A Friday Spent Celebrating Rocky

I was up at 540am after a fairly decent night of sleep. I was still a little groggy and certainly could've stood for another hour or so of quality sleep. However, that wasn't in the cards. I completed sit-ups but then decided to ski push-ups to give my shoulders and neck an extra day of rest - three in total. I hung out on my PC for about 20 minutes or until 615am when I broke away to meditate and stretch.

Both of those went well. I was dressed and out the door for my run by 640am. It was cooler than Thursday, only 74 degrees but the humidity was around 95%. it was steamy. There were still plenty of clouds around but they were expected to burn off in a hurry giving way to a nice Friday and weekend. I ran the full 4.1 miles. It was trash day too. Our can was emptied shortly before I headed out the door for my run.

The run went really well, but then again most Friday runs do. I was much looking forward to the weekend after a tough/busy work week. I wasn't looking forward to the reimaging of my laptop which was slated to begin at 9am. Ahead of a shower I cooked an omelet and prepped my lunch. I woke Mindy with coffee after walking the pug. She and the kids had designs on heading out to Tara's again to boat and water ski. We hung on the deck for a while before I left for work. We discussed the logistics associated with having the grand kids overnight and then boating Saturday at Alum Creek. I left for work near 830am.

I got settled in at the office around 850am and was expecting the PC reimaging guy to call me promptly at 9am. But 9am came and went without a call. I kept working taking advantage of the time I had to knock out several small tasks. The call came around 930am to start the reimage. I asked a number of questions about the process, including how long it might take and then the risk of losing important files. He guessed it would take 2-3 hours. Said I had about 20 minutes before it would begin. I decided to back-up a few more files and critical apps.

The reimaging wasn't going too well. Lucky for me I have a desktop PC in my office too. At least I could access email via the web and take care of a few issues that were dumped on my lap. I talked to the reimage guy two or three times before noon. He told me not to touch the machine. He also assured me that he would call when it was done and make sure that all my apps and files were there and working. I was counting on that.

Long story short, 5pm came quickly and my laptop still wasn't done. And when I tried reaching my guy he didn't answer his phone. I wasn't pleased to say the least. Not only was my Friday largely unproductive, but it was looking like the issue might now roll into Monday. Damn it!

My boss came by around 530p to see if I was up and running. Hell no! He gave me the names and numbers to the managers over the reimaging team. Cool. I doubted they'd answer on a Friday evening but they did. I explained my dilemma and he assured me that he would get me up and running before hanging up. He was most pleasant and calming. He insisted that his guy simply leaving me hang was not at all like him. Asked if perhaps he left me a VM. Nope. No VMs.

As promised, he worked with me to get my laptop up and running and then made sure I had all my apps and files. At one point he shared that it would take quite a while and that we could leave it go over the weekend and fix any last minutes issues Monday AM. I didn't want to risk starting the week behind the eight ball. He understood and agreed to stay on the job until it was completed. Little did I know that would turn into 845pm. Yikes! I felt good that we got it almost completely back to normal aside from a couple apps and a few files I needed to redirect.

I left for home just before 9pm. By then Mindy already had three of the grandkids over. She sent a text sharing that I might want to consider a stop at Barley's to decompress since they were extra wild. She was right. They were wound up even by the time I got home, but not in a bad way. Rocky pleaded to open his birthday gifts Mindy had wrapped in a giant gift bag. She made the rounds earlier in the afternoon picking up the things we agreed on. Thank you Princess!

I was extra hungry and enjoyed a leftover burrito. I poured a Bodhi pretty quick too. Yum-yum! We planned on formally celebrating Rocky's b-day not only with the kids but with Lindsey and Ashley on Saturday evening after getting home from boating. Even still, we decided to let Rocky open his b-day gifts that night. He was on pins and needles. Through the early chaos, Mindy suggested that we head out to Lake Choctaw and boat with Tara and Doug instead of taking our boat to Alum Creek. The kids - Jacob & Bella - seconded that notion. I acquiesced. Mindy called Tara to make arrangements. Mindy also shared that Jacob got up on their wake board earlier that day for the first time. Water was said to be like glass.

He seemed genuinely happy with his new Razor scooter complete with a sparker attachment. We also got him some giant sparklers, snaps, swimming googles and diving rings. Thankfully, all the kids settled down after Rocky opened his presents. Rocky & Jacob headed to his room to watch a movie while Landon and Olivia sat on the couch watching TV with Bella. Once they started to nod off I tuned to the Summer games opening ceremonies. I only caught bits and pieces as I was fine tuning my laptop in the living room, still trying to find/attach my Outloook pst. files.

Mindy headed to bed early, even before 10pm. I stayed up long enough to see more of the tape delayed opening ceremonies, including a performance by Paul McCartney and then some really cool fireworks along with some Pink Floyd tune from Dark Side of the Moon. Awesome! I enjoyed a second beer before finally heading to bed near 11pm.