Gymnastics Nazi

It was Monday and Mindy's first official day of the new school year. How does the new school year impact me? It means that I need to be a bit more disciplined with my rise time since I'll need to get Bella on the bus again this year. To that end, I pulled myself from bed at 540am, brushed my teeth, then headed downstairs. The coffee was still brewing and the irrigation system running at full tilt.
Over the next ten minutes, I whipped out sit-ups and push-ups then stepped out onto the deck to drink in some fresh air and to gauge the temp. It felt as cool as it's been all summer. It had to be in the 50s. It was clear too. Inside again, I poured some coffee then took to the internet.

I played around online until 610am when I bagged the PC in favor of meditation and a stretch. Both of those went well. By then I could hear Mindy up and readying for the shower. I remember thinking that she'd be competing with the irrigation for a few minutes. Figured that I should ratchet the zone times back a little more and possibly move the start time back from 515am to 500am. The only reason I had it coming on later was to avoid it waking us. However, since having the meter replaced one can hardly hear it.

I checked the official temperature before heading out on a run. It was a chilly 56 degrees. I'd definitely want to wear a shirt. I also took Mindy a cup of coffee before heading out. She was already out of the shower and dressed. Still needed to blow dry her do though. Off I went for my run.

My hamstrings felt about as good as they have since before vacation. I'm sure that had something to do with taking 4 Advil just before bed. Still tight though. I ran the full 4.1 miles in about 40 minutes. Inside, Mindy was already making last minute preparations for school. Bella was quick to point out that my eggs were ready & waiting in the microwave. She even fetched them for me. A couple minutes later, Mindy and the kid left. It was 724am even though her goal was to leave at 720am. She was dropping the kids at her mom's place on the way to school. There they would spend the entire day.

I enjoyed a quiet breakfast then quickly prepped a lunch. I had oodles of time. I was off to the shower by 745am. After a shave and a shower I decided to weigh myself. I couldn't believe my eyes. I weighed in at 181.9 lbs. I haven't weighed that much since 1996. I was felt as though I was a bit bloated, and was in the mid 170s the last time I weighed in, which couldn't have been more than two weeks prior. Not sure why I am gaining weight so suddenly. I'm not eating much if any more than usual and not consuming any more beer than usual either. I know one thing. I'm not gonna stay at 181. Hell no. Twelve of you need to go! Coinciding with the weight gain, I had to use the 2nd to last belt buckle hole, the first time that's happened in years.

I headed downstairs where I casually went about preparing to leave the house for the day. I hadn't worked from the my office since last Monday. Felt strange. I left the house around 825am. The low tire indicator came on again during my drive in. I'd need to check the tire pressure soon. The car still was heading straight down the road and none of the tires looked unusually low. Not entirely sure of the warning threshold.

Arrived at the office around 840am. I washed both my water pitcher and cup then went for ice water and then to stash my food in the fridge. A few minutes later I stopped to chat with a peer and then later my boss, who had been out on vacation the week prior. In fact, I was covering his escalations over the weekend. Not fun. We chatted for about 5-10 minutes before I headed back to my office to get busy with my day.

I figured to have a decent day with no looming deadlines in the very near term. The day began benign enough but quickly turned into an escalation fest. And days like that can be worse than a day scrambling to meet a deadline because everything is an unforeseen urgent emergency - no structure.

Very timely, come 130pm I had a bit of a reprieve. I took that as my cue to head out to Home Depot for lunch. I had a few things I wanted to pick-up. Getting away was nice. At Home Depot I picked up some washers I need for a couple small projects/tasks. I also picked up a 1/4" x 48" steel rod to serve as a 2nd splint for our fractured patio umbrella. There were two ribs broken during the wind storm June 29th. Each rib really needs two rods to reinforce them enough to fully make the repair. As it currently stands, I found 3 steel rods around the house to use. I needed one more. I got one at Home Depot for $4. I also picked up another 3-pack of furnace filters.

I was gone no more than 40 minutes, but just getting away did me a world of good. I returned to the office and grabbed my packed food from the fridge. The afternoon was much tamer than the morning but still not without a little work day drama. I guess you'll have that.

I packed up and left for home around 540pm. Seemed like a long day. I headed home, calling Mindy along the way. She shared how her school day went. We didn't chat that long. I let her go so she could finish making dinner - tacos.
Arrived home right at 6pm. I asked where Jacob was. Mindy quickly reminded me that he had soccer practice. Bella was home, though, and chomping at the bit for school to start the following morning. She was pumped.

She had gymnastics practice at 7pm. The three of us enjoyed a couple tacos each then Bella readied for gymnastics. Mindy planned to take her but asked that I pick her up. The gymnastics meeting that was planned for last Wednesday never materialized. Instead, it was this Wednesday. She would also pick-up Jacob from soccer practice immediately after the meeting, and that meant I'd have an hour or so all to myself. As soon as she and Bella left I headed out back to water the flowers. After finishing watering chore I repaired the broken patio umbrella. It looked good as new when I finished. I carried a few more stray items to the basement that had previously roosted on my work bench in the garage. It looks so much nicer all cleared off.

Mindy and Jacob were home around 745pm. Mindy seemed a bit perturbed, and asked me to read a letter handed to all parents at the gymnastics meeting. There must've been about ten points made, and all them written in a very direct, almost accusatory tone. Mindy was so frustrated with the content that now we're looking into another gymnastics studio nearby. Based on the verbiage and requirements, you'd think we were heading to the next Olympics. From our perspective, this is a creative outlet for Bella to explore, not a strict discipline. I laughed it off.

At 8pm I tuned into the Monday Night football game, the Eagles and Patriots. I wasn't able to watch for long before I had to leave to fetch Bella. Arrived at 830pm. I was curious to whether or not they might have something to say about us picking her up early (practice really goes until 9pm but we won't allow Bella out on a school night passed 830pm). One of the gymnastics commandments was that all students would make and stay at every practice until it is over. Really? Anyway, Emily was there instructing. She had nothing to say about it, In fact, she encouraged Bella to hurry along after one or two more passes. I like Emily. Bella was none the wiser to the meeting topics, and Mindy and I didn't plan to share any of the details with her.

Arrived home by 840pm. I quickly rejoined the football game in progress. Didn't miss much, although Vick was out with a rib injury. Tom Brady didn't play for the Pats. It was all back-up quarterbacks. Surprisingly, though, they all looked pretty good. Mindy and the kids headed to bed around 915pm, this being the first official school night for the kids. Jacob needs to be up at 6am and at the bus stop by 650am. Yikes! He pleaded with Mindy not to join him/take him. He then asked me to talk her out of it. Too funny. I stayed up a few minutes after they headed to bed, or just into the 3rd quarter of the game. At 10pm I could feel the sleepies coming on and headed up to bed where I joined Mindy who was already all but asleep.