The Pour / Lovetting Lyle

Up around 630am. Exercise, coffee, internet, meditation and a stretch all completed by 730am or so. About 745am when I headed off for a run. By then the concrete guys were already onsite again and it looked like they intended on pouring concrete, though the mixer truck wasn’t yet on site.

Completed a 4.1 miles run without any trouble. By the time I was back home the mixer truck was there and they were preparing to pour concrete. Rain was in the forecast but the heavy stuff was apparently past us, or at least I hoped so. By the time I enjoyed breakfast, showered and dressed, the concrete was poured and already being worked. And when I left for work it appeared all they had left to do was brushing and cutting. They didn’t mess around!

I left for work thanking the crew of about 6 guys for doing a good job. Like the day before, I asked Mindy to ping me if something came up. She and Bella had an eye doctor appointment that afternoon, and I am pretty sure that Mindy was taking Jacob to school to have pics taken and lockers assigned. However, it might’ve been Bella’s day. I can’t be sure.

My work day went day went smoothly. I stuck around the customer’s campus until our weekly staff call wrapped up around 430pm. I soon headed for home. I quickly checked out the concrete work, now completed and staked/taped off. At first blush, anyway, it looked nice. I planned to inspect it more thoroughly later. I could see right away that I’d need to get a load of top soil to build up the edge, but that’s something Tom, the owner, shared with me last May when he came out for the measure and estimate, so by no means was that a surprise. In fact, they cleaned up, spruced up better than I expected. Looked like they took care not to damage the irrigation system which runs under most of the walk on the east side of the driveway.

Mindy, Ben, Ryan and I were all heading to the Lyle Lovett concert at the LC Pavilion in the arena district. We expected them at the house at 530pm. Ben arrived near 530pm. He was alone, but anticipated that Ryan would soon show up, too. He brought a couple six-packs of beer, some milk stout and then some Hop Nosh! I enjoyed just one beer before we planned to leave. Jacob was at soccer practice and Bella off to school orientation with neighbor Chrissy. Dad was coming over to intercept both kids around 8pm and then hang out until we returned home around 11pm.

Ryan showed up around 545pm. We hung out for perhaps another 15-20 minutes before piling into the Pilot and heading down to the LC. It was surprisingly cool, by the way, especially for mid-August, only around 70 degrees with clearing skies after sprinkling on and off most of the day, Expected it to drop into the mid 50’s overnight.

Like our last LC concert, we parked in the garage across the street for $5. Good deal! We brought a few beers in a small cooler which we enjoyed from the comfort of the Pilot before heading over to the venue. We stopped at the Music Bar adjoining the LC where we all took advantage of the facilities and then Ben and I got a couple beers.

Into the LC near 7pm. We opted for lawn seats this go round, which afforded us the opportunity to deploy our state-of-the-art picnic blanket for the first time (it along with the concert tickets were my Father’s Day gift). We plopped down center stage first row of the lawn seating. The lawn never did fill near capacity but far more late arrivers than early. Also, as expected, the crowd older.

Guessing it was near 740pm when Lyle and his big band came on. He’s looking a little gray and older but sounded, played fantastic. And there must’ve been as many as 12 others in the “big band” Each of them were extremely talented and were given an opportunity to sport their wears throughout the show. During the show, enjoyed a couple more beers over the next 2.5 hours. Also worthy of mention, we ran into the same women we ran into at ASBCO the previous Saturday - the women Mindy befriended at MRM last winter. In addition, we ran into some distant neighbors at the show.

Spectacular, crisp performance. Played a really long time. Enjoyed it very much. Mindy commented more than once how much she enjoyed it too. Prior to the show, she hadn’t really heard of Lyle Lovett, but admitted that a few of his songs were familiar. And like a lot of folks, she knew of him as the guy that was once married to the “Pretty Woman”.

Got home around 11pm. Not sure about the others, but I was incredibly sleepy. Ben & Ryan didn’t hang out long, and neither did dad. He left as soon as we got home. Made plans to do brunch with Ben & Ryan at CBC the following Sunday. Mindy and I were in bed by 1120pm.