Pulling Cannas

I rolled out of bed ahead of 6am. Downstairs, I briefly stepped out on the deck. Wow, even warmer than I imagined. Felt warmer outside than inside. Later, when I checked the temperature, said it was 64 degrees. And while it felt good, it made me a little sad. We want cold & snow. And by the sound of the forecast, we won't have to wait long. A winter storm had its sites on Columbus and was expected to arrived Thursday night, first in the form of sleet and ice and then eventually all snow. Expecting as much as 6 inches by the time it moves out. In its wake will be much colder temps. Saturday's high won't make it out of the 20's.

After exercises I enjoyed coffee and PC time. Woke Mindy at 620am with coffee, though I didn't hear her get up and out of bed until much later. She must've fallen back asleep. In fact, she slept so late that she had to skip a regular shower. She woke Bella then joined me downstairs near 715am. Like most days, she left for school near 730am. She managed to get out the door before Bella took her medicine which included her last dose of antibiotics for that nasty cough the two of them shared. For some reason, Bella was having a mini-meltdown over taking her meds. I was persistent despite her tears. In the end, she choked both down. Before moving on, I took Jacob a pitcher of ice water to place by his bedside. Hopefully he'd drink it helping to abate the dehydration.

I planned to work from home. I checked my calendar and saw that I needed to join a 9am call. That meant one of the two things. I needed to leave for a run immediately after bus time or wait until after the call. The old me would've pushed it and insisted on running right after the bus picked the kids up, which would've completely stressed me out since I'd be relying on the bus' on-time arrival. Instead, I decided to wait and run after.

Over the next 90 minutes I took care of a handful of work maters. Bella and I headed out to the bus stop at 755am. I didn't even bother with a jacket. It was that warm. The bus arrived by 8am and then the pug and I completed our morning walk. And while it was still nice and warm, I could already tell that the temperature had fallen from its loftier perch from a couple hours earlier.

Back inside, I got back to work following on one really important matter. Before the 9am call I meditated and stretched. Felt terrific, perhaps some of the best stretching ever. Time to join that all important call. It lasted about 20 minutes after which I headed off for a run. Just as I headed around the first turn it began to rain. Came down at a moderate rate for the first mile or so. Still fairly warm, though. Did the full 4.1 miles without a jacket. And while I was comfortable throughout, I could tell that the temperature was steadily dropping. Lucky for me, the rain stopped almost completely by the 2 mile mark. And by the time I got back home it was already down to 53 degrees.

Before jumping back into work I fried a few eggs for the pug and I. Yum! Because I'll be in training all next week, I wanted to get my monthly reporting completed and sent out by EOB Friday. So barring any urgent problems, that was my primary focus for the remainder of the day. Even with a pressing deadline, I still planned to take a lunch so I could take advantage of the unseasonal warmth and complete the last few yard winterization tasks ahead of this weekend's winter storm.

To that end, I headed out between 12-1230pm. I dug up the cannas bulbs, trimmed three rose of sharon bushes, then headed back by the tree house where I hacked the once enormous honeysuckle bush that used to mask the entire treehouse from the home's view. All of that took slightly less than an hour. Felt good knocking out those three tasks.
Only two of the cannas bulbs I bought at Straders bloomed and survived this past growing season. On the other hand, the red one's neighbor Carl gave me a few years ago grow unbelievably strong. One small bulbs turns into enough for 5 or 6 plants the following years. I filled a five gallon pale with the bulbs from four or five clusters. Wow!!!

Returned to work near 130pm. Made excellent progress towards my goal of completing monthly my report. As much as I love doing it, I need to force myself up and away to recharge my brain. Even a brief 3-5 minute break does me a lot of good. Before a shower, I headed out to the garage and stowed the now dried deck chair cushions into oversized trash bags for winter storage.

By mid afternoon the temp had fallen all the way into the mid 40s, which was more seasonal but still too warm for my liking. Bring on the snow!!! Mindy & Bella were home from school about the same time. Didn't hear a peep from Jacob all day. I stopped by after a shower to see if he needed anything. Nope. Still in bed. Put away work at 505pm. By then, Mindy was headlong into making dinner - inferno chicken. The approaching was all the buzz. Already hitting the Indy area. Expecting 4-6" by end of the day Friday. Mindy wondered if we should keep Bella home from gymnastic for not wanting to risk hitting the ice and sleet forecasted to arrive Thursday evening. According to the radar and forecast, it wasn't expected to hit town that early, but then again, by dinner time the temperature had already dropped to 37 degrees and it started raining again. We collectively decided to keep her home.

Bella was happy when Mindy told her that she wasn't letting her go to gymnastics. Not sure how to take that. ???? Though Makayla was over, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Speaking of Makayla, she opted to stay for dinner. In addition to the inferno chicken, Mindy made salads and chicken rice. All really good stuff.
We finished dinner by 550pm and I quickly got on clean-up detail. I wanted to make a Home Depot run to pick-up a couple things before the winter storm - namely driveway salt, a toilet wax ring for the kids toilet, and Mindy asked me to pick-up a couple of those battery operated stick-on, push-on lights for the armoire. And while I wanted to make a Home Depot run, Mindy said she was going to decorate the Xmas tree. Perfect timing!!!

Just before I left, I noticed that I had a missed call from David. He sent a text too. Planned to give him a call back once in route to the Depot. Was on the road just after 6pm. Called David. Said he was ready to book a room at HV for the dates we'll be there. He's got the ski bug bad! Wanted some advice on available lodging that he located. And since I knew that there were no more rooms available at HV proper, I suggested the Wingate, the new hotel in downtown Ellicottville that's within eye shot of the EBC, though I couldn't remember the name while we were chatting. He found it, though.

Arrived at Home Depot ten minutes later. I guess I should've expected there to be a crowd around the salt and snow shovels. Frankly, though, I'm just tickled that they still had salt. Bet there sold out by Friday afternoon. There were a couple lost looking souls mulling their salt purchase given the various choices. I knew just what i wanted and grabbed a big bag of the Prestone ice melt pellets. My decisiveness apparently helped a couple others. When they saw me grab that, they put their cheaper selections back and followed my lead.

Next, I searched out the wax seal for the toilet. Was going to get a rebuild kit, too, but they didn't have the complete kit i wanted. I'll have to get it at Lowes, I guess. My thought is to hit it once and be done for another 10 years. Next, I headed to the lighting aisle where after lots of looking around I finally fond those pop-on lights. Bought two. Also picked up a potted red poinsettia. It's Xmas season.

Headed for home. Called Mindy as I neared the house only because I wanted to confirm which of my two phones - work and personal - is first on my handfree link. Somehow or another, my work phone is now primary and I don't know how to switch it back. Yikes! By the time I got back home Mindy and the kids were headlong into decorating the Xmas tree. Jacob was up and apparently feeling better as he was giving Bella a hard way to go and pushing his mother's buttons too.

I avoided the decorating and instead put one of the next pop-on lights in the armoire. Looks nice. Poured a Jack & Coke. And eventually had a second. With the wintry forecast, Mindy & the kids had their hearts set on a snow day Friday. They kept checking the temperature. It was holding steady near 36-37. As it was, just rain. It was 935pm when I remembered that it was 2.5 Men night. We opted to watch from bed. Another hilarious episode. After 2.5 Men I flipped over to the MAC championship game. Might've watched for 10 minutes before falling asleep.