Leaving the Solar System

I woke middle of the night feeling wide awake and worried that I might not be able to return to sleep. That worry was unfounded as I not only fell back asleep but didn’t wake again until just after 8am. I don’t really like to sleep that late but I must’ve needed it. I’m sure the 4.5 Bodhi’s I drank Saturday night had a hand in that.
The house was quiet and for that I was most appreciative. I started a pot of coffee then stepped out onto the deck to get a feel for the day’s weather. It was cool but sunny. Felt like somewhere in the 50’s. Nice early autumn-like weather.

While waiting on the coffee to brew, I reading about Saturday’s college football results as well as a couple news headlines. Among my early morning readings’ was an article in Yahoo Science about the voyager space probes and how they’re still going strong some 35 years after their initial launches. Going opposite directions, one or both are expected to pierce the bubble of our solar system and venture into interstellar space some 11 billion miles away from the sun. And when this event occurs it’ll be the first time a manmade device has left the solar system. No one ever imagined that they’d survive this long. Think about where our technology was when they launched. Cool stuff!

I decided that I wasn’t going to rush around and insist on running by 9am. Instead, I opted to enjoy the morning. Keeping her word, Mindy was up earlier than usual for a weekend. I’m thinking she was up and about around 830am. Said she wanted to get an early start on grocery shopping and prepping food for the day’s birthday celebration. As it was, my girls and the grandkids were expected over for pizza, snacks, and cake around 4 or 5pm.

When Mindy came downstairs I was just pouring our coffee. She immediately asked if I would join her on the deck. I checked the temperature then headed to the deck with Mindy. She and I sat on the lower tier with the pug. I eventually took Eiknarf out in the yard hoping she’d relieve herself. After 10 minutes of walking the yard she only managed to pee. We hung outside for about 30 minutes, or through that first cup of coffee. Mindy headed in to ready for the grocery while I played a while longer on the PC. I checked the WBNS 10-TV line-up to see if the Viking game might by some small miracle be televised. It wasn’t.

Mindy left for the grocery somewhere near 1010am. And probably 10 minutes later I left for my run, but not before heading upstairs and giving Jacob & Bella a heads up that I was heading out. I wore and long-sleeved wicking shirt for only the 3rd or 4th time this season. I was comfortable throughout the 3 mile weekend run.

My plan was to start on the lawn as soon as I was back at the house. To that end, I woofed down a couple pieces of turkey lunch meat, poured a glass of ice water, then headed to the garage to get the yard chores underway. I moved the Accord to the curb to help make the mowing easier. I used the tractor first but not before filling its tank with gas. It was near empty. And just like I have the past two times, I cut about 85-90% of the lawn with the tractor cutting my push mowing time to no more than 15 minutes.

By the time I was done mowing, whacking, edging and blowing a good 90 minutes had passed. Mindy was home from the grocery while I was blowing off the walks and drive, and once I saw that she had plenty of help carrying in the groceries (Jacob, Rocky, and Bella) As soon as I finished cutting the lawn I moved on to putting down some fertilizer. I asked Mindy if she would reheat my leftover Barley wings from Friday. I was pretty much running on ‘E’.

After fertilizing, I decided to go ahead and rip out all of the petunias and cut back the blue May salvia to just above ground level, essentially preparing the bed for winter. It was way early for such a chore but they were looking so haggard that I felt it was time. It always looks like a daunting task but goes pretty fast. The petunias in the eastern most bed looked greener, healthier than those in the west bed, but on close inspection only because of all the weeds in the east bed masquerading themselves as flower greenery.

I’ll bet that I filled a 5-gallon yard pale 10 times with trimmings that dumped along the pond’s bank. Somewhere near 2pm, I headed inside to enjoy those reheated wings, a Gatorade, and eventually a shower. Bella had all the peeps with in the kitchen helping Mindy make snacks for my b-day party. At the time they were making guacamole. I shared my wings, a combination of Gate of Hell and K.C. with Lillian. I couldn’t them all. I checked the Vikings score just before heading up to shower. They were behind 9-0. Really?

As usual, a hot shower felt terrific. I was back downstairs feeling energized and refreshed. I checked the progress of the Vikings game again via Yahoo’s Game Tracker. The Vikings scored a TD with seconds to go before halftime. It was 9-7 at the half. Maybe there was a little hope? Rather than waste the next hour sitting, watching football, I headed out to the yard once again, this time to spray all the weeds in the front flower bed that I exposed with Round-Up. However, my pump sprayer had about a ½ gallon of Weed-B-Gone still in it from a few weeks ago. I went ahead and sprayed some weeds in the lawn with the rest of that concoction.

Once that was gone I mixed up a gallon of Round-Up and sprayed those pesky, thorny broadleaf weeds as well as the volunteer May salvia in the eastern most flower bed. With plenty of the juice leftover, I sprayed the unwanted growth between the pavement and curb all along the front of our property. It’ll take a few sunny days to see the results. I hope it works. If not, I’ll hit the bed again before a freeze.

Inside, Mindy had the house in order to receive guests. And now about 315pm I settled into the family room chair hoping to steal a quick nap and catch a little NFL action. I eventually caught the Vikings score too. It was looking good. They were ahead 20-15 with just a couple minutes to go. I napped for a few minutes while watching the Browns game. I woke again around 345pm and must’ve let out a long string expletives when I saw that the Vikings managed to relinquish the lead to the Jaguars with 20 seconds left on game clock. Are you kidding me? Mindy quickly asked what happened. Before I could explain what happened another update flashed. Somehow the Vikings managed to tie the game in the final 20 seconds at 23-23. That meant the Jaguars not only scored a TD but also went for a got a 2-point conversion, and then kicked off and the Vikings kicked a field goal to tie, all in the matter of 20 seconds. At least there was still some hope going into OT.

I opted not to watch the scores continue to flash, though I did see where the Vikings won the OT coin toss and had the ball first. About that time the kids and dad arrived. Things got a little busy in the house. Through the initial chaos of kids and guests I forgot about the game. About 30 minutes later I snuck off to my PC to check the outcome. They won in OT! Wahoo! 26-23. Life is good.

Mindy laid out a nice spread of guacamole, jarlsberg, chips, veggies, etc. She ordered pizzas too even though I was full from the many snacks. Until Mindy said something, I didn’t realize that it was grandparents Day. She had a card that all the kids signed for my dad. They gifted him a bag of Snicker bars too. Of course me being a grandparent too, I got a card and a bag of dark chocolate MMs. Yum – one of my favorite candies.

After pizza, Mindy made everybody sing happy birthday to me. I decided it was OK to sing to myself as well as taking my own b-day photo. Ashley took my camera and snapped a few too. During the chaos, I took Ashley and Lindsey to the basement to have them look through the ‘junk’ one more time to see if there was anything they wanted. They both found things they wanted. I also have a tub for Courtney that contains many childhood Xmas ornaments as well as clay items she made in school. I had them contact Kelly to see if she wanted her old 8-track tape collection too. There were two cases, or about 70 tapes. Yes, she said she wanted them. Gave Lindsey grief about it. Tisk-tisk! Geesh! Mindy and I advised her t to simply not respond. Kelly tends to brow beat Lindsey.

I opened all my b-day cards and gifts. Lindsey and the boys gifted me an OSU shirt, OSU mug, and something else. Ashley shared that my gift is on the way. Dad leaded over and explained that he hadn’t anything for me since he doesn’t do b-day gifts for anybody.  Kailiegh, Shelly and Sienna gifted me lottery tickets. Cool! Chrissy & Kenny gave me some cash. Thanks, but that wasn’t necessary! And, of course Mindy got me Viking tickets.

Everybody left about the same time. I’m thinking that was near 630-7pm. As Lindsey headed to her car parked along the curb, I noticed Landon running out in the street to enter from the streetside passenger door. At the same time a Honda CRV was buzzing down the road and the timing looked BAD! I shrieked in fear. Lucky for Landon, he wasn’t hit. He had no idea. Didn’t even look. When Mindy saw what happened she, without hesitation, went to the car and pulled Landon out and back to the curb and read him the riot act. Of course he went to tears and ran in the house. Lindsey just let it all happen. I only chimed in by saying ‘not on our watch!’

Soon the house was quiet. Mindy and Bella began the clean-up almost immediately. Bella was helping by washing all the dishes. What a gal! I put both the trash and recycling at the curb since Monday is now our day for both until Veteran’s Day, I believe.
It was 810pm and Mindy was finally done cleaning up the house. She was exhausted, I could tell. Said she was heading up to bed to read and sleep. Sure dear. I stayed up with the kids and tuned to the SNF game – Pittsburgh and Denver – the return of Peyton Manning. Both kids showered and read then hung in their rooms all the while I enjoyed the football game.

With the forecast calling for clear skies and a nighttime low around 53, we left all the windows opened. By the time I headed for bed at 1045pm the downstairs was cool. Burr!