Creeper

I got up again around 215am. This time I played on the internet then had a bowl of cereal, Cap'n Crunch with chocolate milk. And, man, it good! I was up until about 3am when I finally felt sleepy enough to return to bed. Nothing worse than lying in bed unable to sleep. Torturous!

I wasn't up again until almost 630am. By then, Mindy was already up and in the shower. Poured her own coffee. After brushing my teeth and gathering my running clothes, I was downstairs for calisthenics. It was Wednesday which meant it was a push-up day., so after checking out the stars and moon from the deck for a second, I headed to the living room where I did all of my exercises. Time for coffee. It had to be near 650am.

It was a late start day for the kids so I made arrangements to work from home for the first couple hours. Jacob needed to catch his bus at 9am, Bella at 10am. I planned to run before waking Bella, which meant getting out of the house by 815am. I played around online for an hour or so, saying farewell to Mindy near 730am. She said she wanted to do CBC for date night.

I did a thorough meditation and stretching after she departed and before my run. I also made sure that Jacob was awake. I headed out the door near 810am. It was beautiful, clear skies and about 50 degrees. I ran the full 4.1 miles without any problems. Jacob and most of his bus peers were just gathering at the bus stop when I arrived back home. Makayla was outside with the older kids already too. I shared that she was welcome to come down and wake Bella if she wanted.

Back at the house I leashed up the pug and took her on a walk. I also checked in on work. Our weekly 930am call was canceled by the customer. That took a little pressure off. After seeing Bella onto the bus around 10am, I fried eggs for the pug and I. Having a regular breakfast adds a bit of normalcy to the morning.

Off to the shower. Left the house for New Albany near 1030am. Took about 25 minutes to get across town. Rather quiet in what was left of the morning. Near 1pm I broke away for lunch holding true to my plan to visit Best Buy and shop for new PC speakers. Best Buy is less than a mile away from the customer's campus.

Glad I made the in-store visit. They had a live-audio display of the two models I was most interested in. Initially, I was a little disappointed in the appearance of the Klipsch 2.1 Promedia speaker set. They looked and felt cheap. However, when I hit the button to isolate just that set for comparison, I was somewhat impressed with the sound, especially the booming bass. Although, just like my current Altec Lansing speakers, the on/off volume is a knob on one of the satellite speakers and with every adjustment and turn crackling was prevalent. Not good!

Lucky for me, the Bose display was set-up right beside the Klipsch. They had three models on display, the Companion 2, 20 & 5. I listened to the 20 first, since it's the one I was looking at online. Instantly I was taken back by the sound. I couldn't believe the sound coming out of those two speakers (no bass module). I had to put my ears to all the others to make sure I wasn't being fooled.

I then tried the Companion 2 & 5. The "2" model is a cheaper, less expensive version of the "20". The sound was just OK, but a little 'tinny'. The "5" series was more spectacular than the "20" but also $399. Too much for me. I then compared the Bose 20 to the Klipsch a couple more times. It's important to share that the Bose 20 is $110 more than the Klipsh 2.1 system. And while I didn't want to spend $250 on PC speakers, I didn't want to by junk either. I want something that sounds great and will last. Bottomline, I was willing to spend more for quality. Not only do the Bose sound better, but they're built far better, too. And I really like the 'pod' concept for the on/off - volume control. I bought the Bose, but not before checking out a several pieces of technology including cameras, TVs, and accessories. What fun!

Back to work by 150pm. Spent the afternoon catching up on my ever growing list of to-dos. Completely immersed myself in that effort. As such, the afternoon blew by. The next time I checked out the time it was 440pm. Holy moly! I organized myself to leave for home by 450pm. It was a gorgeous walk to the car. Autumn is definitely in the air: sunny, dry, warm and cool at the same time. Leafs already falling too.

Gave Mindy a call once I was safely merged onto I-270. We chatted for a few minutes or until she needed to see the kids off with their dad. She promised to call back. In the meantime, I tried calling my mom. Haven't talked in about three or four weeks. Went to VM. I didn't leave one.

Made it home by 525pm. I was anxious to set up my new PC speakers. We both were anxious to ready and leave for CBC. I had enough time to unpack the new speakers but not nearly enough time to set them up. We left for CBC near 550pm.

Arrived around 6pm. Parked in the G.V. Kroger lot across the street. Vince & Kate working the bar. Creeper on tap! Been a while, It's like Bodhi on steroids - 10% abv. Mindy both had one of those. Vince soon brought us risotto balls. Yummy (see pic). Kate shared that it was boyfriend Zach's bday. Surprising him with a Hero3 camera. He'll love it. She shared how excited she is for him to open it. How cute!

We ordered food about the time my first beer went dry. I ordered a 2nd Creeper along with an order of wings. Mindy went with ice water and the buttermilk fried chicken, though she did sneak a couple more sips from my 2nd Creeper. Wings were good. I ate 5 or 6. That's all I could do. We boxed our leftovers for home and paid our check. Left the usual healthy tip. Noticed a former Barley server working CBC now - Beth. When I came out of the restroom, she was chatting it up with Mindy.

We headed for home around 735pm and Mindy drove. We weren't home even five minutes when the kids arrived. By then I was under my computer desk disconnecting my old broken speaker set and hooking up the new. The initial play of the new speakers wasn't good! High pitched shrill and distorted audio - missing certain frequency ranges. Uh-oh! initially worried that I might have a sound card problem. Rechecked the port on the back of my PC. Seems I used the wrong output port. Used the one specifically designed for a bass module. Corrected the mistake and the sound was as expected. Listened to several tunes while playing on the internet. While I played, Mindy and Bella headed upstairs to watch Big Bang reruns from bed. Jacob was off to his room to do homework.

I stayed downstairs until 9pm or so but then joined Mindy in bed. Bella was still there too. We watched a little TV together before Mindy dispatched Bella to her own room. I fell asleep by 10pm hoping for a full night's sleep, one without the need to get up and head downstairs.