TheTrombone That Matters Most

I was up and downstairs by 540am. It rained some over night but not nearly as hard or as much as predicted. The lion's share of the storm tracked just to our north. But more rain was forecasted for the day. And our unseasonably warm temperatures were gone, too. It was 60 degrees shortly after I was up, but the day's high wasn't supposed to go far from there - low 60s.

After calisthenics, I played around online. I sent an email to my boss and peers sharing that I would be out of pocket again that day while they attempted to recover and move my data from my old laptop to the new. With that out of the way, I delivered Mindy's coffee near 620am. Ended up running a little behind. I guess I spent too much time playing around online. Didn't leave for a run until almost 7am. Said goodbye to Mindy before heading out the door. I knew she'd be gone by the time I was back.

I ran the full 4.1 miles and was back at home near 740am. Bella was already done with her breakfast and up playing in her room. Asked that she feed the pug while I fried a few eggs. Was done with my breakfast near 8am. Obviously, I wouldn't have time to shower until after bus stop time. Bella and I headed out at 810a. This time I met the mom of the new bus riders. Can't recall her name, though she seemed nice enough. Said they recently moved around the corner. Something about that didn't make a lot of since though, as Hilliard Schools have very little of our subdivision. I wondered if they were actually scamming the district. ???

Once the kids were on the bus I headed home and ultimately upstairs for a shower. Felt incredible. I was eager to get to work and learn the fate of my old data. Left the house just ahead of 9am and arrived shortly after the hour. Got set up in my office quickly. My boss poked his head in and was very happy to see that I got the new laptop. Wondered why I even bothered to hook-up to the network given that I needed to take the new machine to the PC refresh guy to have my data transferred. I reiterated that it was still a maybe. I planned to check email and then walk down and talk with Rob to see if he was able to recover my data.

Must've been about 10am when I headed down to the refresh room. Just as there were the day before, there were others there to see him too. He noted my presence right away and happily shared that my data was indeed recoverable. Said he would need until noon or so to get it all moved to another hard drive. Suggested I bring my new laptop down before lunch. Asked that I plan to be without my machine for 2-3 hours. Cool! That was music to my ears.

I did my best to catch up on the things I could do without the benefit of having all of my data. Was actually able to take care of several things. Noon came fast. I took my new laptop down to Rob then headed back to my office. It was raining. I didn't plan to leave the building. Instead, I went and visited a couple peers, happily sharing that my data was recovered. Let my boss know too. I'm thinking it was near 130pm when Rob called me back to let me know that he was done and that I could come get. Even offered to bring it to me, but I walked down to his office.

Said everything transferred easily. Offered to move my email files for me. That's not a very intuitive process and seems to change version to version. I accepted his offer to transfer my email data. He struggled mightily. Having done this last summer after migrating to Windows 7 and Office 2010, I was sure he was doing it incorrectly. While he was doing something else. I offered that I would try. Bingo! He showed me where the rest of my old data resided, and I headed back to my office to work on configuring/organizing my old data files on my new laptop. I was tickled pink to have a new machine with all of my data.

I spent most of the afternoon moving folders around and then double checking that all of my really important stuff was where I expected. By 4pm I was pretty much set. Felt fantastic. I made sure to connect and configure my external HD with the new laptop. The plan is to leave it connected all the time. The new machine had enough memory to allow that without compromising speed.

We had our regular Thursday afternoon staff call at 415pm. The call lasted about 20-25 minutes. Talked with Mindy just after 515pm to let her know that I was still busy at work. Jacob had a band concert at Hilliard Davidson HS which was slated to begin at 7pm. Mindy needed to have him there by 630p. I suggested that I would simply meet then there. That way I could focus on getting caught up on the many things that backed up during my laptop crisis. She was OK with that. Agreed to meet her at the HS, which is right around the corner from my office. Mindy had to run Bella to gymnastics before taking Jacob to the HS.

I stayed busy at work until 635pm then left for the nearby high school where Jacob was set to perform. Didn't take long to get to there - five minutes tops. The lot was darn near full. Mindy warned me as much via text five minutes before I left the office. I found Mindy sitting in the bleachers on the west side of the gymnasium. She quickly pointed out Jacob then shared how they just left Target where she bought him a pair of dress shoes for the occasion. He actually looked nice in a pair of black dress slacks, a white polo and black dress shoes similar to my favorite pair.

Mindy shared that his girlfriend was amongst the 200 hundred or so Tharp musicians, and she believes she plays the trombone. Jimaken soon joined us in the stands. We had a seat saved for him. I didn't really want to work, but I was getting emails via blackberry for an issue that I'd been involved with most of the day. I did my best to help. Mindy also shared that our second tiffany lamp arrived that day and that she had already put it together. Said it looked really nice. As promised, the performance started around 7pm. The Hilliard Station 6thr graders performed 4 songs first. Wow, they were really good. Tharp, Jacob's school, was next. They were good too. Amazing how nice they sound after just 8 months, and none of them had played prior to this school year. The show finished with both schools playing Hang on Sloopy. Nice job! The show was over by 735pm - short program.

After the show, I walked down to find Jacob. Just in front of me was the girl Mindy suspected of being Lauren, Jacobs girl friend. Just as I neared one of her peeps walked up and called to her by name. Yep, it was her, Lauren. After their brief conversation ended I called out to Lauren too. She turned around and I introduced myself as Jacob's step dad. I shook her hand then called to Mindy who was about ten paces behind me. I introduced Mindy to Lauren next. I would've introduced Jimaken to Lauren as well, but when I turned around to find him he was already gone.

By then Jacob managed to escape the gymnasium. I eventually found him just outside the gymnasium doors. While waiting, I ran into a former work peep also there to see his kids play. Soon, we were all reunited. Turns out, while we were talking with Lauren, Jacob was introduced to Lauren's parents.

By the way, Connie McVey agreed to pick-up Bella from gymnastics and keep her until we got home. Mindy went after Bella while I headed straight home. Having not eaten anything but veggies and cheese all day, I was really hungry. It was after 8pm by the time I got home. Dinner consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich on Brownberry wheat bread. I wasn't sure of my Friday plans, but thought I might work from home. Wouldn't decide until the AM.

After a sandwich, I poured a Jack & Coke which I enjoyed while watching TV. Stayed up until 1030pm. Mindy was in bed at least an hour ahead of me.