An Enjoyable "Last Weekend"

This weekend was my last one off of work due to surgery. Next Sunday, August 16, I start back to work on my 3:30 to Midnight shift making my life "out of sync" with the rest of my world once again. Having said that I wanted to make note of how much I enjoyed these past 2 days, my last Saturday & Sunday "free" for a while.

On Saturday, while my wife went to Nashville with her cousin, I spent the morning and early afternoon at home. I had gotten up about 6:30. About 9:30 I walked my dogs twice around the cemetery. This doubled the distance we had gone previously. I had to laugh because near the end of the 2nd time around the dogs, who had been walking out in front of me with their leashes taught most of the time, had their tongues hanging out and were doing their best to keep up with me. I guess a mile walk was a bit much for them. But they'll get used to it.

After the walk I rested a bit then played a couple of games of tennis on the Wii video game system. I took a 90 minute nap and then went to our church to do some recording of cassette tapes to CD. That took about 3 hours.

When I got returned home my wife had gotten back from her trip to Tennessee. I spent a few brief moments with her before I left to pick up my oldest son and daughter-in-law. We went to the Hot Rods baseball game. We each got a model replica of the new stadium as a free souvenir. The game was pretty much a blow out as the Hot Rods lost 9-2. But getting to spend time with Michael and Heather was worth the price of admission.

Today, Sunday, started out with going to church by myself. Paula was feeling a bit tired and ill. It was nothing serious. She was suffering from what we have come to describe as "a grouchy pouch". It's best explained as a bit of an upset stomach.

After church I came home and spent some time with my wife. We had a very relaxing afternoon. We really are settling into enjoying our empty nest together.

About 5PM I went back to our church campus to attend the "Back to Sunday School" block party. This was as big event. There was inflatables for the kids to play on, a dunk tank, and a "pie in the face" booth, a cake walk, as well as other events and games. Of course there was food as well: hot dogs, nachos, and snow cones. None of which I could have but that didn't bother me.

The turn out was amazing. There were a lot of people there. The only problem was that it was incredibly hot. Despite the heat and the nearly blinding sunlight there were perspiring, sunbuned face kids and adults running around every where having a good time. I couldn't stay out in the heat (about 92 degrees) and sun for very long. I sat under the canopy outside for a while but eventually took refuge in the air conditioned church fellowship hall.

While inside I decided to watch the cake walk. The two ladies who were running the game had been doing a great job but the music they were using was not very good. I retrieved a children's praise CD with better music on it for them to use. I'm not exactly sure how but after I did that I got involved in running the game as well. This wasn't a problem. I really enjoyed it. I was in my element.

About 7PM I left the block party and came home to have dinner with my wife. I also settled in and watched the last game of a 4 game series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. The Yanks had already won the first 3 games so I truly expected them to lose this one.

The game turned out to be yet another classic in the on-going rivalry between these two teams. The Yankees came back to win the game (5-2) in a fashion reminiscent of their comebacks during their championship runs of late 90's and early 2000's.

The comeback was so exciting it got me wondering if the "ghosts" that were so legendary in the "old" Yankee Stadium have finally made the move to the new stadium. In case you haven't gotten the picture I really enjoyed the game.

So there you have it, that was my weekend. Not really much on an event by event basis but for me the sum of all the parts made it a very enjoyable one. I may not have many more like this for a while but it was fun while it lasted. All I can say is "Thanks for the weekend God, I really needed it."