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:)

While I’m not religious, I’m spiritual. While he may have been a little churchy for me personally, he was spiritual and actually was an advocate for the poor and disenfranchised and that’s always a good thing. Funny how a man of God has to tell other man to take care of the less fortunate. It must be hard to push the God is all powerful message when he isn’t doing anything about that. Free will doesn’t seem to be doing what it was intended.

It’s funny how this process is now followed. I’m trying to think of what it must have been in years past, before technology. Every 10 to 30 years the pope has to change, they don’t live forever. Though I guess that the church would have had a heck of a messaging system, it still would have been odd to have a conclave and have cardinals come from all over to join.

And of course it’s a bit funny that JDV saw the pope on his last day, visited by the anti-Christ underling, he’s seen enough evil and headed to heaven.

Everything went off without a hitch today for Easter dinner, or late lunch as the case may be. It was Sandy and I, Mom and Ron and Sister, Cheri & Alan & Alene and we had the Honey Baked Ham with sides. The sides were too small so we should have doubled up but the ham was great and everybody left full.

Cortney used Ron’s grandmothers china, wow it looked nice and it must have been 100 years old. I love the idea of china but it’s silly to have a nice set of china that only gets brought out once or twice a year. I still have my dads and Sandy has hers.

It didn’t feel like a very restful weekend and I feel a little exhausted. I did get all my steps and circles done. Hopefully a good nights sleep will get me moving forward tomorrow.

For today I’m thankful for friends and family and for a beautiful day to share with them.

Sandy got discharged and a clean bill of cardiac health from the hospital this afternoon. That’s good news.

I went to Honey Baked Ham and retrieved the meal we ordered for Easter. It was smooth until it came time to pay and I pulled out the gift certificates from 12 years ago. In the end, they had to click a couple of things and scan it, it just took them about 10 minutes to figure out that’s what they had to do. Oh well, it’s done and we’ll figure out the rest of it tomorrow.

I feel like I’ve been stressed the last couple of days. Hopefully things will get back to normal in short order.