Ladies & Gentlemen ... Spring

It was Monday and time to return to work. I woke chilly during the overnight, a result of sleeping with the bedroom window open – Mindy’s idea. In fact, I’m pretty sure that she got up and closed it at least part way during the wee hours. I was out of bed and downstairs just a couple minutes after 530am. Felt good to be up at my old regular time.

Felt good and breezed through calisthenics. Headed to my PC with coffee at 549am. Ahhh. Looked like a decent day in the offing. There were a few sprinkles around early on but it wasn’t expected to rain much during the day. Instead they were calling for partly cloudy and 80. At the time it was about 56 degrees.

I delivered Mindy’s coffee at 610am. Headed back downstairs for meditation and stretch. Finished both of those before 630am for the first time in a long time. Dressed in spring running attire – long running pants and a winter wicking shirt (no jacket or ear covers). I headed out the door near 635am.

There were rain drops on the cars but the sky was beginning to clear and I could see daybreak on the eastern horizon. Nice temp for a run. Ran the full 4.1 miles and was back at home near 715a. It was then that I solidified my decision to work from home. Mindy was busy in the kitchen. And for the first time in a while, not on her way out the door. After calling for the pug, we headed out for our morning walk. We were back by 725am. Mindy left a couple minutes ahead of 730am. I began preparing breakfast - fried eggs - for the pug and I.

Eiknarf and I enjoyed our eggs then I got my laptop online and started doing a little work. Responded to a few emails then headed out to the bus stop at 810am. Lovely morning! Bella was in shorts, and I believe for the first time all year. Once Bella was on the bus, Eiknarf and I took our time heading back to the house. I poured a 2nd cup of coffee then dug further into work.

Sadly, I pretty much forgot about the weather as I had an awful lot on my plate to try and accomplish. Ended up being a very busy day – conference calls, meetings, reports and customer escalations. Stayed busy pretty much all day. I did take a 20 minute break and took advantage of the lovely weather walking the pug around the back yard. It was very pretty out.

Around 330pm I was finally got some breathing room and called my mortgage company about a possible refinance, which is something I’ve been wanting to follow through on for some time now, especially since the economy is recovering and interest rates are likely on their way up again. I inquired just before we left for our Utah ski trip but hadn’t pulled the trigger.

Turns out, the loan officer assigned to my inquiry was out on vacation. I was referred to his back-up, who I seemed to gel with more so than the other guy. What’s more, he was able to quote me an even better deal than his predecessor 6 weeks prior. This time I agreed to formally start the process and locked in at 2.875% for 15 years. And the beauty is this, the mortgage payment will go down yet we will pay-off the mortgage 56 months sooner, which is where the real saving’s will be recognized (about $60K in interest).
Getting that going was a significant load off my .

By the time I got off the phone with the lender, Mindy and the kids were home from school. It was a Jimaken night, and he picked up the kids shortly after 5pm. Mindy and I didn’t plan on going anywhere. Instead, we decided to stay home and enjoy leftover Chilean sea bass. She reheated it on the pizza stone. There was plenty of it, too, and it was delicious.

Clean-up was a snap. After dinner we took the pug on a walk. It was in the mid 70s and mostly sunny, a lovely evening for a leisurely stroll. Sat out back on the deck for a while, too. The kids got home around 805pm. Watched a little TV though I can’t recall exactly what. Headed to bed at a very reasonable hour. Once again, we slept with the windows opened.