We rocked it today. I dragged Sandy out of the house and over to moms house for breakfast. It was nice, they get the best eggs. After breakfast mom wanted us to eat cake for Sandy’s birthday, so after all those years it turns out when you’re 53 you can have cake for breakfast. We were too stuffed to do so but she’ll freeze it and we’ll have it next weekend for Mother’s Day.

We bolted out after breakfast and then I went for my usual bike ride around Hurst. Got some pictures of Indian paintbrushes like we say hiking yesterday. Today is the last day for the water tower to be on the base of the tower. It’s supposed to raised tomorrow and I’m hoping to get a couple of pictures of it going up.

When I got home Sandy was already doing yard work. I got changed and joined her. She does the front yard with her electric Ryobi mower and I do the back with the gas mower. So we mowed, edged, trimmed, blew and she trimmed the holly’s in the front and I trimmed the bushes on the east side of the back yard. Finished bagging it all up and called it a day at about 1pm.

Then just joined the cats in being lazy and enjoying the day. I feel exhausted but we got a lot done this weekend and the house looks great. A good nights sleep and we’ll be ready to rock Monday’s world!!!

As I’m terrible at planning anything, we did a spur of the moment trip to the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge for some hiking. I think that we decided that I haven’t been there in 45 years. I remember being in elementary school and having a field trip there.

We did almost 5 miles, most of the river side trails were underwater but we still hiked al over the place so it was nice. We did forget the hiking bag so we lacked the binoculars and water. We did have a packed and iced down cooler and as soon as we got back to the Xterra, I slammed an ice cold ice tea, wow it was the best drink I’ve had it a while.

After that we headed to Little Germany for some good German food and after a hike like that we were starving. Unfortunately they were out of good German food and it wasn’t very tasty. The schnitzel was wafer thin and tasteless, even the sauerkraut was lousy. Sigh, there’s just no good ethnic food in Texas unless it’s Mexican.

We finished off the day with a trip to Brahms for ice cream and then home. We did take a quick bike ride down to the plaza where they were having a parking lot sale but it ended before we got there. Oh well, less junk for us.

So Tony and Cindy were gone by the time I got up, they made it to Mexico eventually. Sandy and Shelly went for coffee and then Sandy had to go to work. I checked the tire pressure and oil and such on the Xterra so Mike and Shelly could take it and enjoy at least a day here. But that wasn’t to be. Instead of their 8pm flight they caught one at 4:00ish and I took them to the airport around 1:30 and came home and finished up work.

Happy we were able to provide a stop over and have a meal with new friends and old.

We had storms run through the area and Shelly and Mike and their friends Tony and Cindy were waylaid at the airport. They managed to Uber over to Love Field and got a rental and came over here.

Unfortunately we only have the one spare bed in the spare bedroom but not two. Tony and Cindy crashed out on the couches and Shelly and Mike took the spare room.

We had a nice dinner at Saltgrass, everyone that was there was exhausted because they’d been up since like 1am to make it from Erie to Cleveland. That’s where they actually encountered the delay that would strand them, the delay there cause them to miss the Mexico flight here and then of course the rain hit so nothing was going anywhere.

It was nice to be able to help stranded travelers. I still remember when I was flying up to Pittsburgh and stuck at the Atlanta airport and Tony came to pick me up, gave me a place to crash and got me back to the airport the next day. I was able to pay that forward. Still miss my old friend.

Today went by pretty quick. I guess that’s a good thing. I still feel like I should be getting more done with my days. Some days I look back on the day and have to ask myself what the hell did I do all day. Today was one of those.

Sandy had to go out to work so I did dinner. I asked her what she wanted and oddly enough it was burgers. I couldn’t believe that ground beef was almost $6 a pound at the neighborhood market. As much as I hate it, America deserves what’s going to hit it over the upcoming years. I’m really grateful that I don’t have kids that are going to have to live through the fallout.

I myself am doing well though. I’ve positioned the second to last payment of the home improvement loan. so mid week next week I’ll be under 20k owed. For everything. That will be nice.

It wasn’t bad for a Monday, I finally got the powers that be to sign off on the work I’ve been doing for the past three weeks and that’s always a good thing. Also got the marching orders for naming convention for final promotion from dev to stage. Which rocks.

On the home front, I got the ashes from the burn over the weekend into the bag and out to the curb. Got my bike ride in, hit 1700 on the old bike. Took a picture of the front of the house for posterity.

I’m happy today, I’ve got a good life and things are moving my way, slowly but surely. I have more than I need and I’m thankful I have someone to spend it with and pets to pamper. Life is good!!!

Sandy’s ankle was swollen so I did the Sunday bike ride solo today. Got 13 miles in, it was nice. Beautiful weather for it. They put the maintenance guts on the top of the tower, really neat to see.

Another thing is that I was riding over in an abandoned retail district and found a sign on the door of the old At Home spot (which is huge) and it looks like they’re wanting to put a bar in there. It’s really not a bad idea. There’s a ton of room and a ton of parking, it could be a mid-cities version of the Bronco Bowl, they’ve got hotels and such so they could be a venue for bands… But the truth of it is that area will never be a crowd gathering area again, retail as we knew it is kind of dead. The Northeast Mall is on life support. If the Macy’s closes there (or any of the anchors for that matter) the mall is gone. Forever 21 closed up shop leaving absolutely nothing in that corridor. It’s kind of sad to see.

Once I got home we decided to go to Egg Haven for breakfast. I (for some reason) had a bit of anxiety just because I thought that it would be crowded. It wasn’t. It was very good too. Sandy had the French toast with Nutella and bananas. I had coffee (good cup of Joe) and the American breakfast. The sausage was patty (not link) so I got the bacon. I’m not the biggest fan of bacon when eating out because I make it better:)

I wounded myself today doing the yard work. But I got everything burned that I wanted to get burned and I managed to clean up the west side of the back yard so Sandy has a place for full sun for her plants. Doesn’t look bad at all.

So after a nap, we decided to go to the Arbor Daze over in Euless. I really wanted to see the drone show and it was Arbor Daze so they were giving away free trees. Oaks too, I thought they were just giving Red Oaks but they also had Live Oaks. Now Live Oaks are kind of a pain in the ass of a tree, they don’t shed their leaves in the fall like normal trees, they do it in February through April. But, the tree I have in the front is a Live Oak, my neighbors tree is a Live Oak and if I did get a Red (or other) Oak, I would have the fall leaves AND the spring leaves. It’s a no win so we got the same tree.

The drone show was interesting, I did like it. It doesn’t really compare to the explosions you get to witness with fireworks but it was neat. It’s not as instantaneous as you’d think as it takes time for the drones to align. Here’s what it looks like.

We’ve finally blown in insulation in the attic. It was $2200 but hopefully it will help with the bills and keeping the house cool in the summer. The crew got here about 9ish and I think they were out by noon. I stuck my head up there and it looks nice.

It rained all morning but it made for a nice day. I didn’t get a chance to take my usual walk but I biked over to the rec center and walked around the Hurst river while it was flowing. I do like moving water, there’s something natural about it.

It was a nice day today. I was a little tired from staying up late but not too much of an issue. Took a walk for my morning break up to Walmart and got more oats for my cold oats. Also got some Captain Crunch Peanut Butter. Then I stopped by the gas stop and got an Icee, I dig them, 30oz for $1.06 and I love the blue raspberry flavor. Beats the hell out of a $8 coffee.

I’ll have to update the cold oats recipe to half cup of oat and milk as opposed to 6 tablespoons. Also switched from Quaker oats to Great Value. I can’t imagine there can be much of a difference but we’ll see. I’m digging the idea of eating healthy breakfast.

Cortney stopped by to drop of the warming trays and pick up some more ham for mom. Alene wound up with moms share.

Tomorrow is hump day and then downhill to the weekend. It’s going to be better than last weekend, no hospital involved.

I’m happy, content. Things are good and I know there will be gray days and hard times ahead, but right now life is good and that’s good enough:)