Yes, there are other chores too

It must’ve been around 4 or 5am when I first woke with a dull headache. I simply ignored it until 7am when I could sleep no longer, and it wasn’t like I felt fully rested. Instead, I just couldn’t sleep. Even before starting coffee, I popped a Naproxen. Fifteen minutes later any sign of a headache was gone. Heck, I only drank four beers and that was over a 3.5 hour span of time, though two of the beers were BIG beers – 10.5% abv.

While sipping coffee, I read headlines catching up on all the sure-fire negativity surrounding the Buckeyes poor showing the night before. Believe me, there wasn’t a short supply of criticism. I also checked the FOX programming schedule to confirm if the Viking/Rams game would be televised. It wouldn’t be on in our region, which was probably a good thing.

I had the house to myself for a couple hours, or until Mindy was up. She gave me a disapproving glance, apparently still miffed about me walking down to Kenny’s the night before. I clarified that she did in fact hear me say that I was walking down there. What she didn’t realize is that I was going to stay there for an hour or so. Truth is, I wasn’t sure I would. In the end I think it was more about not feeling loved, respected and appreciated. I gave her a hug and smooch before heading out on a run. Before all of that I did a through stretch.

Like most Sundays I ran three miles, and it was an easy run. After my run I was full of energy. And during my run I decided that I was going to knock out a number of non-basement tasks/chores before burying myself down there. Before even heading inside the house, I headed into the garage to get the grass seed and fertilizer. I wanted to over seed the service walk area since there are a few bare spots. Otherwise, the new grass is coming up great. I wanted to get it done since it’ll soon be too late for new grass to establish. It didn’t take any more than about 15 minutes to complete.

Next up, there was a significant low spot just one side of the new sod I put down where the ash trees once stood. I dug and peeled the sod back then built the dirt up with some of the topsoil I keep back at the compost pile. Done 20 minutes later.

I wasn’t done. Next, I watered all the seed in, and while I had the hose out, I watered all the deck flowers too. It was while shutting down the hose that I saw Mindy backing in the driveway. Hmmm? I had no idea that she’d even left since I was so busy outdoors. She’d been grocery shopping. And my big mouth sharing as much only got me in more trouble. Yeah, not realizing that she was gone was probably not the best thing to share.  Note to self!

Anyway, next up, I backed the BM’er out of the garage to give it a long overdue bath. Didn’t take long since there’s not a lot of body panels. First opportunity to use the new faux shamis I bought at H.D. Did an OK job. After pulling my sparkling clean BM’er back into the garage, I washed the Pilot. It needed a bath too, but because it’s silver, it doesn’t show it. In fact, silver might just be the best car color for hiding dirt.

Once the Pilot was sparkling clean, I topped off the air in all our car tires. That was prompted along by a low tire warning on the Accord, something that’s plagued one of the tires since it was new. It loses air pressure during large temperature swings, I’ve noticed. And while I had the compressor out, I topped off our bike tires too. Put 50lbs PSI in ‘em. Never get ‘em that high with the hand pump.

So after planting grass seed, filling a hole, washing cars, topping off tires, I felt well accomplished, at least outdoors. It was gorgeous outside too, so a rather enjoyable afternoon. Inside I made myself a sandwich then headed straight to the basement, ignoring the opportunity to check on NFL scores. Decided I wait until much later to check on the Viking game.

In the basement I made sure I had my phone and jambox so I could work to Pandora. That always makes it more fun. I worked until I had all the kitchen outlets and switches fully in, and then got to breaking off the storage room from the existing basement lighting circuit. I finished up all the wiring work around 5pm. I could smell something awfully good upstairs. Mindy was boiling down a chicken to make homemade chicken & noodles. Yum! She shared that her mom and my dad were coming for dinner – grandparents day.

I headed up for a shower. While the water was running I turned on the TV to try and get an NFL score update but to no avail. After a shower, which felt terrific, by the way, I went to my PC to check scores. Not only did the Vikings win, but the blew the Rams out of the water, 34-6! Bam! I was thrilled to see that.

Dad arrived a few minutes ahead of Gloria. I invited him to see the progress in the basement since he asked. Said he was impressed. Hey, I do good work. Just ask me.  Gloria was over by the time we headed back upstairs. Greeted Gloria with a hug. Soon we sat for dinner. Yum, homemade chicken & noodles, which is one of my favorite dishes. I ended up having two helpings.

The others enjoyed what remained of the lemon merengue pie while Jacob and I had ice cream. I had chocolate chip cookie dough. Jacob had peanut butter something or other. Dad and Gloria stuck around until 7-730pm, and they left at the same time, dad helping carry some of her things to the car.

We had a relaxing Sunday evening watching the inaugural SNF NFL game pitting the Broncos against his former team, the Colts. Denver dominated from the outset. Not only was Peyton Manning sharp, but their defense, too. Uh-oh! Look out, Seattle! I stayed up an hour or so after Mindy headed to bed, but still only through halftime. Off to bed near 1030pm.