Storm Surge & Pumpkin Goo

Too quickly it was Monday and time to return to work. Where did the weekend go? It flew by. I was up and downstairs near 530am. I glanced outside to see if there was any snow. Nope, but it was windy, rainy, and cold.

I proceeded through calisthenics, completing sit-ups, windmills, and push-ups over the next 15 minutes. Headed to the PC with coffee at 550am. The big story, of course, was the weather and Hurricane Sandy. Forecasters calling for its arrival on shore Monday evening, making perhaps an even bigger deal than they did with Katrina. Some were calling it the storm of the century. IN addition to the hurricane warnings, they expected it to merge with an early winter storm, ultimately producing blizzard conditions in the Appalachian regions, even calling for a chance of snow her in Ohio.

I woke Mindy at her usual time of 605am. Played around online until almost 615 but then broke away for meditation and stretching. Both went well. Dressed and left for a run around 631am – early these days. It was raining and windy. Lucky for me, the rainfall was light. With the wind whipping to around 20 mph, it felt like winter.
I ran the full 4.1 miles. My legs felt great, about as good as I could reasonably expect. Mindy had my eggs ready by the time I was back from my run and walking of the pug. Eiknarf was as fast as she’s ever been. Wasn’t at all interested in hanging out in the inclement weather. Made me chuckle.

Inside, I woofed down my breakfast – eggs and fruit then quickly dashed off for a shower. It was still in front of 8am when I returned to the kitchen dressed and ready to pack my lunch. Bella and I headed out at 810am. I took Bella’s umbrella. She was wearing her brand new winter jacket and had the hood up. I ended up sharing the umbrella with Chrissy while we waited for the bus in the drizzle. Bus showed up around 820am.

Hurried back home with Eiknarf but still gave her a few minutes to pee again. She took full advantage. It wasn’t too much longer before I set out for work. I had an aggressive to-do list scrawled out in a hurry and was hunkered down attacking said list by 905am. Lots of communication about the coming hurricane. In addition, I had three ‘internal team’ calls to join, one for each of the accounts I support. That ate up an awful lot of my day.

I ate at my desk somewhere close to 2pm. The day flew by. By day’s end the stories were already starting about Hurricane Sandy’s wrath on the NE. Left for home sometime close to 530pm. Called Mindy. She invited my dad for dinner. We were having stuffed pork chops. I called my mom on my drive home too. She answered in a voice that sounded as though she was in severe pain. Said it was her back. Couldn’t hardly even walk. Made no mention of her knee, though later shared that it is doing markedly well. Interestingly enough, the pain voice diminished as we talked. I think she was on pain killers as some of the stuff she talked about didn’t make a lot of sense. Namely, she talked about having the dryer repairman out to check why her lights dim. She talked about not being able to afford a new dryer or new furnace. What? Lastly, she shared that if my dad and she were together, his recent passion for the casino’s would be a big problem. 

Dad walked up the drive while I was sitting in the Accord still talking with mom. I don’t think he noticed me there. It was raining and windy.
I headed inside a few minutes later and greeted everyone. Mindy and I both were excited that neither kid needed to be anywhere. Soccer season is officially over, and Bella has gymnastics on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s. Pointed out Jacob’s straight A’s performance to dad. When Jacob joined us at the dinner table a few minutes later, Dad was quick to congratulate him. Makayla was over and planned to have dinner and carve pumpkins with us later.

Dad shared a couple notable items: one, he’s going to Florida for nine days, leaving New Year’s Eve with U.K. Two, he’s been back on his iPad. Used it to view Bella’s gymnastics event via Facebook. Dinner was served near 6pm – stuffed pork chops, cooked carrots, salad, rolls. I was a little disappointed that the stuffed chops were store bought. I could tell right away. For one, the stuffing wasn’t anything Mindy would make, way too fine a texture. The chops were tough, too. But perhaps most important, the taste was off. I didn’t like mine at all, but also didn’t want to hurt Mindy’s feelings. I ate more than half of mine despite not caring for it. Both kids had leftover chicken casserole. Neither wanted chops.

There were an awful lot of dishes to hand wash. I was tied up with kitchen duty for a good 30 minutes. I became upset with Mindy when she served up dessert , my chocolate pie, just a couple minutes after I started washing dishes. They were enjoying dessert while I was slaving away. Felt unappreciated. I planned to share my displeasure later, as I am certain the act was unintended.

Once the dishes were completed and the kitchen in ship-shape, I sat down to enjoy a piece of pie too. It was really good. The overnight in the fridge was key. Note to self, chocolate pie needs several hours in the fridge to be at its best.
No sooner had we finished dessert when Bella and Makayla carried pumpkins to the table for carving. Jacob wanted no part of the pumpkin carving. Dad left soon after they got started. Mindy let the girls cut the top off their gourds. Watching their technique, I was certain that one of them was going to hurt themselves.

As only Bella can do, she managed to make a big mess with the guts, smearing it like slime all over the skin of her pumpkin. She was playing with it like play-doh too. I guess I understand her curiosity, but she was making quite the mess. Of course, neither of the girls wanted a plain jack-o-lantern face. No! Instead, they chose stenciled faces from a collection that Mindy brought home. These carvings required lot of work. And just a couple minutes into the process, both girls bored of the tedious process, turning over the details to both of us. Heck no! They wanted only to play in the goo!

I did about 10 minutes of dot-to-dotting the pattern then gave it up. Mindy, having finally completed Bella’s dotting, started work on Kayla’s. I headed to the sofa for a nap. I was ferociously sleepy. I’ll bet I slept for a solid 30 minutes or perhaps even longer. I was woken by Bella dropping/tossing the TV remote in my lap, or more accurately stated, my balls! Hurt like the dickens! I yelped to beat all get out. Not how I wanted to be waken. Apparently she wanted me to put the MNF game on the TV. I read her the riot act, which I know frightened her. My groin hurt for an hour.
I hadn’t been in a good mood since the dessert fiasco, but it was made even worse with the remote in the balls incident. Add to it, I was ridiculously sleepy. Jake came down to get Makayla around 9pm. Mindy and the girls had just finished the carvings. I was bent on them getting the kitchen back in order before heading off to bed. As it was, there was pumpkin smegma on the chair cushions and floor. I didn’t want to have to deal with any of it. Add to that, Bella had many of her play things strewn about the family room. Before she headed upstairs I made her come pick-up all her things. She did so promptly but with a little unsavory verbiage thrown in.

By 930pm Mindy and the kids were off to bed. That coincided with me getting a 2nd wind of sorts. I stayed up for at least another hour or more watching the MNF game, but also bouncing back and forth to the weather channel with many live Hurricane Sandy reports. Storm surge was the word of the day. As one might expect, lots of sensationalizing, but by all accounts, record storm surge in the New York, New Jersey area. Expected subways to be flooded as well as many neighborhoods. Some places reporting surge above the first floor of homes. They were calling for up to 2’ of snow in the West Virginia mountains.

I finally headed for bed around 11pm. By then the wind was howling, whistling outside against the houses and trees.