Sun & Snow - No Haircut & Barley's

I believe it was somewhere around 550am when I finally rolled out of bed. I was feeling a lot better about things, but still awfully tired and groggy. In fact, I was so tired that I toyed with the idea of skipping calisthenics in their entirety. However, once I was downstairs, I gathered the energy to do sit-ups, but still considered skipping push-ups. I did windmills then poured coffee. However, before taking the first sip, I whipped out 50 push-ups finding it difficult to live with myself for skipping. Glad I did. It was already after 6am. Before enjoying the coffee I poured, I delivered Mindy’s coffee.

Downstairs I played on the internet and enjoyed coffee until almost 7am. I wasn’t in any particular hurry. While stretching, Mindy came downstairs and tossed some meatballs into a crock-pot, presumably for a potluck at her school. Looked like she skipped a shower. I asked as much, to which she confirmed.

After a stretch I headed out on a run. It was about 30 degrees. I wore regular winter attire. The run went fine. Felt good. Mindy was long gone by the time I got back to the house. I’m thinking it was somewhere near 745am. I went ahead and fried a couple eggs and threw together a lunch. Prepped my backpack for work too. By the time I finished with all of that it was time to head to the bus stop. I planned to shower afterwards.

Bella needed help putting on and zipping her jacket, her hand still swollen and in pain after her scooter accident the evening before. She asked me not to make mention of it to Kenny or Makayla at the bus stop. Cute, but I am still not sure why.

The bus was along in short order. I spent very little time chit chatting with Kenny, eager to get back to the house and in the warm shower. I still needed/wanted to be across town somewhere close to 9am. I headed to the shower without wasting a minute, and was showered, downstairs and ready by 840am. I took a few minutes to organize myself for departure then left without benefit of warming the Accord.

I made good time crossing town, choosing to listen to XM’s Blue Collar Radio instead of ESPN or music. Laughed all the way to work. Arrived at 905am. It was sunny but still a chilly walk into the building. They even had something more than an inch of snow on the ground in New Albany. The forecast predicted heavy, but brief snow squalls throughout the morning.

Inside, I quickly got situated and logged onto the network. My boss sent a note sharing that he was going to be on site as well and sit in on my monthly service review presentation. We had our usual 10am call. One of the managers joined from my office since our cubes now sit right next to one another.

My boss showed up around 1030am, or 30 minutes ahead of our 11am presentation. He and I talked for the entire half hour, mostly about work stuff. The presentation went well. The customer shared just how thrilled they are with the reporting as well as the results. I appreciate the positive feedback. On a personal note, I shared with them my Canada goose dilemma. They all got a kick out of the stories, especially the one about a neighbor stopping by to photograph the white swans in the pond.

My boss didn’t stick around too long after the meeting, and I got busy with the many other things on my daily to-do list. I stayed busy until 1pm when I decided to take a real lunch break and go get my haircut and possibly even make a stop at the Home Depot right across the street from the Saturday’s. There was only one sitting customer inside Saturday’s. Figured they could get me in, no problem. I was surprised then when she shared that my wait would be 30 minutes. No it won’t. Can’t wait that long. Sorry.

Headed across the street to Home Depot where I shopped for a bought a 12v battery jumper to complement the 12v trickle charger I bought the day before at Sears. I wasn’t thrilled with the name brand, Black & Decker, but picked one up anyway. As I exited Home Depot, I briefly toyed with crossing the street and stopping in Saturday’s again to see if they could get me in right away. However, sitting at the light, I opted to simply head back to the office.

As soon as I was settled, I enjoyed my packed food all the while digging back into the day’s many tasks. Buried my nose in my work and didn’t come up for air again until almost 5pm. That’s when I packed my stuff for home. Called Mindy once I was safely on the road. She informed that the school nurse called and shared that Bella came to the office with her hand hurting twice during the school day. Mindy in turn called Craig who referred her to the Hilliard branch of Children’s hospital for X-rays.

She was already in route there with Bella. Meanwhile, Jacob was left at home waiting on his dad to pick him up. The plan was to drop Bella by Jimaken’s place after the X-rays. Mindy asked where I might want to spend our date night. Without much hesitation, I chose Barley’s. Mindy said she planned on asking Jimaken to keep the kids a little later given that she wouldn’t get home until 6 or later.

With the house all to myself, I thought I might take a brief nap. The drive home left me awfully tired. However, once I got there I wasn’t so sleepy after all. One of the first things I did was get my tractor battery hooked up to the new trickle charger.

I played around online reading headlines waiting on Mindy to get home. She pulled up somewhere close to 6pm. We both freshened up a little then headed off to Barley’s. I’m thinking we arrived somewhere close to 630pm. The lot was full so we had to park in the back 40. But that’s pretty much and every time occurrence anymore.

Organized ourselves at one of the two barside tables until we noticed two stools available at the bar. We moved there instead. Janet was tending bar. She offered us a sample of the Sculpin IPA. Good! We both ordered one. About halfway through our beers we ordered food. Mindy ordered steamed mussels. I ordered K.C. wings and the soup-of-the-day, chicken & rice.

All about the TV was word of the new Pope – Pope Francis – a.k.a. Jorge Borgoglio. We had fun with all the fanfare. CNN was covering the event from St Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC. There was a guy trying hard to get in every live shot. Must’ve moved around 10-15 times over the course of an hour to ensure his mug was seen around the world. I ordered a 2nd beer, only this time a Centennial. Mindy stuck with just the one.

During our brief visit, we chatted with Justin, Zach, Christa, & Kent. Kent shared the trials and tribulations of having custody of his 14 year old niece. Yikes! Giving he and his wife fits. Mindy picked up the tab for the first time since my return from SLC. Before we left, we placed an order for Buffalo chicken tenders for both kids to share at home.

Arrived home at 833pm. We were expecting the kids in the door at any time. Before they got home, Mindy & I were both in our PJs. Mindy and Bella were eager to watch American Idol. Jacob & I, not so much. He was off to his room and I was off to my PC. The kids eventually shared the chicken tenders. Around 920p, I topped off my water glass then snuck off to our bedroom, jumped in bed and tuned into the History Channel watching a program about Iceland. Cool stuff! Mindy joined me around 945pm after apparently growing bored with Idol. Both kids were off to bed by then too.

Mindy and I watched TV and stayed awake until roughly 11pm. Good night moon!