Rain, Cut, Plant, & Drink

I was up early for a Saturday, and even before 7am. It was cloudy but the forecast promised clearing skies as the day wore on. I was hoping for sooner rather than later. I planned to run and then head to the Shred-It event and perhaps Home Depot for more flowers. And if the weather cooperated I still hoped to mow the lawn.

I sipped coffee and enjoyed the quiet morning for about 90 minutes. I left for a run around 830am. It was still cloudy but there were a few breaks in the cloud cover to instill hope of the better weather to come. I ran the usual 3 mile weekend trail. Not sure the time when Mindy finally woke but it wasn’t long after my run. In fact, she may have been up by the time I got back. Can’t recall.

At any rate, I shared my intentions of heading to the Shred-It event. I asked to take the Pilot. She agreed. She was going to Jacob’s soccer game in Mt Vernon, not so much out of pleasure, but instead to police his behavior. In fact, she promised to walk out on the field and bench him if necessary.  It was still cloudy when I left for the Schott. I headed east on Lane Avenue and missed the first entrance into the Schott. As always, there was lots of other activity including a plant sale and a race going on at the same time. It was bustling with action. I was surprised to see so many news trucks from the big networks on hand. Sure, they’re often at the Shred-It event but only in regular vans.

The crowd at the Schott seemed unusually large, too. As I was turning around to gain entry an usher informed me that the Shred-It event was canceled. What? I could’ve been mad, but decided to take it in stride. I noticed that a lot of folks were wearing pro Obama attire. I guessed it was he who was at or coming to the Schott and caused the event’s cancellation. I later learned that accurate. I headed to the Mill Run Home Depot.

Instead of the clouds thinning, they thickened and the sky turned dark. Looked like more heavy rain moving in. Thankfully though, it moved out almost as quickly as it formed. While at the Depot I bought three 10” potted hibiscus plants, one trimmed like a tree. I also bought yet another giant bag of Miracle Grow Potting soil. That’s $48 in potting soil this year. Yikes! I picked up a couple other items too.

On my way home I stopped at Tim Horton’s to pick-up donuts for the kids. I knew they’d appreciate the surprise, especially Bella. I bought a dozen donuts and 20 Tim-Bits. At home I carried in the donuts then shared that the Shred-It event was cancelled. I quickly headed out to carry my new plats to the deck. However, I planned to cut the lawn before doing any planting.

It was near 11am. I headed out to cut the lawn despite it being wet. Heck, it certainly wasn’t going to get any easier. I push-mowed the front first and then the back. Took my time. Had to raise the blade on the western half of the front yard. Despite it being relatively cool – about 70 degrees - I worked up a good sweat. Doing the tractor mowing felt great. Did all the trimming, edging, and blowing next. The lawn was looking great.

Before getting started on the planting around back, I decided to fix the sod just off the side of the driveway that Mindy managed to smash after driving over it a time or three this past winter when it was saturated with rain. That required cutting out a rectangle of sod about 3” deep to keep the roots in tact. I then removed a lot of the exposed gravel
Then built the area up with a bag of top soil I had in the shed from last spring. While worked on the sod, Jimaken showed up to pick-up Jacob. They left for Mt Vernon about 30 minutes or so before Mindy. I later learned that Mindy toyed with the idea of simply riding with them, but ended up not.

She hung out chatting with me while admiring my handy lawn work. At the same time three cars went speeding down our street, appearing to be racing or chasing one another. Two of the cars were beaters and the drivers looked scary (not from our subdivision). They were flying, too. I tried getting plate numbers but they were going to fast. But lo and behold, they came flying by again, only this time from the opposite direction. Mindy said she thought they were going about 90mph. Once again, I couldn’t get the full plate numbers. I gave them the serious stink eye.

About 5-10 minutes passed before the nicer car, a Ford Mustang came back down our street and pulled up in front of our house and rolled down the window. Needless to say, I was a little nervous. Turns out, this guy said they almost ran into him on the curve earlier and he chased after them after finding himself scared stiff. Mindy shared her 90 mph hour thing with him, though I quickly pooh-poohed it. He chimed in that he was doing 85 mph. Hmm? He also said he wasn’t foolin’ around and showed up his holstered pistol. Said he holds a concealed carry permit. Yikes!

Happily, things quieted down considerably. Mindy left for Mt Vernon and I headed around back to start planting. Potted two of the three hibiscus. Took longer than one might think – me included. Made myself a sandwich late afternoon. Sun came out around 2-3pm, and it was gorgeous from that point forward. So nice, and with lots of day light left, I decided to work on the sprinkler heads, a job I originally figured I would do Sunday.

I ended up replacing the three rotating sprinkler heads along the west side of the house with pop-ups with an adjustable arc and spray. That would solve the dry flowers on that side of the house issue. Went even easier than I envisioned, especially after the first one. I was very pleased, but got drenched testing and adjusting them. No other way to do it, though. It was close to 6pm when I called it a day. By then, Mindy and Jacob were home from Mt Vernon. Jacob’s team got blown out. She said he was a good sport about it.

The neighbors were out to dinner celebrating Rachel’s nursing school graduation – her second bachelor’s degree. Planned a get-together at their place after. We were invited down. I showered up and was ready by 630-7pm. Our kids were still off playing with friends when we headed to the neighbors. Mindy poured me a Bodhi before we walked down to Kenny & Chrissy’s. Lots of Kenny’s family was there, and apparently all of them went out to dinner. Didn’t realize how many of them smoked. Yikes! The deck was smoke fest.

After about 30 minutes of visiting, Kenny got out his cornhole boards and he, Josh, Ben and I played a game. Kenny & I lost to Josh, who might be the best cornhole player I’ve ever met. It’s uncommon for him to miss the board with even one bag. I bored of playing after one game anyhow and was happy to go back to the deck and chat with the others. Mindy fetched her and I another beer. I ended up bring the entire new jug a little later.

Several of us got in a dangerous conversation about religion, something I’d recommend avoiding when in mixed company and when drinking. I participated only loosely and eventually begged out, choosing instead to keep the mood light. Daylight turned into darkness in a hurry.

It was super moon night and we were blessed with a gorgeous orange moonrise. I checked it out only briefly before moving on to something else. We ended up partying with the neighbors until pretty late, at least for us. I’m thinking that Mindy and I headed home around 11-1130pm. Several folks were still going strong even after we left. While there, I polished off the rest of our jug as well as one of Kenny’s Labatt Blue’s. I was feeling no pain. Mindy headed directly to bed while I dangled behind checking the Red’s final score and then email. I woofed down some food real quick too. I joined Mindy in bed. She was already asleep. Didn’t take me long either. Good night super moon!