1st Day of Summer '12

I wasn’t up until 550am after electing to sleep in a little bit longer than usual. I went through the usual paces of starting coffee, slipping into my exercise shoes, and glancing out back at the weather. The skies were clear as expected. I choked down a naproxen then jumped head long into my exercises completing both sit-ups and push-ups over the next 5-10 minutes.

It was after 6am by the time I was sitting at my PC with coffee. I checked the headlines somewhat anxious to see who won the NBA basketball game the night before. The Heat trailed by 3 points at the half when I headed to bed. The Heat won taking a 3-1 advantage in the 7 game series. Good. I am happy for LBJ.

I halted PC time near 620am and completed both meditation then stretching. Once again, meditation was exceptional. The stretching was good, too. Dressed and headed out for a run around 650am. It was warm and the sun a bit higher in the sky than I’m used to. I took notice of the sun’s position, this the first day of summer, though the actual solstice wouldn’t occur until 709pm EDT. I ran the full 4.1 miles enjoying every step.

It was close to 730am when I finished and immediately started prepping my breakfast and lunch. Enjoyed two fried eggs along with fresh fruit and OJ. Went for Eiknarf next, or just ahead of taking Mindy coffee. We walked to the west doing our best to avoid the dried goose crap on the sidewalks. Back at the house I fed Eiknarf her egg and chow then prepped Mindy’s coffee and headed up for a shower. By then it was darn near 8am.
Mindy didn’t acknowledge the coffee until I was about to walk away. She insisted on hug before I hit the shower. No problem.

I needed a shave. Took care of that and also watered the 6 bedroom plants before a shower, too. Mindy was soon out of bed, in fact had it made and was already downstairs by the time I was ready. Downstairs we enjoyed a little coffee time on the deck drinking in the lovely summery sunshine. Mindy planned to run some errands with the kids, but also had a doctor’s appointment with her ortho/neuro guy. Hopefully her last. I think they were doing lunch with nephew Joe-Joe and maw-maw at the Rusty Bucket, too.

It was a New Albany work day for me. I thought I’d stop in and get a haircut at the local Saturday’s during lunch. I left the house in the Accord at 850am. I took 670 east and didn’t run into any traffic issues. Made great time, arriving at my customer’s digs by 915am. It was an enjoyable walk into the building from the deep lot, the smell of summer hanging heavy in the morning air. Ahh!

We had our regular 10am call. It went smoothly. All the escalated issues had already been addressed. I took the opportunity to share my vacation plans. They needed to know for a couple reasons, one because we needed to reschedule our monthly service meeting, and two, so they wouldn’t try reaching me. I plan to take my laptop on vacation and complete the majority of the monthly report either early mornings or late at night. That was I won’t be scrambling upon my return to work, which can be stressful. They were happy with the plan.

The rest of the morning went smoothly and around 1245pm I left for lunch heading to the Saturday’s up the road a couple miles. Jessica was there, but in the back doing something else when I arrived and they checked me in. I was going to request her specifically but didn’t. Another girl cut my hair. She was a bit older and pudgy. I know it’s not fair but I typically judge my stylist by appearance alone, at least initially. However, the older I get the less I’m concerned about any one haircut. Don’t get me wrong. I want to look good, but I won’t fret over a less than stellar job. It grows back fast. In fact, my last cut was only three weeks ago.

Turned out, the girl did a good job and took a little more length than the last cut. This one should last me until the end of July. As always, I declined the gel citing that I had some in the car and would fix it just so once there. The price has increased yet again - $19.45 before tip. Of course I left a good tip.

After my cut I ventured across the street to Home Depot where I picked up two new color changing solar landscape light fixtures. Also picked up a three pack of small LED flashlights. They’ll come in handy at the beach at night. Spent a while browsing the power tool aisle as well. I walked through the garden center too. I was most impressed with the tree-like gardenia’s that look an awful lot like the hibiscus trees. The difference is that the gardenia’s flower looks more like a rose and smells about as good as any flower I’ve ever smelt. I nearly bought one, but it would have been a tight fit in the Accord. Maybe another time with the Pilot. I headed back to the office. Meanwhile, it was steamy and warm, already about 93 degrees.

Max Shultz was out front taking a break when I got back from lunch. I congratulated him for getting a fulltime gig with my customer. We laughed about how happy that would make his parents. I grabbed my packed lunch from the fridge then headed back to my office where I spent most of the afternoon crunching/merging data in Excel using vlookups and such. Anytime I get absorbed into data gathering and crunching time absolutely flies by, and Wednesday was no exception.

The afternoon was otherwise quiet, no urgent escalations. To that end I left for home just after 430pm. I called Mindy once I was safely on 270. We didn’t talk for too long. She and the kids were just home from running errands all day. She planned to grill something for dinner. Traffic backed up just like usually does near Tuttle Mall and was at a snails crawl the rest of the way south on 270. I didn’t arrive home until about 510pm.

Mindy had the grill going and Bella was on the deck washing our plastic deck chairs that we use sparingly. I noticed a spray bottle of cleaner. I only asked if it was Clorox cleaner that she avoid getting it on the nearby planters. Mindy shared that it was Fantastik. She also shared that I’d have time for a quick nap if I desired. Wow, it’s like she read my mind. I used my book as a sleep aid and after reading a page or two I was out. Next thing I knew Mindy and the kids were waking me for dinner.

She grilled marinated pork chops and heated canned corn. Both were good. Bella asked if Mindy pounded the chops before grilling. She hadn’t. The kids headed off to play with their peeps soon after finishing their meal. Mindy and I talked about our weekend plans, and more specifically, what we’d be doing with David and Anita’s after their arrival Thursday evening. Mindy’s got the spare room all ready for their visit and offered up a few suggestions: boating, dinner at 229 or CBC, etc. David and I are golfing Friday evening at Wilson Rd with others from our graduating class.

After clean-up, Mindy took care of some preparations for a get together she has planned for all her teacher friends tomorrow afternoon at our place. She’s got quite the busy social agenda. I put together an oscillating stand fan Mindy picked up at Wal-Mart, and one we plan to use on the deck on really hot days. I wanted black, but Mindy bought white. It’s not that big of a deal. I opened the two new color changing solar landscape light fixtures too. One wouldn’t work right after pulling the plastic tab. Dang it! I’m not having good luck with the colored lights. I monkeyed with it eventually getting it to come on. The only trouble now as that it wouldn’t go out even in the sunshine. Great! The other seemed to work fine. I left the broken on and resting on the table expecting the battery to drain after a few hours. I figured to return it/exchange it on Thursday to the Mill Run Home Depot.

Now after 730pm, I headed upstairs and changed into my comfy shorts and a t-shirt then settled into the chair with my book. Mindy asked if I wanted to share a beer. Nah. I was good with ice water. I shared that my finger feels as good as it has since before the injury. Still not fully right by any measure, but getting so much better. Mindy offered that I should stay on the Naproxen for at least another week. She also massaged the specific tendon area for a minute or two. I iced it again while reading. That seems to help too.

I tuned the TV to the History Channel 2 watching the end of a program about a lighthouse the Greeks built back in antiquity, some 3000 years ago. They hypothesized about how they generated the beacon for the light. That was interesting, but what I was more interested in was the next program, a show about Einstein’s life. Not only did I watch it live, but also DVR’d it. I am fascinated with his mind and his contribution to physics. One interesting tid-bit about Einstein, he envisioned many of his theories just by sitting or walking quietly. Only later would he do the math and set up experiments to try and prove them correct. The whole idea about warped spacetime fabric is awesome.

Everybody else headed up for bed long before me and well before 10pm. I fell asleep while watching Einstein waking near 1015pm. I headed up to bed and Eiknarf followed. Turned out that everybody was still awake in their rooms, including Mindy who was up reading. I dropped Eiknarf off to Bella then leaped into bed face first, belly down. Good night moonless first day of summer.