Dark gym

I usually get to the gym right when they open. This morning I still did, and the lights were off.

Mostly off. Every fifth light was on, as it is overnight, but nothing else.

Opening time came and went. The lights remained dim. I recognized an employee letting herself in. A few of us headed over and we realized the power was simply out. We were down to backups: the security lights and ventilation. They let us in anyway. We couldn't scan our cards to sign in, they just took our names at the door. We worked out in mood lighting.

The water heaters were electric, so when I went to shower off afterward, I was both surprised and fully awake.

That doesn't happen in May

I have a sunburn.

In May. That doesn't happen in May. I wasn't even warm, let alone hot. Sure it was sunny, but... May? I was completely unprepared for this.

It's not the worst sunburn I've had (Tennessee, 1992), but it's the most surprising.

Ow

Digging in the dirt

I had my garden in the ground by this time last year. This year, however, it's been rainy and cold. Today, however, was finally the first good day that wasn't overbooked.

I left the garden fence up last year so I could just toss in the leaves from the red maple. They add to the compost and help break up the soil, and I didn't want them blowing around, so up stayed the fence. Problem was, the grass had grown into it a bit last year, and again more when it got warmer. I had to peel that fencing off the ground and rip it right out. Of course I couldn't just put it back in that when I was done, so I had to mow.

I had to mow anyway.

I'm gonna skip to the end. The garden bed is ready for planting, but planting happens next week. (Ground is still too cold). But I started at 8:30am, and ended at 4:30. I was filthy - I had so much grass and dirt inside my shoes that even my feet, which were wrapped in socks, were black with dirt.

According to my wife, when I did this last year I was far more exhausted than I am right now. Sure I have some aches, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to drop like a rock tonight, but I suppose that's what actually starting to work out does for you.

Excuse me, I'm falling asleep.

The visitors

My in laws are in town. First her parents and a sister, they flew in last week Tuesday. Then two more sisters, one of which brought her two young children, arrived on Saturday.

I have a small house.

My kids, however, readily absorbed them. My oldest is really good with kids, and easily entertained the 4 year old boy cousin. Meanwhile my daughter opened her room to the not-quite two year old girl, who was enthralled with the toys that my daughter had long since outgrown.

Maybe now I can convince her to give them up.

Meanwhile, I've been deeply over-scheduled. I like going out, but I also get up early, and work a full time job. And have kids. I'm also in my 40's, so yea I'll go out once a week. But they didn't come into town to hang around the house all day, so we've been busy.

Doing stuff indoors, because it hasn't stopped raining.

Seriously, if you're not drinking, this town has parks. To go outside. It seems to have let up just today, but we've exhausted our supply of sober indoor activities.

The van

So just before my daughter was born, my family of then five was packing into a sedan. But with two people occupying my wife's seat, we knew it was time to size up. We got a minivan just two months before she was born. It was five years old and only had 30k miles on it. (apparently it was owned by a nursing home that used it to take the residents to the park across the street)

I tend to hang on to my vehicles until they die. Well it took eight years, but we're there. The thing is more rust than metal (thanks NYS road salt), and it won't pass inspection without costing enough in repairs to cover a new vehicle anyway (thanks NYS inspection requirements).

Looking for vans, however, became a problem. There aren't many in this region, for reasons I have yet to discern. Then, those that are available average 80k miles on them, and they're asking new car prices.

Sorry, I don't want your used up Uber.

Then I found one that was relatively young, and had pretty low miles. Turns out when I went to buy it, they didn't even have all the paperwork for it yet. Didn't stop them from selling it to me though. In fact, that was Friday and we still aren't done yet. Oh, they let me drive off with it. I've had it all weekend, but it still has a dealer plate on it because we can't do the DMV paperwork yet.

Getting kinda antsy, though. I don't like being in limbo.