Ride the Kink

Fairly well rested, I got up near 745am. From the masterbath window I noticed immediately how hospitable it looked outside compared to Saturday when the sunshine was hard to come by. Downstairs I started coffee then played on my PC. I was very surprised when Mindy got up somewhere between 830-9am. She had lots of party prep yet to take care. I am sure that helped motivate her out of bed.

Enjoyed coffee and internet until almost 10am before heading out on a run. Ran the usual 3 miles. My legs were still feeling tired which left me drained by run’s end. Ugh! Jacob was up by my return enjoying leftover homemade pizza. Mindy asked if I would vacuum. Yes, but not until I finished fertilizing the lawn.

Took about 20-25 minutes to fertilize the lawn. Afterwards, I carried the Thule to the shed for summer stowage. Locked the shed then turned to head inside. Crap! Forgot to stow the spreader. Reopened the shed so I could stow it.

I headed inside where I vacuumed the downstairs carpets and then prepped the honey baked ham for the party while showered. I pulled about 2/3s of the ham off the bone and placed it on a glass party platter then stowed what was left in the fridge. I took care of a few more odds and ends chores before heading up for a shower of my own.

Mindy asked if I still planned to take Jacob to Aspen Ski & Board to look at new snow boards. We’d talked about heading up before they close for the season, which is Monday, April 7th. Thought we might possibly take advantage of their season ending 40% off sale. Jacob was open to the idea on Friday. However, I hadn’t talked with him about it any further.

The wedding shower wasn’t expected to start until 2pm but Jodie, Lindey, and her bff, Brittany were coming over early to help get things organized. Jodie was first to arrive. I’m pretty sure that was near 1245pm. Lindey and Brittany showed up about 10 minutes later. I finished helping Mindy with a few decorations but then quickly prepared to bolt for the afternoon. At the time Jacob was playing basketball at Evan’s. He wanted to go to Aspen Ski & Board. Earlier, I inquired about Bella joining us too, but Mindy would have none of it. Instead, she insisted that Bella be part of the shower.

I’m thinking it was near 130pm when Jacob and I bolted for ASBCO. We took the long way up Riverside Dr. all the way to 161. Not really sure why, though it’s certainly a much more scenic drive. We then took 161 to Sawmill to 270 to Rt 23 to Polaris Pkwy. Near 2pm when we arrived. Just a couple cars in the lot and a few customer’s inside.

Scott was there, the kid that helped me with my last ski purchase. However, even though he was a big help. I ended up buying another make/model. Still, I enjoyed his knowledge and personality. He was temporarily tied up so I asked that he come find me once he was free. It wasn’t but another minute or two before Scott looked us up over by the snow boards. I took a few minutes to explain our dilemma (Jacob’s board getting stolen on Mt Hood) and then suggested that he might be able to sell us a replacement should the deal be too good to pass up. Scott was eager to help but quickly deferred to a peer since his expertise is skiing rather than boarding. I very much appreciated him doing so rather than faking it and possibly selling us something that wasn’t the best fit for Jacob.

This time I let Jacob handle most of the interaction. The young man asked all sorts of preference type questions to which Jacob answered both quickly and confidently. I was surprised and proud. Sometimes Jacob can become a wallflower in such circumstances. Like me, he seemed to like both Scott and the other young man. And the young man Scott called over really knew his stuff. After assessing Jacob’s preferred style and what not, he hooked Jacob up with a comparable board though the next model up in the Ride snowboard repertoire. Next, the bindings. Jacob insisted on the rear entry easy cinch bindings, similar to what he had on his last board, which is why I think it was an attractive theft target. They didn’t have any of that style on display, and Scott wasn’t confident that they’d have any in the back either. He went to check.

Lo & behold, Scott emerged with some rear entry easy cinch bindings in a bright purple and neon yellow. What’s more, they would go well with the busy color scheme on the board itself, but I was sure Jacob would pooh-pooh them. I joked with Scott that they were too close to Vikings colors. But as soon as Jacob saw them he immediately took to them. Should have seen his eyes brighten up when he held them up against the board.

I asked when they could have the bindings installed since I knew they were closing for the season after Monday. Scott gave me a look and then shared that he could install the bindings right then but would have to defer the tune and wax until reopening for their summer sale. He also offered that we simply take all home in the box and bring them back for the summer sale, the same time we bring in the rest of our gear for tune-ups. Made sense to me. Bottom line, we were getting newer, slightly upgraded gear for pretty much the same price we paid for the last board and bindings, which we bought at the summer sale last August. This time, however, Jacob took a much greater interest in all of it. The week out west did a world of good for his attitude and confidence relative to snowboarding.

We talked at length with the ASBCO staff, who were all psyched about their annual employee spring ski trip at Mt. Bachelor in Bend Oregon, which they’d be leaving for on Thursday. Mt. Bachelor is one of their favorite mountains. Jacob thanked me for the board and bindings as we exited the store. We both agreed that we’ll always put our gear in ski check moving forward.

Next stop lunch. We decided on Panini Opa, a Greek restaurant at Sawmill & Bethel. Jacob hadn’t tried it yet. We both ordered their spicy gyro platter. Been a year or so since I was last in. Honestly, looks to have slipped a little. Still, the spicy gyro was good. Jacob really enjoyed it. Woofed his down in just a few minutes. The wedding shower was set to run until 4pm and it was somewhere near 3pm when we finished lunch. I thought about stopping at Hayden Falls but instead, we stopped at Griggs Dam. Been quite a while since I pulled into that part of the river park. My dad used to take us there when we were little.

Of course the CPD’s river patrol office is right there now too. Not sure, but maybe it’s always been there. As luck would have it, there was some police action going on just as we pulled in. A cruiser was there at the gates of the east dam with its lights going. We never did figure for certain, but later guessed it was the four or five teens walking out on the west damn past the locked gate. Stupid, really. The water was spilling over the dam like crazy from all the recent spring rains. We didn’t stick around long enough to see if the cops headed to the other side to get them off the dam. Around 325pm we headed for home.

Judging by the number of cars out front, the shower looked to be a huge success. We parked in the driveway and then Jacob carried is new gear inside and immediately upstairs. Loud with laughter inside. Mindy took a minute to welcome me home then asked Jacob to show her his board over the upstairs balcony. Lots of oohs and awes. I greeted a few of the guests then grabbed a couple snacks and headed out back where I spotted nieces, Mia and Sophia along with another young kid playing. I think his name was Jake.
I pushed Sophia in the tire swing and then played wiffle ball with the three of them. Hung outside for about 30 minutes. And by the time I headed back inside, at least half the shower guests were gone. However, brother-in-laws, Larry & Todd were there now, too. Talked with Mel of Pat & Mel. Hardly recognized her with longer, curly hair. Looks far younger with that do. Said she’d be seeing us three times in April: the shower, Easter, and then the wedding.

Mindy did a little clean-up from the shower while also making plans to drive over and see Lindey’s new condo in Hardesty Village. Larry loaded all of the wedding shower gifts in the back of his pick-up. I offered to ride along and help unload the haul. The others would follow a bit behind.

We talked weddings on the drive to the condo. Sounds like a maddening experience. Haven’t been in Hardesty Village for perhaps 30 years dating back to my early Time Warner days. And actually, it’s fared far better than most other similar complexes. Larry & Jodie picked up the condo pretty cheap. I guess the deal was a year or so in the making. Pretty much redid most of the interior over the last month or two. For the price, I was very impressed. Hard to go wrong.

The others showed up about 5-10 minutes behind us. There must’ve been another 4 or 5 cars. Jacob didn’t come with Mindy & Bella since his soccer team was having an impromptu practice, which his dad agreed to take him to. The condo is real close to the pool complex, which for some might be a negative. Not me, as long as the noise isn’t ridiculous. We visited at the condo until roughly 6pm.

At home, we made honey baked ham sandwiches and then put the house back in order, including vacuuming the carpet and mopping the tile floor. I spent the duration of the evening playing on my computer and writing in my blog. Rolled the trash can to the curb for Monday’s pick-up too. Headed for bed near 930pm.