The 911 on the 911

Woke fully rested ahead of 7am. In fact, I was downstairs by 645am. That’s got to be the earliest I’ve been up on a weekend day in quite some time. The sky was clearer than the morning before but also chillier. It was only 40 degrees at 7am. Burr!

I spent the first hour enjoying coffee and catching up on that work issue from Saturday. In fact, by the end of the day, I invested a couple more hours helping get it squared away. The sunshine warmed things quickly. I left for a run around 830am. Like most Sunday’s, I ran only three miles. Felt pretty good.

I prepared Mindy and I a Mexican omelet using leftover taco meat and black beans. I also added fresh spinach and cheese. Yum! Mindy errands to run, including returning Jacob’s tux, grocery shopping, and stopping by her sister’s. I planned to get more yard work completed including mowing the lawn. However, my first yard task was finishing up the ivy clean-up. I had only the westside of the house to complete.

Before heading out, I made Jacob a Mexican omelet too, even though he was still sleeping at the time. Mindy said he’d appreciate it. Had to be near 10am when I headed out to get started. As always, getting started raking the English Ivy is the toughest, but once I got going I found my rhythm. Mindy and I talked about it on Friday. We agreed it a good idea to remove the 6 or 7 barberry bushes under the spread of the green spruce tree. No longer do they serve a purpose to our lovely landscape. I opted to use my chain saw to easily cut them out. And once they were removed, that made raking the dead ivy from under the spruce so much easier.

Took a hell of a lot longer to finish raking out all the dead Ivy than I ever imagined. Probably two more hours. Was very happy to have that out of the way. Next on the list, mowing the lawn. And this time I decided to trim and edge first. Struggled with the trimmer. Not sure why I didn’t install the new head I bought a couple weeks ago. The edging was tough too, but then again, the season’s first edging always is. Looked nice though.

Decided to cut the entire front lawn with the push mower. It always looks so much neater, tighter lines. By then Mindy had left to run her errands leaving Bella home with me. Earlier, while I was still raking out the ivy, Jimaken and Molly came by to pick-up Jacob for the final leg of his weekend soccer tournament.

Finished up the mowing around 2-3pm. Bella came out at some point asking if it was OK if the boys came over for dinner. Sure, but also asked that their arrival be an hour out still. I needed time to accomplish a few more chores. Over the next hour I got the two backyard hoses installed and ready to go. I also transplanted two cone flowers that were a little too close to the beds edge. I didn’t think I’d have time to get to it, but managed to spray both a gallon of Round-Up on the weeds growing along the gutter of our flower beds and then some Weed-Be-Gone on the lawn weeds.

It was while I was spraying lawns weeds with Weed-Be-Gone that Bella came out showing unusual interest in what I was doing. Actually wanted to help. OK. I let her spray while I found the weeds. Soon it was clear why. While out near the shed, I looked up to see Jacob and a CMH policeman standing on our deck. I asked how I might help him. He walked out to me asking if I called 911. Nope! Been out her working all afternoon. Said they definitely received a 911 all from my home. Odd, especially since we don’t use the home phone for anything but security. I turned to Bella and asked if she made an accidental call to 911. Nope. The officer was friendly and insisted he go confirm the number from which the call was placed.

Sure enough, it was our TW home phone number, which I would never remember the number unless someone quoted it to me. I had Bella go in and fetch the phone and do a history of number’s dialed. Took her a long while, but she eventually brought it down showing us that no such number had bee ndialed. By then my suspicions were increasing. I can read her like a book. The office made it clear that no one was in trouble but instead that he only wanted to make sure everyone was OK. Still, no confession.

The officer left, and as soon as he did, Jacob insisted that it was Bella. Said he could tell. Asked Bella to check the other phone. Mysteriously, it was dead. Not a big deal, I guess. I headed out back to finish the work I’d started. Bella came along too. Soon enough the boys were over but just as quickly off with Jacob to Evan’s house to play basketball and baseball. And then not 10 minutes later Mindy was home. By the time I headed inside Mindy already knew about the cops being at our house, and apparently had a confession from Bella that she had mistakenly called 911. I understood that she was afraid but insisted that she should’ve told the officer the full truth. Still not sure how or if she was able to make the dialed number disappear from history, but then again, I let her do all the checking. Oh boy!

I needed a shower. As it was, I was filthy dirty and smelly. A shower felt terrific. And more than it has in the last ten years, my lower back was aching to high heaven from all yard work, bending over and such. Mindy promised to rub it later. Ouch!!! I eventually took a few Advil needing some relief as fast as I could get it.

Before Mindy left for the grocery we talked about grilling dinner, either salmon or steak. In the end, I left it up to her. She chose steak, and bought six filets from the Kroger butcher shop. Before any grilling, Mindy whipped up a lovely garden salad, corn-on-the-cob, baked potatoes, and fruit. First time we’ve had a hand cut fruit tray in a really long time. Thinking it was near 630pm when I grilled the steaks. Even though I didn’t plan to eat an entire steak, Mindy insisted we cook all six. Out of practice, I was a little worried that I might over cook them. But that wasn’t at all the case. To the contrary. They were grilled to perfection, at least the way Mindy and I like them, which is medium rare. Just before the steaks were done, Landon came bouncing home from Evan’s holding his belly. Once he was on the deck he showed me an ugly scratch he got from a trampoline spring. Yikes! It was bleeding pretty good, but not deep. Thankfully. Mindy took care of cleaning and bandaging him up.

To Mindy’s credit, we ended up earing all but about half of one steak, due mostly to Landon and Jacob eating more than their fair share. But that’s OK. Just don’t want it going to waste. During dinner, Lindsey sent a text asking what time she needed to return for the boys. They asked that it be 8pm. Wanted more time to play baseball. 8pm it was. Dinner clean-up took some time, as there were lots of trays, pans, etc to wash. I had just finished wheeling our two trash cans to the curb (recycling and regular) when Lindsey pulled up. Of course she didn’t come in, and neither did the boys. Just left without as much as a hello/goodbye. OK!

Spent the remainder of my evening reading from my Kindle. Mindy finally got around to rubbing my lower back and hamstrings around 845pm. Felt terrific. We headed for bed around 910pm. I didn’t think I was ready to fall asleep that early but that proved to be incorrect. I was asleep before 10pm.