Fresh H.O.P., Fire, Smores

As expected, I was up Friday morning somewhere close to 540am. It wasn’t supposed to be as nice as it was on Thursday, but the rain originally forecasted was no longer in the picture. Shortly after wake time the sky was mostly clear and the temperature in the low 50s. I completed sit-ups, windmills, and push-ups. I headed to the PC just before 6am. There I enjoyed a few quiet moments before heading upstairs to wake Mindy.
Mindy asked if I planned to work from or my office. I planned to work from home. She then asked if I was going to run before or after bus time. After. I headed back downstairs around 615am where I played around online for another 15 minutes before getting busy with work.

My plan was to knock out perhaps the most grueling portion of a monthly report before bus time. It’s a very repetitive, analytical task that requires a lot of cut and paste then reading/analysis. It generally takes me a few minutes to get in a groove and the fact that it was 630am on a Friday morning only exacerbated that point. During the next 90 minutes Jacob & Mindy left for school and Bella was up going through here early morning paces. She asked if I was working from home because I was sick. Nope!
Just as I hoped and planned, I was able to completely knock out the analysis piece of that monthly report just before slipping out to the bus stop with Bella. I was still in my flannel shorts and t-shirt along with a fleece jacket. Met Kenny & Makayla at the bus stop. That same strange white car pulled up at the bridge. I immediately excused myself and walked over to ask the driver his purpose. Kenny shared that he had my back should I need him.

I had Eiknarf in tow, and the driver had his passenger window down about half way. It was a nerdy looking kid, maybe in his early/mid 20s sitting there eating McDonalds. After a quick greeting I inquired to his reasons for being there most mornings. I went on to briefly explain that I was only asking in the name of safety for our children. Said he works at the pharmaceutical company across from Wilson Rd golf course and likes how tranquil it is in our subdivision and looking over the bridge into the pond. Spends his break time there. As odd as he appears, I understand that logic having done similar things when I worked in the field for Time Warner. I had my favorite spots in various neighborhoods to park and rest – take a break.

The bus pulled up shortly after my return. Kenny and I both talked about trying to get the grass cut sometime during the day. We parted ways. I walked Eiknarf out front long enough for her to take care of her business. Back inside, I changed into my running clothes then checked in with work to make sure that nothing too pressing was lurking. Coast was clear. I headed off on my run around 840am.

Once again, my legs were incredibly tired and tight, though there wasn’t much if any pain involved. In the name of a little reprieve, I decided to trim my Friday run back to just 3 miles. I really enjoy running at the time on a work day. Helps frame my morning if not my whole day. The autumn weather has been ideal for it, too - 50-60 and sunny.
I was back home around 915am. I poured another cup of coffee then got settled into the rest of my work morning. I worked on monthly reports until 1110am when I took an early lunch break and headed out to cut the lawn. At the time, it was sunny and about 70 degrees. It took me about 35 minutes to mow as much as feasibly possible with the tractor. That kid in the white car was back again, presumably this time for lunch. Really? I kept my eye on him the entire time. Before any push mowing, I checked in with work again. Still fairly quiet. I headed out again to push mow. All totaled, it took me about 70 minutes to mow and blow. Finished around 1215pm. That might be record time, though I did edge or whack. Still had a pretty good edge from last week.

As it turned out, the afternoon was a whole lot busier from a reactive standpoint. Had a number of folks emailing and pinging for this or that. Honestly, it was a bit overwhelming. I did my best to juggle all the concerns addressing them one by one. At 215pm I decided it was time to get a much needed shower. It didn’t take long, but felt terrific.

The last quarter of my work day was busy, at least until about 4pm. Thankfully, things did finally slow down a little as 5pm neared. Jacob & Bella were home from school at their usual times. Mindy, however, was not. Don’t think she got home until almost 5pm. She tried calling my cell phone but I was too busy with work to answer. Sometime near 5pm Jimaken showed up to take Jacob to soccer practice. Earlier, Mindy had said she was taking him. I guessed that was the reason for the call I missed. Those two left around 5pm.

Mindy was home a little later. And after a walk down to the neighbors she returned to tell me that she stopped at CBC to pick-up a growler of IPA and three orders of wings. We weren’t going out anywhere. Instead, Bella was having a sleep over with a few of her friends. We were also keeping GD Olivia overnight and then taking all the kids to Skyzone the following morning for Bella’s birthday party.

I walked away from my work laptop around 6pm after taking care of one last issue my boss sent my way. Shortly thereafter, Mindy left to go after Jacob. Ashley & Stephen brought Olivia over while Mindy was gone. They hung out for no more than 5 minutes. Olivia was her usual happy go lucky self. She quickly ran off to catch-up with Bella, Makayla, and Emily. I made sure that they intercepted her out back before I headed back inside.

By 630pm the lovely weather from earlier was gone. It cooled off and clouded over in a hurry. Shortly after Mindy and Jacob were back we broke out the CBC wings. I might’ve had 4 or 5, but that’s it. Olivia asked if I would take her out back and push her on the tree swing. Sure. She and I headed out to play.

Olivia and I played out back from probably 45 minutes. It was almost dark when we headed back into the house. During that time she swung, played in the tree house, and tossed walnuts into the pond. While we were outsde, Bella’s friend Alana arrived. All the girls were upstairs playing in Bella’s room. Mindy said Bella hoped that I would agree to having a fire on the pondside patio. As darkness set in we headed out to get a fire started. By then it was chilly and windy. I got a decent fire going in no time at all. The only trouble was the west wind blowing smoke in everyone’s eyes.

Mindy brought out the makings for smores. While waiting for the coals to be just right, all the kids played ball tag in the dark. I’m guessing that we were out there for about an hour. It actually started to sprinkle almost as soon as we got out there. But by the time the kids had their fill of smores it was sprinkling a lot harder. We headed in for the night.

Since we all needed to be up relatively early, Mindy headed for bed soon after getting all the girls settled in Bella’s room. It was probably somewhere close to 10pm. I stayed up a while longer enjoying another beer while also playing on my PC. I headed for bed around 11pm.