Darwinian Evolution Proudly Dampened by Hopiates

By design, I slept in until almost 6am. I felt OK but still a little sleepy. Downstairs, I started a pot of coffee and then decided to skip calisthenics, which is something I rarely do. And because I planned to work at home, I got my laptop fired up while waiting on the coffee to finish brewing. Headed upstairs to wake Mindy at 615am. Left her coffee on the night stand.

Back downstairs, I didn’t hear the usual telltale sounds of Mindy up and stirring until almost 645am, or shortly before Jacob headed out the door for the school bus. Sounded as if Mindy skipped a shower. That wasn’t a good sign. By 7am, I was fully engaged in my work day. I didn’t plan to run until Bella was on the bus and off to school. By design, Mindy took the Accord to school. She left near 730am. I wanted access to the Pilot so I could go after mulch later that day in preparation for Saturday’s yard work. In fact, if all went as planned, I wouldn’t work much past noon.

I made sure that Bella was on pace to head out at 810am and then headed out with the pug for a walk. It was soupy, warm and foggy – about 62 degrees. Bella and I headed out on time. Just before she boarded the bus, I asked how many school day remain – just 10 including this one. After a short conversation with Chrissy I headed home to ready for my run. I was out the door by 825am.

Already, I could tell that the fog was beginning to lift. It was still cloudy but at least visibility was much improved. I ran the usual 4.1 miles and felt good doing so. Worked up one heck of a sweat. I was back at home shortly after 9am and quickly reengaged in work. I joined a quick call at 930am. Stayed busy with work until 1pm when I called it a day. I headed to dad’s place to pick-up his trailer and then onto Ohio Mulch. Buying bagged mulch, I knew I’d have to make two trips. I paid for 50 bags up front, but only took 25 at a time. I had to remind the two young guys helping me load of the current bag count multiple times.
At home I went to the shed for the tractor and trailer then delivered the 25 bags strategically around the flower beds starting out back. It’s hard work first lifting them out of the larger trailer then out of the smaller trailer in the yard. By 20-25 I was sopping wet with sweat. But as hard as that work is, it’s far easier than buying mulch it bulk and having to shovel it into the trailer. I took a short food, water and work check break before heading back to get the rest of my mulch purchase.

I had to laugh when once again the kid helping me load miscounted as if he was trying to short change me. As many times as I told him the goal was 25 bags, he kept trying to cut it to 20. He tossed in a couple ripped bags too. Oh no! By 230pm the sun finally broke through the thin cloud cover and really steamed things up. It wasn’t that hot, but still very humid. Was more than happy to finish unloading the last of the mulch before 3pm. Again, I didn’t plan to spread even the first bag until Saturday. With the mulch bags strategically in place, I took about 30 minutes to sink four grey gorge patio stones into the front edge of the westside flowerbed to making passing between the bed and the blue spruce pine trees a little easier. The task was much harder than I envisioned.

Jacob was soon home from school and quickly headed off to find and play with friends. After cooling off and then taking care of a couple administrative work issues, I headed out to mow the lawn. I was still worn out from heaving 50 bags of mulch around but the idea of having the lawn work completed by Friday evening was just too enticing to pass up.

However, before cutting the first blade of grass, I took a few minutes to saw up the rotted sheet of 4’X8’ wood siding I pulled off the front of the house last summer. I sawed into pieces small enough to fit in the trash can. That was another one of those tasks that’s been lingering on my to-do list for some time. Glad it’s finally done. I spent the next couple hours mowing, trimming, edging and blowing, finishing up the weekly (every 5 days) lawn chores by 530pm. Before heading in for a shower, I watered all the flowers front and back. I became aggravated by the damage already done to several of our plantings, either by animals or intolerance to weather conditions. I found that a couple of our large deck pots were rummaged through my squirrels. I could tell that Mindy was amused by my cursing at the plants.

Bella was having an overnight guest, her friend Alena. Leading up to her arrival, she and Makayla played outside. I told Mindy that it would soon turn into Makayla staying over too. It didn’t take but 10 minutes for that to come to fruition.  Mindy & Jacob asked about doing dinner at Barley’s. As good as that sounded and as hard as I worked, I wasn’t at all looking forward to Barley’s with four kids. IN fact, it sounded more like punishment. 

I knew Darwin had a rare Friday night off work. I sent him a text asking if he wanted to meet at Barley’s. Minutes later, I thought he responded but it was Bob Imber instead, asking I/we were going to Barley’s. I asked Mindy how she felt about me going to Barley’s alone. She was fine with it. She was busy working from home in an attempt to catch up on several yearend tasks, including report cards. I texted both Bob & Darwin that I was a go. Bob later withdrew citing Mary Ann’s desire to go elsewhere. I left for Barley’s by myself around 645pm. If memory serves me well, the last time I went to Barley’s alone was back in October.

Not too big a crowd at all and very few regulars. I talked with two older gentlemen I see in there quite often. Both are retired. The one guy shared that his wife passed away and he retired. Said he ran marathons’ until his knees gave out. Said he quit smoking at 40 and took up running. Felt on top of the world when he was 55. He soon added that it was all downhill from there. He encouraged me to keep running until I can’t. He did add that it’ll likely cripple me. That was an encouraging conversation. 

After those two left I stood quietly waiting for Darwin to show. Soon, Barley peep, Al showed up. I don’t know Al that well, but well enough to know a little about his family life. He encouraged me to belly up next to him at the bar. At first I declined the stool simply for preferring to stand. But then he asked me to sit down again. I sensed that he wanted to talk about something, but just what I wasn’t sure. He soon went on to share that his 20 year old daughter recently shared that she’s pregnant and he was devastated. Needed to talk to someone, and he said he knew that I had been through it before too. And for a short while there, his emotions got the best of him. He was struggling with several emotions: shock, fear, and anger. And some of the thoughts he shared were similar to those I had when I first learned that Courtney was pregnant with Kaileigh. I shared that despite my initial anger, fear, and resentment, Kaileigh was an absolute blessing and that I wouldn’t trade her for anything. We talked a lot about help without enabling. We both laughed when we both shared our first thoughts which was that our daughters couldn’t even take care of themselves, let alone a baby.

Soon Bob & Carol showed up. They’ll often stop in for one beer. And holding with tradition, they had one beer and left, but not before inviting me up to their nearby lair, which I’ve been. I had to decline the invite, however, since I was still awaiting Darwin’s arrival. And speaking of Darwin, he showed up around 8pm, or just before Bob & Carol left for home. Al soon left for home too.

Darwin and I sat for a while, me eventually ordering dinner – a Cuban with bacon. And man, was it ever delicious. I woofed down the whole thing. I drank three beers during my visit. My tab was only $20. Before cashing out, I offered to get Darwin’s too. After all, he & Connie helped us the evening before by picking up Bella from gymnastics. And since Darwin was dropped off at Barley’s, I drove us home, but not before texting back and forth with Mindy. She offered to come pick us up if necessary. I was fine having drank only three beers over 3 hours and eating a very hearty sandwich.

Darwin came in our place. Said he’d have Jordan come pick him up later. Mindy was already up in bed, but still awake and reading. Bella and her two friends – Alena and Makayla – were watching Grown-Ups in the family room. I went up to chat with Mindy briefly. She said she was coming downstairs to say hello. She never showed. Darwin and I each had one more beer but that’s it – a Hop Notch. As planned, Jordan came by to get Darwin around 11pm. I headed for bed as soon as Darwin left. Told the girls to make sure and turn off the lights and TV.