On My Back in a Hurry

I was up and out of bed Saturday morning near 645m. While starting some coffee I saw a flock of Canada geese chomping on my lawn. As soon as the coffee was brewing I quickly slipped into my exercise shoes, grabbed my b-b gun and headed out back to shew the geese away. Unfortunately, the lawn was wet from the recent irrigation cycle, and while dashing quickly after the geese I slipped at the top of the hill and went airbourne landing flat on my back and ass. Ouch! I leaped quickly to my feet still in pursuit of the geese chasing them away with a few off target b-b shots. I knew right away that my neck and right shoulder would eventually stiffen. I landed ridiculously hard. I don’t think any of the neighbors saw me. I felt like a fool. I headed in to lick my wounds and enjoy some coffee.

I spent the next hour or so having coffee and playing around on the internet. Landon was the first kid awake and soon at my side asking if he could play Wii. Not until the others are up, I told him. He and I took Eiknarf on a morning walk around 8am walking in our bare feet.

Back at the house I took Mindy some coffee in part because she asked but also to let her know that I intended on heading out for my run and didn’t really want Landon loose and alone. He was too shy to come up and lay with Mindy. And he kept insisting that he was going on a run with me. Mindy assured me that she’d keep an eye on him.

I left for a run around 830am taking the usual three mile weekend trail. Already my neck and shoulder were stiffening. Oh boy! It was a warm and sticky run and promised to only get stickier as the day progressed. Mindy was up and on the deck when I got back from my run. We hung out for a while, me refilling the bird feeders and the humming bird feeder. She headed in to start on the grocery list while I headed out to push Landon on the tree swing.

He and I played outside for about 20-30 minutes. Around 10am I headed out to get started on the exterior trim project. I’d have just a few hours to work on it since we planned to leave for Bella’s gymnastics recital around 145pm. If nothing else, I hoped to get z-bar installed and ready to receive the new painted trim boards.

The first thing I did was use the premixed concrete patch to fill the few small voids in the stucco that crumbled away while removing the old trim boards. That took a while. Next, I filled a bucket with water, grabbed a scrub brush and the Clorox spray cleaner and scrubbed the visible streaking on the stucco just below the trim. Experience has shown that to be a fairly effective means of removing the stains without using harsher chemicals. That took a while too. I even did the area just under Jacob’s bedroom window on the front of the house since I had all the stuff out.

Neighbor Carl came over to chat while I was preparing to mount the z-bar. Mindy came out too. We chatted for a while. Mindy eventually left for the grocery store while I toiled on the warm & sticky sunshine. Before putting the new z-bar in place, I laid a thick bead of gutter/flashing caulk on its back edge to aid in adhesion but also to help keep small insects from crawling underneath and into our walls. Once the z-bar was in place I used duct tape to seal the top edge to the foil backed Celotex as well as a means of patching a few small holes I left in it when removing the old boards. The extra steps were overkill, I know, but I don’t want to be doing this job again.

Mindy was home from the grocery and Lindsey over to do laundry. Around 130pm I headed in for a much needed shower. More than anything, I was hot & sweaty working most of the early afternoon in the steamy hot sunshine. Still ahead was the part I was most concerned with, which was ripping the expensive trim boards to fit (about 7”) and then cross-cutting the ends at 45 degrees to provide a more professional seam. I planned to prime and paint the boards before mounting them too. The priming/painting didn’t concern me.

We were ready to leave for Bella’s recital by 150pm. I suggested that grandsons go with us leaving Lindsey at our house alone. We knew she’d appreciate the alone time and the boys sounded excited about coming along. I am sure the promise of stopping for ice cream afterwards didn’t hurt either.  It was an easy drive to the Wellington School in Upper Arlington. What a gorgeous facility. Mindy gave Jacob, Rocky & I the dickens when we were admiring their beautiful soccer field before heading directly inside with she and Bella.

We eventually found our way to the auditorium after winding our way down several hallways. The school is much larger than it first appears. We were early and helped a little with the set-up. Joannie, the director of DCW, seemed a little testy. After working all morning and the early afternoon in the hot sun and now sitting in the dark auditorium, I got incredibly sleepy. I dosed a time or two all the while contending with an ever-stiffening neck and shoulder. Mindy shared that Landon fell asleep too.

Once underway, the recital lasted for about 90 minutes. I couldn’t help but reflect back to the recitals I used to sit through for C, L, & A. Beyond the addition of new technology in the recitals, not much else about them has changed. Mindy bought Bella a couple roses and presented them to her afterwards. The kids we were well-behaved throughout. They were much looking forward to going after ice cream. I didn’t want to drive all the up to Bethel Rd but we couldn’t think of an ice cream shop much closer. Because we had little kids, we decided on Dairy Queen.

Everybody ordered something different, but everybody got something. I had a small chocolate cone dipped in chocolate. Ended up drinking some of Mindy’s chocolate malt too and then some of Bella’s waffle cone. Landon was having a hard time keeping up with his big cone. As usual, Rocky complained that we ordered him a small versus medium blizzard. But after complaining he still didn’t eat but half of it. Jacob had a hot fudge sundae that was gone in about 2 or 3 minutes.

On our drive home Mindy suggested that we ask Lindsey to stay at our place for a few hours while she and I ran to CBC or somewhere similar. Sounded good to me, but I planned to try and rip those trim boards as soon as we got home. I didn’t waste a single second once at home. I headed to the garage and gathered the tools necessary to rip the three 1x8x10’s. I was a little nervous having never ripped boards where a precision edge was required. I asked Mindy to come out and help steady the boards while I ripped each one. I cut the first one then checked it against the opening. It was still a tad too wide. I ended ripping all three at 6-7/8”. That worked perfectly. Meanwhile, the temperature was a bout 90 degrees with high humidity. I was dripping head to toe with sweat again. Before heading inside I reprimed the ripped edge of the three trim boards.

If everything went well I would paint and mount the boards on Sunday before everyone came over for Father’s Day.

As expected, Lindsey agreed to stick around and watch Jacob & Bella. I took another quick shower and changed. I’m thinking it was 7pm when we left the house. We took an empty growler in our Jimindy cooler.

It was pride weekend in Columbus. We didn’t know how that might impact the crowd at CBC. The brewery district doesn’t always attract as large a crowd for such events ever since the Arena district has blossomed. The lot was just a tad more than half full, which was fine with us. The bar area was almost barren. Vince was bartending with Emily. We’ve seen Emily before (looks very much like Chrissy’s sister Missy), but only as a server. She was very pleasant and chatty. Jen, the manager of CBC, came over and sat with the two of us for about 10-15 minutes. She gets what makes a place like CBC tick, at least for our money.

Turns out, they were out of Bodhi, not expecting any on tap for a few days. We both settled for their standard IPA, which is still one of the best. We ended up ordering dinners. Mindy ordered the blackened scallops and I ordered the barrel-cut sirloin. We agreed to share. The steak was over cooked but still really good. We didn’t complain. We chatted some with Kate too, who was serving tables in the restaurant. She talked about her recent North Carolina beach vacation.

Before leaving for home around 9pm we had Vince fill our jug with IPA. Mindy picked up the check. Happy Father’s Day! She drove us home too. Lindsey and the boys left soon after we arrived home. I texted Darwin to see what he was up to. Didn’t know it at the time but he was at Barley’s. When I texted back that we were sipping beers on the deck he showed up about 10 minutes later, or just about the time that Mindy was ready to peel off for bed. She ended up staying up for another 30 minutes or so. The kids, meanwhile, we inside playing Wii. Bella was full of energy even after 11pm. Little wonder though. She slept past 12noon.

Mindy headed to bed around midnight. Darwin and I hung out until 1am. I was tired and ready for some shut eye. Checked the outcome of the Reds game then headed for bed. The Reds won their 5th in a row.