BM'er Battery

Sic Balls!

 

Mindy was up early to both transport and then take-in Jacob’s 1st spring soccer game. I’m pretty sure that she was up around 7am. The night before she said she wanted to leave the house around 810am. I remained in bed and asleep but woke a few times during her ready. I could smell freshly brewed coffee but resisted the urge to get up too early. Instead, I luxuriated in bed until almost 815am. Felt good to sleep until I was done.

Downstairs, I poured coffee then headed to my PC. It was cloudy and cool, only 37 degrees. The day’s high was expected to barely reach 50 degrees. Sunnier and warmer on Sunday. Mindy called around 9am or just before Jacob’s soccer game was set to start. She was apparently inside at Grove City Christian H.S. (Nazarene) waiting. Said it was like 16 degrees with windchill. Not according to weather.com, but then again, I wasn’t there. Definitely cold, though. Jacob’s game was being played on their state-of-the-art artificial surface. Mindy reminded me that she was stopping at Kroger for wedding shower food after the game.

I didn’t have much planned. I headed out for a run around 10am. Fairly easy 3 miles Saturday run. After completing my run and before even heading back inside, I fetched the square shovel from the garage and went along Mindy’s side of the driveway raising the edge of the turf where she’d driven over it a few times under snow/ice pack. As it was, it was severely compacted. It didn’t take too long to complete. Before heading inside, I charged my battery powered jump-starter with hopes of trying to start the BMer if at all possible.

Enjoyed more coffee while adding/updating a handful of blog entries. Must’ve been around noon when I headed out to once again try jump starting the BM’er, this time with a fully charged jumper. Started on the 2nd crank. I let it run for about 30 minutes while I swept the garage floor and took care of a few other miscellaneous tasks, including carrying in and stowing the rest of our ski gear from the Oregon trip. After letting the BM’er run for a while I decided to take it for a brief drive before turning it off and trying to start it again. Moved the Accord street side to make room for backing it out of the garage. Headed off towards the back of the subdivision exiting onto Hague and heading north to Trabue and around the ened up heading north on Hague. And she ran really well. German engineering at its finest.

Lo & behold, Mindy and Jacob were home and blocking the driveway upon my return. I had to ask Mindy to move the Pilot over a bit so I could get back into the garage. Tried restarting the BM’er, but it was completely dead. Crap! Can’t complain much. The battery is 10 years old. Helped Mindy carry in the goods. She quickly got started on a few house cleaning shores while I carried the ski bags and boots to the basement. I tried enlisting Jacob’s help but Mindy quickly jumped in instead. I tried to quietly motion that I was specifically trying to enlist Jacob for help but she didn’t get the message. She actually gave me crap about it instead. Good grief!

Agitated with all that, I headed out to the yard to take care of a couple nagging tasks, one to remove the blades from both the tractor and push mower and then to lower the turf that catches the shed door each time I open it. It’s been a problem for a few years. Not sure if the shed has settled or if the ground is simply swollen with rain. Maybe a combination. Either way, I’ve checked the shed for levelness. If it has settled, it’s done so evenly. Still level.

Removing the mower blades took about 15-20 minutes, and that includes putting the front of the tractor up on blocks to make getting to the blades that much easier. Still a bit of challenge, requiring me to lie on the ground. I plan to take them into JD & Equipment on Friday for their annual open house and have them sharpened while I wait for only $2 each. Once the blades were off and the mowers back in the shed, I dug up the sod in the path of the swinging door. Moving the sod to the side temporarily, I removed a couple inches of soil before putting the sod back. I tamped it down really good then over-seeded the area. I locked the shed up then realized that I failed to retrieve the fertilizer spreader as originally intended. Crap! I headed back to the shed to get it. I didn’t plan to spread fertilizer that afternoon, but instead most likely on Sunday when it was expected to be sunnier and warmer.

Now about 2pm, I headed inside to continue helping Mindy with getting the house prepared for her wedding shower. She asked me to put the sofa and chair covers back on, which is something I am very good at. I was a little annoyed only because up to that point, she had asked very little of the kids, especially Jacob, but that’s pretty much par for the course. His contribution to recurring household amounts to about 10 minutes a week and then he complains the whole time. Bella, on the other hand, does quite a bit more as well as taking care of the dog duty in the afternoon and evenings. That really needs to change.

After taking care of the sofa and chair I watered and trimmed all the house plants. I really need to do a spring fertilization as well, but perhaps on another day. Admittedly, Mindy did most of the big chores, like cleaning our master bath, which sorely needed some TLC. She dusted the living room too. Sometime mid/late afternoon Mindy and I briefly discussed the family chores thing. Good to put it behind us, but more importantly, she agreed that we need to get the kids, especially Jacob, more involved and without cutting them continuous slack.

Not sure the time when I finally got a shower. But later that afternoon Mindy shared that she pulled a nasty long clump of hair from our shower drain. Every now and again, one could get a sniff of sulfur like odor. Learning about the clump of hair, I am sure that was it. Yuck! We briefly discussed dinner plans. We agreed to stay home and make homemade pizzas. I think we both were looking forward to a quiet night at home. Sometime later afternoon, I headed out to the driveway where I put some new stickers on the Thule, one from Park City and then a 2nd EVO sticker. Minutes later I went ahead and removed the Thule then stowed it temporarily in the garage. Would likely stow it in the shed after fertilizing the lawn on Sunday.

Mindy made yet another run to Kroger to pick-up something she forgot earlier. I suggested she pick-up some Italian pizza cheese too in place of using plain ol’ mozzarella. It must’ve been around 7pm when we got started with the pizza making. I put a few good beers from the garage in the freezer and fridge for later. Once I had the dough prepped and rising, I suggested that we engage Bella in the pizza making process. At the time both kids were in their rooms. Jacob was already asleep, and Mindy bet the ranch that he’d sleep through the night. Bella was reluctant to want to help at first, but once she joined us in the kitchen she seemed to really enjoy the entire process. Let her do it all with a little coaching. She got to spread the dough, add the sauce, top with cheese, pepperoni, and peppers. She was grinning ear to ear. Did my heart good.

Ready by 8pm, Jacob didn’t budge. Instead, he was sound asleep. It was just the three of us for dinner. And perhaps because she had a hand in it, Bella loved the homemade pizzas. We made one thin crust and one thick. Neither as good as Minelli’s but way more fun. Just ask Bella!

Finished with dinner near 9pm. Through the dinner making process, Mindy enjoyed a couple glasses of wine while I enjoyed a few beers. Mindy headed to bed before 945pm. I joined her near 10pm where we watched last week’s episode of SNL, which I had already seen most of online last Sunday. Still funny. I don’t think I/we made it for too long though, maybe 20 minutes before falling asleep.