Ivy on me and in my beds

I was up and out of bed around 8am again. Didn’t really want to get up but sleeping past 8am makes me nuts! Once again, dad was over early, or shortly after my waking. He was there to fetch Glenn. Those two made plans to have breakfast with uncle Kenny and possibly even aunt Char. I thought about getting up earlier, running and joining them but didn’t. A leisurely approach to my morning sounded so much better.

It was a cool, overcast morning with even a few scattered sprinkles. After a 3 miles run, I decided to get busy trimming more dead ivy vines from our flower beds. Mindy was still in bed, by the way. Not to be mistaken for May’s effort of raking all the dead ivy leaves from the beds, this exercise was to remove the dead vines that didn’t sprout new growth. To date, we’ve removed most of the dead out front. I started on the east side of the house where I spent maybe an hour. Decided to keep moving. Despite the overcast and cool breeze, I worked up a decent sweat from the high humidity.

Worked my way around the front where I’d previously trimmed away dead but left still more behind. That went fast. Ended up on the west side of the house which had about the same amount needing attention as did the eastside. It must’ve been near noon when Mindy came out to check on me. I could tell that she’d just woken. Slept 13 hours!

I continued the exercise until I was satisfied that most of the dead was out. There are still scattered small branches in the beds but barely noticeable. I’ll get those when weeding. All totaled I managed to fill the 9x12’ tarp full. The dead vines are very light so draggin’ it to the compost pile was a breeze. It’s fair to say that my biggest concern was avoiding another case poison ivy. Once completed, I headed in, washed my arms and hands thoroughly, then gave myself an rubbing alcohol bath with cotton balls.

Just like that it was 3pm in the afternoon. Mindy asked about dinner, and misunderstood my request that we avoid using the 5 or 6 steaks we have in the freezer. She ended up needing to put them back. Instead, we agreed to grill chops and chicken. I read and napped, and then got a shower. By then the clouds had thinned. Glenn and the kids were back home at about the same time, somewhere near 4pm. I was out puttering around the yard when all three showed up.

Glenn had just eaten lunch at Steak N’ Shake. I doubted he would want dinner anytime soon, but then again, Mindy didn’t plan on grilling until 6pm. Glenn shared how his day unfolded. Did in fact meet Kenny and Char for breakfast but then just he and dad headed back to dad’s place where they spent the majority of their time.

Around 630pm, Mindy whipped up a nice dinner – thick pork chops, boneless chicken breast, rice, and salad. I’m thinking it was during dinner that we learned that Bella took the smoke bombs I bought at Kroger to her dad’s without asking. Jacob brought it up, but can’t remember exactly how. Sure enough, I went to the bag only find them missing. When asked, at least Bella came clean. What was most troubling is that she apparently overheard Mindy tell Jacob that he would have to ask me if it was OK to take them to which he opted not. It was after that when Bella simply decided to take matters into her own hands. Mindy and I were bothered by the notion that she would take without asking. At the same time, we found a pair of very ornate earrings in the laundry room, to which when asked, Bella shared that she found them in the creek. In the creek! Really? Hard to believe, especially when one can hardly count on any of her stories these days. For the time being, we left sleeping dogs lie.

Spent what remained of the evening enjoying some key lime pie for dessert then chatting a little with Glenn. Somewhat late that afternoon Glenn realized that his flight for home was leaving not at 1030am as he once shared but instead at 740am Monday morning. Dad was aware and planned to be at our place by 6am. Very sleepy, I begged off for bed around 930pm fully anticipating being up to see Glenn off in the morning despite a new rise time of about 610am these days.