times, each time I fell for the fake bathroom break stop. She’ll do anything to eat that crap.

Back at home, Mindy had a plain omelet prepared for me. She had a salad ready too. Once again, she asked the kids to bus home with Noah. And once again Jacob expressed frustration over the directions. It was a big day for Jacob. His 5th grade class was taking a field trip to the 6th grade school he’ll be attending next school year. Before Mindy left for school I reminded her that I was working from home between 8-11am, or until the water guy arrived and completed his work.

Hit the shower at 735am. I was ready and downstairs again by 750am. I got my laptop fired up and logged on before we headed out to the bus. Bella asked if she could ride her scooter while waiting on the bus, a feat she and her peeps have been a doing a lot of lately. Sure! That seemed to make her morning. I met them out there around 808am. Kenny was out too. We talked about Thursday golf again since I had the day officially off. It was then that Kenny remembered that he volunteered for field day with the kids at school on Wednesday but also needed to be out of town for work. The kids weren’t too forgiving. 

As soon as the kids were on the bus I headed back home and poured a cup of coffee and got to work. Thankfully, it wasn’t too crazy. It’s much harder for me to concentrate when working from home. Too many distractions. The water guy showed up around 840am. I put Eiknarf in her pen so she wouldn’t bother him. Said it would take him no more than 202-5 minutes to replace the meter, both inside and outside.

He was right. It didn’t take him too long at all. I was anxious to give it a try but waited for him to pull away from the curb before testing. It was about 915am. First, I went around the house turning on the various faucets to bleed the air out of the lines. After that I flushed the toilet to see if I could hear the meter. Nope! But the real test would be the irrigation system which hands down draws the most water thus causing the most meter chatter.

And while I was it, I planned to kill two birds with one stone. I wanted to make sure the system would automatically switch through all 6 watering zones. I set each zone to run for just 1 minute then did a manual start. I didn’t hear it kick on so I programmed it again. Still nothing. Hmm? While thinking about it, I heard water now showering against the overhead garage door. It was on. I just couldn’t hear it. I headed inside to the living room and then our bedroom to listen for the meter chatter. From the living room I could hear a quiet ‘shhhh’ sound but no chatter whatsoever. And from our bedroom I couldn’t hear a thing. Mindy, I knew, would be thrilled! Finally, I will able to program the irrigation system to kick on at 4330am again.

The system ran flawlessly through all 6 zones, too. That made me happy. This, I think is year 4 for the system. Only Monday evening did I figure out that our 4” pop-ups on the east side of the house have an adjustable arc. I tweaked three or four to efficiently maximize coverage.

I left for work around 930am arriving an hour later than usual. I encountered my boss just as I was getting off the elevator. We chatted briefly before I got crackin’ with my day. Once settled in I spent what was left of the morning working on a proactive project for one of my new customers. I joined a conference call at 1pm that went until 215pm. I planned to leave for the dentist’s office at 245pm. We had a 415pm team meeting scheduled. I hoped to be done with my dental appointment in time to join the call, even if I had to join it remotely from my car. Because of the dental appointment, I decided not to eat my salad and banana. Instead, I ate just some cheese. I brushed well before leaving the office.

Arrived at Dr March’s place at 302pm. I was hoping they’d get me right in but Heather shared that they were running a little behind due to two staffers being out on vacation. I perused an article about John Travolta while waiting. It must’ve been about 325 when Heather came to get me. But by then I was engaged in a phone call with one of my customers. I took care of the issue quickly then hurried back for my cleaning and exam.

The cleaning went pretty quickly thanks in part to having my permanent retainer removed last summer. She always complained about build-up below and around it despite my incessant flossing. No more. Dr March gave me a once over when she finished. She mentioned that my front teeth seemed a tad wiggly which would alarm anyone. Dr March checked and disputed her assertion. I mentioned a rough edge behind my right canine. Said he could smooth it out but I’d have to wait for a few. An alternative more agreeable to both of us was to take care of it at my next visit the week after TG.

Got my goodie bag and was on my way. It was only 354pm. I had to make a quick decision, do I return to the office or simply head home and join our call from there. I opted for home. I got home by 408am and quickly got myself situated for the call and also logged onto the network, though I joined the call via blackberry a few minutes before I was back online on my laptop. The meeting was informative but no more than 20 minutes long.

I stayed busy until just after 5pm, or when Mindy and the kids arrived home. A flush of somewhat urgent emails showed up in my inbox just as I was walking away. I went ahead and took care of a few household chores as well as greeting the family before addressing the two or three I deemed essential.

Mindy asked how I felt about dinner at Barley’s. I wasn’t in favor of dinner out citing my headache as one main reason, but more than anything I just wanted to relax at home. Mindy suggested that we had a fridge full of leftovers anyhow. We did. We had pizza, chicken, and enchiladas. I opted for pizza. So did Jacob. Despite sounding horrible, he was eating an awful lot. Bella and Mindy had enchiladas.

Darwin’s son, Lane was over and out in the back yard waiting for Jacob to finish dinner. They seem to get along well. They’re birthday’s are within a month of one another. After dinner and clean-up I did a little more work. Then, out of the blue, Bella came in asking if Mindy would take her to the school’s art show. Prior to the request, we knew nothing of it. Mindy surprised me and agreed to go. No one appreciates school artwork more than me, but I just wasn’t in the mood to run out anywhere. Jacob didn’t want to go either.

While those two were away I retrieved the mail. Looked like a check from my insurance company. Hmm? I opened it. Yep, a sizable check. Seems they did in fact double bill my mortgage company for our homeowner’s policy. Somehow they have us with two policy numbers. I think it was caused when I added Mindy. I called them a day after receiving two separate statements and asked if they were double billing. They insisted not and further shared that our premium had reduced significantly. Apparently they were wrong. The details of the check shared as much. At least they corrected the mistake, though it made me wonder if they might’ve done the same thing the year prior. I planned to pull my mortgage statements which show all outgoing escrow payments.

Somehow or another I remembered that this was the day Haley Rinehart’s first CD would hit the shelves. I went to my PC to buy it via iTunes. I only showed $.02 in my account but had another $25 iTunes gift card to redeem. However, when I scratched off the silver strip to reveal the code, the last few numbers came off with it. What the %^&&! I could make out part of the number third form the left then a small piece of the last, but the 2nd from the end was totally gone. I tried several combinations but to no avail. Each time returning invalid redemption code. Crap! What now?

On iTunes page there’s a link for service and a means of getting the issue corrected. It was a bit cloogey to use, however. I had to submit the lengthy serial number of the card along with several other bits of data, including the part of the number I could read as well my user name and password. Somehow I had two or three windows open reporting the same issue. Not sure that the first went through I proceeded filling it our again. This time when it asked me to supply the code I tried entering what it looked like, and on the third try it took. Somehow I figured out the last three alpha/digits. But it’s not like I guessed at random. As I shared earlier I could detect parts of two characters. As soon as I had the credit in my account I bought the CD.

I enjoyed the single they released a month prior quite a bit, but at first blush the rest of the CD doesn’t sound as good as I hoped. I’m guessing/hoping it’ll grow on me, though. I let the entire CD play while I did other things. At 8pm I joined Mindy and Bella in the family room to catch Idol finale sing night. Instead of the usual Wednesday & Thursday, it’s on Tuesday & Wednesday this week. At this point, I feel indifferent to who wins. Most of the top ten will get a crack at some music deal. I listened and watched passively while also reading the final pages, including the epilogue, of my latest book, The War of Worldviews – Deepak Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow. I was far more interested in the reading.

Idol lasted only an hour. Wednesday they’ll announce the results revealing the season 11 winner. Mindy and the kids headed for bed just after 9pm. Like most other evenings, I stayed up reading and watching TV finishing my book around 940pm and then watching Discovery Channel, How It’s Made. Headed for bed around 1030pm. Mindy was awake enough to roll over and lay on my chest once I was in bed.