Hosing off the Baby

 

I woke a couple of times after 5am not waking for good until 710am. I was very happy to see the blue skies out the window. That only served to motivate me even more than I already was. Downstairs, I started a pot of coffee then stepped briefly onto the deck, one, to get a feel for the temp, and two, to shoo away the geese in the far reaches of our backyard. It was cold, only 37 degrees.

Back inside, I sat down at my PC awaiting the beep from the coffee maker. A few minutes I had the coffee I coveted. Ahh! I spent a good hour playing around online before getting ready for a run. And by the time I finished a stretch and was about to head out the door, Mindy was up and downstairs. Grabbed my freshly laundered running jacket from the dryer. I needed it. It was only 45 degrees. Wished Mindy well as I headed out for my run.

Ran three miles with relative ease. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so the sunshine made it feel one heck of a lot warmer than it really was. Bella was up with Mindy when I got back. I asked if Eiknarf had been walked. She hadn’t, though they did let her out back for a while. All three of us eventually headed out back. Mindy wanted to go out and sit on her pond-side bench. Of course the pug followed, too.

Must’ve been around 1015am when we headed back inside but only briefly. I wanted to get a bunch more flowers planted before we left for Aubree’s baby shower, which was set to start at 1pm. I planted New Guinea impatiens out front where we used to plant regular impatiens due to quite a bit of shade. Sun 5 or 6 in the smallish area. From there I moved around back where I sunk a few more New Guinea impatiens and then some Wave petunias.

Next up, I planted about a dozen red cannas, those that I dug up last fall. Far fewer bulbs than the year before when I bet we had at least 10 dozen bulbs. Thinking we gave away about 8 dozen of them. I had wintered over no more than two dozen for this year. Just as I sunk the last few my stomach was feeling a tad upset for not having eaten a thing. Her timing impeccable, Mindy hollered out asking if I wanted a breakfast burrito. Heck yes! I had no idea she was in making food. I washed up then enjoyed a burrito. And man was it good. I took care of a few more smallish tasks, like filling the hummingbird feeder before calling it a morning. By t hen it was near noon and time to get a shower. Mindy was just putting the finishing touches on her ready when I was getting in the shower. And while I finished getting ready she ran off to Target to pick up a couple more things as shower gifts.

I’ve never been to a baby shower before, but this one was advertised as a boy/girl shower and promised to be fun for all. I would’ve preferred the additional time to work in the yard but hey, it can’t be all work and no play. We figured to be gone for about 3 hours in the middle of the day, so Mindy and I felt good about leaving Jacob in charge at home. ON the few occasions where we’ve left him in charge, he’s never let us down.

As soon as Mindy was back from Target we left for the shower, which was all the way across town in Pickerington. I took a few minutes to Google map the address then pulled it up on my Google Navi app. once we were in the car , however, I didn’t bother activating the app. I knew where to get off 70E and which way to turn, or so I thought.

Things were going smoothly as we exited 70E in Pickerington and proceeded east on 204. From there, however, my recall of the directions was a bit sketchy. Couldn’t remember the name of the street to turn next. Mindy tried recalling the Google Navi app, which is often buggy, at least getting it activated. This time was no exception either. Can’t recall if it was her phone or mine that I barely heard it say take 204W. 204W? I was certain that we were to go east, but OK. After going a couple miles east, we decided to turn around, but that quickly lead us back to Rt. 256 which I knew was too far west. Mindy dialed in the destination to her phone using only the Google map. Could see that we needed to head back to the east. Oh boy!

Finally, about 10 minutes later we arrived at Doug & Jeannie’s for the shower. Thinking it was closing in on 2pm. Older home but nice. Sits on s large lot, probably about an acre. Everyone gathered outside in the backyard on and around the deck. Spotted a few other men, but not many. Jen greeted us as did Doug and Jeanie. Doug showed me where the drinks were: soft drinks, water, and beer. I opted for bottled water. And while it was a gender neutral baby shower, I still a felt a little out of place.

I soon took up refuge under a shade tree by Jeannie’s coy pond. Mindy joined me on and off. Mindy came by at one point insisting I get up and mingle. Sorry, just couldn’t envision myself walking around a baby shower mingling.  To appease Mindy, we did eventually head up on the deck where most of the action was taking place. In truth, I think Mindy just wanted to cackle with the other hens guilt free.

There was the proverbial newlywed game then a long, will it ever end, gift opening ceremony. By the time that was over it was 430pm, or 30 minutes past the time we told the kids we’d likely be heading for home. We said our goodbyes to the expectant parents as well as the hosts. Jeannie and Doug then bolted for home.

The drive home was a breeze, probably 22 of the 25 miles on I-70. Home near 5pm, the kids were peacefully chilling in their rooms. In fact, it was almost too quiet. I was eager to make the most of the lovely weather and immediately returned to the yard and deck where I sunk a half dozen vinca vines on the hanging geranium baskets. Once that was complete I begged off to Wal-Mart to pick-up a bag of potting soil and then hopefully a couple more solar LED landscape lights for the deck. I asked both kids if they wanted to go with. Nope, neither kid was interested.

Literally just up the road, it was a quick trip. I carted a large bag of potting soil even though most of my potting and planting is complete. I just like having a bag on hand not only for outdoor planting but also for house plants. I looked a bit closer at their solar powered landscape light selection again too. This time I found some individual lights with more lumens that the 1 lumen set I bought at Lowes. They have 1, 3, 5, 10 & 20 lumen options. Of course the brighter the lumens, the more expensive. Heck, they have some 1 lumen lights for $.97 each. I picked 2 twenty lumen lights. They’re a bit pricier, $15 each. My plan is to remove the tattered wicker tiki torches and replace them with solar powered lights. No fuss, no muss!

There was a Wal-Mart associate at the Garden department register, but he sang some song and dance about being locked out after working for 6 hours without a lunch. Said there was nothing he could do. I turned and pulled my garden cart into the main store and the regular checkout lines. Found a line with one person just finishing up their transaction. I didn’t say a word until he asked why I didn’t simply checkout in the lawn and garden department. Went on to explain the lockout thing. He unnecessarily shared that it was true and that he was powerless to override the system. Needs to take lunch and call for backup. I really didn’t care to hear about their labor problems. Just check me out!

I was home less than 30 minutes after I left and went right to work. The first thing I did was pot 4 cannas for David &Anita in quart-sized plastic plant containers that I saved. Between the potting soil I had in a Home Depot bucket and what was left in one of last year’s bags I had enough to do all four. Didn’t need to open the new bag. Once the bulbs were potted I went to work removing the old tiki torches mounted in the corners of the upper tier deck railing each side of the steps. In their place I installed the two 20 lumen solar landscape light fixtures using tie wraps. With a few of last year’s canna bulbs still in a bag, I planted them in the weeping willow bed. Once all that was finished, I took 30 minutes to water all the flowers and sod, front and back. Looking good!

After putting all of my planting tools away, I joined Jacob, who was playing Lacrosse in the next door neighbor’s yard using his soccer net. I picked up the Lacrosse stick Evan was using before running off to dinner. I’d never as much as picked one up before. All new to me. Jacob says he wants to play Lacrosse at school now. I think he likes throwing the rubber ball as hard as he can. I stood off to the side of the net getting his rebounds then tossing them back using a stick of my own. We did that for at least 45 minutes, or until Evan came back out. I quickly relinquished my stick to him and headed inside.

I poked my head in the deck door asking Mindy what we might have for dinner. I was hungry. I suggested brown rice with onions and peppers, and some of that yummy Perdue chicken. She was putting the wraps on school grades and soon got busy whipping up our rice dish. While she did that I got cleaned up. It didn’t take long, maybe 10 minutes. I ended up helping sauté the veggies, chicken and beef while we microwaved the rice. Topped with low sodium soy sauce, the rice dish was delicious and hit the spot.

After cleaning up our smallish dinner mess, I headed back out on the deck with my camera waiting for the new solar lights to come on. Within 5 minutes all of them were illuminated. I sat on the deck for 10-15 minutes admiring my handy work. Looks really nice. At one point I laid down on the deck flat on my back. Felt terrific. Headed inside just before 930pm. And a few minutes later I called it a night. Off to bed still before 10pm. Caught the last few minutes of Cosmos on FOX, but not really enough to even get the gist of the episode. Mindy soon joined me and after a little begin, she agreed to massage my aching hamstrings for a few minutes. We were asleep within 15 minutes.