Green Thumb?

Since she was dropping Jacob at a soccer teammates house by 7am and then heading into work, Mindy decided to treat her Saturday much like a normal work day. As such, she was up and out of bed sometime between 6-630am. To help out, I prepped and programmed a pot of coffee the night before. I woke for good around 740am. By then Mindy and Jacob were long gone.

Ugh, cloudy and wet. And yet another day not expected to make it out of the 50s. Other than making me feel a little gloomy, it really held no sway over my day. As long as it didn’t pour rain, I still had an aggressive agenda for yard work, namely fetching and planting more flowers. Before any of that, however, I enjoyed some time on the internet with coffee. Ahh, the life!

Must’ve been around 850am when I meditated, stretched, then headed off on a run. My running jacket was still caked in mud from the sod, so I wore two long-sleeved wicking shirts instead. The cool, gray weather was actually ideal for a run. Felt great and finished strong. After briefly surveying the freshly laid sod outback I headed inside for more coffee then prepped for a three stop road trip. Before heading out I walked up to talk with Bella and asked if she wanted to go. She didn’t. I laid down a few ground rules. Don’t do anything that wouldn’t make me proud, and to call if she needed anything. Still grounded, she shared that she intended to clean her room while I was away.

My first stop was Wal-Mart to check out their selection of solar powered landscape light fixtures. They have an entire aisle dedicated to them. I was hoping to find some individual fixtures that were many lumens brighter than the 1 lumen set I bought at Lowes earlier that week. Of course they needed to meet the eye test too. I found nothing that grabbed me. I briefly checked out their nursery stock before bolting for the West Broad St. Strader’s.

On my drive there ESPN radio did an interview with Rick Spielman, Vikings General Manager. I finished listening from the Strader’s lot before heading in. I was there specifically to look at their purple Adirondack chairs that I saw on their website a day or two prior. Yep, sure did. I grabbed two. I picked up a couple more spikes, too. From there, I headed east on West Broad St. to the Home Depot on Grenner Rd. Years past, they’ve had a much nicer stock of hibiscus than most other Home Depots.

Home Depot nursery was quite busy. And just as I hoped, they had lots of hibiscus and at a much better price point than Strader’s. I bought two, a yellow and a red. The line to checkout from the nursery was long. I got out of line to grab a coconut shell liner for our front porch hanging basket. I waited in line patiently. Most nursery checkouts take at least twice as long as other Home Depot transactions. Soon enough, I was on my way home.

Bella called twice in about five minutes, once asking me to bring home food, and another to share that it was hailing at home. As for the request for food, I declined the request. Lord, we eat out 5 out of 7 days each week anymore. And regarding the hail, she just wanted to share. It seems hail storms have a magnet pulling them towards our house.  Told her I’d be home shortly. I asked about her progress with her room. Said she was almost done.

Once at home, I carried my purchases to the deck then headed inside. It was spitting rain. Offered to make Bella whatever she wanted for lunch. She decided on the four small frozen pizzas that were in the freezer. She asked that I add additional cheese and pepperoni. I was really hungry, too, and at first I was going to settle for the rest of my Reuben, but ultimately decided to make a chicken wrap.

After Bella and I enjoyed our lunch, we headed out to plant. Bella was eager to assist. The sky, mind you, threatened rain all afternoon. But the rain showers were very widely scattered and would last typically only a few minutes. We systematically potted both hibiscus and then did the large pots on the front porch as well as the one on the pond patio. In between each, we had to suck inside to avoid moderate rain showers. We planted a few flowers in the beds, too.

Before she headed inside, I let Bella spray off the deck and tarp. We made quite a mess out there. By the way, Bella was covered in potting soil head to toe. I helped brush her clean before she headed inside. It was still raining while I cleaned up. Before going in I decided to spend a few more minutes cutting in that last piece of sod. Bam!

Done planting around 3pm, Bella headed upstairs to get back on her room. Said she still needed some time.  After about 30 minutes the sun came back out, and I thought about heading back outside to plant more flowers. However, I asked Bella if she wanted to help me get started with the basement lighting. She gave a resounding yes! We headed to the basement intending to install at least the first box of cans.

And while I have a basement design/drawing for the lighting, it’s not to scale and doesn’t include any existing infrastructure like wiring etc. And I already knew how many cans in which area and between what joists. What I didn’t have was the exact locations marked and want to have them as near a perfect line so to make hanging drywall that much easier, not to mention having some symmetry. So before hanging the first can we painstakingly measured out from the block wall then chalked a line. But when I went to mount the 2nd can I realized that the existing power line was smack dab in the path. Crap! Already a hurdle to overcome and we’d only just begun! Had to remove the can and start over.

From that point forward I was mindful not to nail the hangers in all the way just in case I needed to go back a move them again. On the last row, last can I made a 2nd mistake. Instead of placing the can outside the chalk line, I nailed it on the inside. Bella genuinely seemed to be enjoying the work, and while I put the finishing touches on the 8th can, she was busy hammering nails into pieces of 2X4”s.

It was after 530pm when Mindy finally got home from school. By then I had finally gotten a shower and felt a whole heck of a lot better. Mindy brought home all sorts of goodies, including some steaks from Giant Eagle. Asked if I was up for grilling. I wasn’t, not after a day’s worth of planting and then working in the basement. We ultimately decided to order Minelli’s pizza.

Mindy and I walked the pug together while Bella showered. I shared some of the details from our day together. Don’t get me wrong, Bella was a huge help, and I very much appreciate her interest and willingness to dig in, but man, she was high maintenance. Literally have to keep a third eye on that girl constantly. Mindy could only laugh, knowing exactly what I was talking about, having shared some deck chores with her the week prior. While I headed on inside, Mindy stayed out at the bridge talking with neighbors Carl and Carol. She was out there for another 5 minutes or so.

Our Minelli’s pizza showed up around 7pm. We ordered an extra-large double cheese, double pepperoni. Hmmm, was it ever good! We haven’t had one of their pies for quite a while. And to wash it down, I cracked open the growler of Barley’s Centennial I brought home the night before. All totaled, I enjoyed three pints through the evening hours.

Jacob arrived home from his three Dayton soccer games between 830-9pm. He looked beat. I’m pretty sure that they lost two and won one. He asked Mindy to warm-up some of the leftover pizza. He wasn’t up too long. After woofing down some food he was off to bed. We weren’t up that late, either. Headed to bed just after 10pm where we watched a little TV, though can’t recall just what.