Ready, Set, Go!

New Year’s Day, 2013. I was awake and out of bed at 715am. I was still a little tired and had a dry, scratchy throat, but otherwise felt pretty good. After brushing my teeth I headed downstairs to start some coffee. Mindy stopped me on my way out of the room to ask that I bring her coffee in a little while. Yes dear.

Another inch or so of snow fell during the overnight, made apparent by our snow covered foot prints on the front porch. I started coffee then played on the internet until it was ready. No matter what I did, drink water or otherwise, I couldn’t seem to clear the dry, scratchy throat.

Headed upstairs with coffee for Mindy near 745am. I handed off the coffee then headed back downstairs where I continued playing around on the PC. For the next hour or more I downloaded New Year’s photos and edited ski vacation pictures for later posting. Mindy was up a little after 9am. We chatted for a while, although about nothing too significant. She shared her plan to go shopping later in the day with her mom. I headed out for a run around 930am. It wasn’t that cold – near 30 degrees but with lots of ice and snow to navigate through.

The walks were in far better shape than the subdivision roads. Not only were the roads covered with ice and snow, but they were uneven too, which made running on them hazardous. Where possible, I stuck to the mostly shoveled sidewalks. I ran three miles for like the 12th day in a row. Plan to get back to my normal 4.1 miles beginning Wednesday, Jan 2nd, or my return to work day.

As soon as I finished my run I headed in through the overhead garage door to retrieve the Pilot keys in preparation for shoveling the drive and removing our skis from the Thule. Inside, Mindy was making breakfast burritos. Yum! I pulled the Pilot perpendicular to the driveway, which placed it on more even ground for easier access to the Thule. Before unloading the skis, I shoveled the driveway clear of the newly fallen snow. That took about 10-15 minutes. With the driveway clear, I methodically removed all the ski gear from the Thule and leaned it against my work bench. Noticed more than a few scuffs on my new Mantras, most likely from the rocks at the bottom of the Chute run at HV. I noticed an even bigger gash in one of Glenn’s skis.

Once the Thule was emptied, I shoveled the walks and stoop before pulling the Pilot back into the driveway. I toweled off the skis and Jacob’s board, removing any residual ice, snow and water. All told, I was out front for a good 40 minutes. By then the breakfast burrito concoction was ready. In the kitchen, I opted to make my own and then joined the others already at the breakfast table.

Bella and Frankie were the last one’s up. Thinking it was after 11am. Jacob asked if he could build a snow ramp off the deck and use his snow board. I agreed provided he build up a solid base of snow and then take care not to expose the wood of the deck. That kept he and Bella busy for quite a while. I asked Mindy for some cough syrup to counter my dry, scratchy throat. I felt like I might be getting a cough. Oh no!

Mindy put pork chops in the oven, showered, then left to fetch her mom and head to Kohl’s. I tuned the TV to one of the early bowl games. Glenn stayed busy on his laptop for most of the afternoon. I might’ve dosed off a time or two, but eventually got up off the sofa to work on my blog, read, and take a shower. I hadn’t written anything new for my blog since Saturday, December 22nd. I decided not to sweat it, and instead posted a plethora pictures both from our family Xmas celebrations and then our HV ski trip.

I also spent about 30 minutes pricing out a complete Utah ski trip that included air, lodging, transportation, and skiing so we could all make an informed decision. I shared the numbers with Glenn then asked that he let me know no if he’s in by no later than Friday, January 11th. I tried using Tommy’s timeshare points but we couldn’t make the dates and venue work.

All that took me until well after 5pm. By then Mindy was home from shopping and readying dinner for the table. Earlier, while Mindy was out shopping, she sent a text, apparently forwarded by Mike O. sharing that Evan and Rocky reported being flipped off by our Jacob. I opted not to deal with it until Mindy was home and we had time to discuss it. As it stood, he’s already grounded from all screens for a full week due to some very poor choices he made while on our ski trip. Sometimes he just doesn’t think before he speaks.

As usual, Big Ten teams made a poor showing in the New Year’s Day bowls. Both Michigan and Nebraska lost to SEC teams. Mindy called me to dinner around 530pm. By then I was convinced that there was something more to my dry, scratchy throat. I wasn’t feeling too well at all. Felt like cold symptoms beginning to kick in. Dang it!

I sat for dinner: pork chops, our friend Ben’s homemade sauerkraut, White Castles (compliments of Mindy and one of Glenn’s favorite CMH foods), salad, and mac & cheese. Everything was good, but my appetite was compromised due to feeling under the weather. Apparently noticing that I wasn’t feeling well, Mindy offered to manage clean up. TY, dear! Near the end of dinner, Lindsey & Landon showed up to pick-up Rocky, who spent the night with Evan. Landon said he could smell roast the minute he walked in. It’s one of his favorite dishes. While he sat down to eat, Lindsey walked down to get Rocky.

Once Lindsey was back with Rocky, they didn’t stick around too long at all. For privacy, However, before the left, Mindy took Rocky into the living room to ask about the ‘flipping off’ incident. I am pretty sure that Jacob knew it was coming. He seemed to be trying to listen from the hallway. Mindy shared that we would talk about it at length later.

After Lindsey & the boys left, I headed back to my PC for a while. Mindy soon joined me and then lured Jacob in so we could discuss the flipping off incident. He didn’t deny it, but did go on and on trying to justify why he did it. After giving him time to share his feelings, we discussed additional punishment. Bottom line, he lost outside privileges until next Monday as well.

While we took care of that, Glenn started packing his gear for his 7am Wednesday flight home. Hard to believe he had been home for 12 days. The time went incredibly fast. I’d be taking him to the airport early. Said he wanted to leave the house no later than 515am. That meant getting up around 445am. During the afternoon and early evening, Glenn managed to polish off the two rockets of beer I gifted him for Xmas (a Chimay & Dog Fish).

We watched the 1st half of the Orange bowl from downstairs. But at or near halftime (940pm), I excused myself for bed. Not only did I need to be up early to run Glenn to the airport, but I’d be returning to work on Wednesday, too. Mindy and the kids bidded Glenn farewell before hitting the sack.

I laid in bed for a few minutes still dealing with a dry, scratchy throat. I got up around 10pm and headed downstairs to take a 2nd dose of DayQuil despite Glenn warning that it would likely keep me awake. Mindy & I watched about half of the 3rd quarter of the Orange Bowl from bed. I think we turned off the TV around 1020pm.