Illuminating Experience

I woke around 430am and felt surprisingly rested. And while I remained in bed another 45 minutes, I don't think I slept much more, if at all. I brushed my teeth, grabbed my running clothes, then headed downstairs. Didn't appear that there was any snow accumulation, but I did hear a few patters of ice hitting the windows and roof through the night. Just before i slipped out of the room Mindy asked why I was up so early. Done sleeping! I've never been one to enjoy lying in bed awake.

Glancing out at the deck and then at the front stoop, I could see the tell-tale signs of ice covering everything. Did my calisthenics which included push-ups. Felt really strong and energetic for some reason. To my PC with coffee by 535am where I checked the weather. Snow still expected, and as much as 8" by late Friday night. Around 550am, I checked for school closings. Sure enough, no school for Mindy or the kids. I knew that would make Mindy happy. Of course, I wondered if she might already know. They have the text notification thing going on these days and she had her phone at her bedside. I decided to head up and tell her anyway. I took coffee as well.

She hadn't yet heard and was predictably pleased. In fact, the word seemed to infuse her with energy. Funny how that works. I headed back downstairs to carry on with my morning. No sooner had I sat down at my PC again when my phone rang. It was Lindsey. I didn't answer. She also sent a text sharing that she was in a pickle with the boys since school was canceled and she still had to work. Before responding, I went up to talk with Mindy. I was working from home so I was OK with having them over, but I wanted Mindy's buy in too. She agreed.

I let Lindsey know that we would watch them. Said she'd bring them by in about 30 minutes. As planned, she dropped the boys near 630am. I quickly got the boys situated in the family room with the TV on Cartoon Network. I asked them to only whisper while the others slept. They were pretty good. Of course it wasn't long before they asked for coffee. I refused but offered juice or chocolate milk instead.

Once the boys were calm and resting comfortably in the family room I headed upstairs for a little snuggling with the wife. Back downstairs by 730am, I quickly got busy with work. Started snowing but only lightly. Mindy was downstairs a short while later. Numerous times Rocky asked if he could head upstairs and wake Jacob. No, he needed to sleep. Bella slept in until 830am or so. It must've been around 9am when I headed out for a run. Just ahead of me, Landon agreed to walk Eiknarf. By then there must've been about half an inch of fresh snow on the ground. It was cold and blustery too.

I didn't see Landon and the pug until my warm-up lap was about complete. I could see from a distance that he was having a poop sack malfunction. He was sitting on the grass in front of the O'Connell's house with what appeared to be 5 or 6 poop sacks pulled out of the roll. I approached without his knowledge offering help. I think he was shocked when he looked up and saw me standing there. I could only laugh at his dilemma but quickly offered help. I was actually impressed with his problem solving skills. Sat on the leash to prevent the pug from running away which freed both hands to try and fix the bag malfunction. I got him fixed up then headed off on my run.

Like most Friday's, I ran three miles. Despite the snow, footing wasn't much of an issue. I was careful, however. Whenever possible, I stayed near the curb where the fresh snow was untainted, which in almost every case offers the best footing possible. As with most runs in the snow, very enjoyable. Back at the house, Mindy was busy making the kids scrambled eggs. Meanwhile, Jacob was still sleeping.

I poured more coffee then returned to my desk and work. Fairly easy morning. Again, because I would be out of the office in training all of the following week, I wanted/needed to have my monthly report completed by day's end. The only real concern I had with meeting that deadline was the fact that I was asked to make significant changes to the format, and hadn't yet settled on how it would look. As a result, I spent the majority of my day getting that down and done. It was more difficult than it sounds. Required a great deal of focus. At times I simply had to tune out the usually household noise so I could focus.

Not sure the time when Jacob finally woke up, but he being up and downstairs certainly made the boys happy. And not too much time went by before they headed out to play in the falling snow. Early on at least, they were in and out multiple times, which drives me bonkers. Mindy headed upstairs for a shower at some point. Don't recall what time that was. I was too engrossed in work.
Aside from the heavy snow fall, there afternoon was uneventful. I stayed busy with work while toiled with laundry as well as other household chores. At one point there must've been 8-10 kids on our backyard sledding/playing in the snow. Mindy made a big batch of hot chocolate for whomever wanted some. There were kids in our house I'd never met before.

Lindsey came to get the boys around 430pm, but not before Rocky shoveled the driveway with Bella. They were excited for the opportunity. And it was snowing so hard that they shoveled twice in the span of about an hour. Our kids were spending the weekend with their dad, but he had a recognition banquet to attend immediately after work. He offered to pick-up the kids from wherever we opted to have dinner. For the past couple weeks. we had plans to attend the City's Grand Illumination at Bicentennial Park and have dinner at 229. I wanted to be there by 6pm.

With the heavy snow there were many event cancelations. I scoured the internet in an attempt to confirm that the Illumination was still a go. I saw that several suburban tree lighting festivals were in fact postponed, but nothing about the one at Bicentennial park. From our perspective, it was a go! Bella was a pill when we told her our plans. Jacob, on the other hand, seemed good with it. Frankly, we expected the opposite. Not sure what's with Bella of late.

We left the house destined for downtown around 530pm. All things considered, the freeways were in decent shape. The main streets were fairly decent, too, but the side streets a mess. Kind of expected that. We parked near 229 at a meter on the east side of the river. There was free parking at COSI across the river but that would've been a long walk. The event was still a go, but the crown much smaller than it would've been otherwise. I guess the wintry weather kept many at home. More than once I commented that this was ideal weather for such an event - snowy, blowy and cold!

Mindy and the kids headed inside 220 immediately, I walked around the park taking a couple photos. The fountain are was extra slick with the metal grating drainage system under 3 or 4 inches of fresh snow. After a couple photos, I headed inside to join Mindy and the kids already seated at a prime table overlooking the park and the lighting ceremony. KJ, the GM, shared that owner Doug actually reserved our table but canceled, apparently due to the weather. We were honored and happy to have the table instead.

I think our server's name was Katy. Mindy ordered a glass of wine. I ordered a pint of Bell's Xmas ale. The kids ordered lemonade. Mindy was eager to have the pork bellies from the appetizer menu. We ordered some of those along with their pretzel bread. Good beer, excellent appetizers. The lighting ceremony was to begin at 6pm. I'm thinking it was more like 630pm when they finally illuminated all the Xmas lights, presumably a delay due to the wintery weather.

We opted for dinner, with Mindy ordering scallops, bourbon glazed carrots, and pureed cauliflower. Yum, sounded really good. However, I wasn't really in the mood for a full-on dinner. I simply went with a bowl of brisket chili. while Jacob ordered their new Buffalo chicken sandwich and Bella a cheeseburger. Ordered a 2nd beer, choosing to stick with Bell's but this time the Kalamazoo stout. My chili was excellent. But Mindy's dinner plate looked out of this world. I had a bite of her scallops. Everybody raved about the food, even Jacob & Bella, which is rare.

Mindy requested a dessert menu. She and the kids quickly settled on the chocolate cake. Mindy alone ordered a dessert coffee with a chocolate liqueur. I was good with my 2nd beer. As 7pm neared, Mindy sent Jimaken a text. Said he was still a good 30 minutes from finishing at the awards banquet. Mindy shared that he should plan on meeting us at Barley's. We left 229 a few minutes after 7pm. It was still snowing hard and pretty cold, too. We took 70W to 315N but were somewhat undecided on our path from there. We ended up taking Goodale. By then, even the freeway entrance/exit ramps were a disaster. And Goodale Ave was really bad, too.

We arrived at Barley's safely and thankfully in one piece. Something about a good winter storm that warms my heart. Barley's had a good crowd, especially considering the weather. We opted for stools at one of the two community tables where we sat with new manager David, who was enjoying a beer after shoveling snow from the walks.

Mindy and I were on the same page, each of us ordering a St. Nick's nitro. Both kids ordered Dr Pepper's. We were only having one beer, but had a growler in the Pilot and planned to have it filled before heading home. Jimaken and Molly got there near 730-740pm. Jimaken ordered a growler of Centennial to go. Mindy walked out with them to fetch the kids bags and our empty growler from the Pilot. We opted to have our growler filled with St Nick's. I didn't know it at the time, but they're not allowed to fill growlers with the nitro. No biggie! I drove us home. We arrived around 810pm. However, due to all the snow, we wisely parked at the foot of the drive then both of us got out and shoveled the driveway. Otherwise, would've packed the snow into ice and would've had to deal with a slippery driveway all weekend.

Took about 5 minutes to shovel the drive clear, It was still snowing but had slowed significantly. Last forecast I saw said snow ending near 10pm. After parking the car, peeing, Mindy and I walked the pug in the snow. It was cold but lovely! Took a few pics.

Inside, I poured a St Nick's. Mindy didn't want a whole one so we shared mine. We stayed up no later than 10pm then headed for bed. We planned to ski the next day so getting a good night's rest was paramount.