Jinxed it, snow to sweat

So as I signed off before departing on my flight home from PA I remarked sarcastically how I hoped for a smooth travel experience, knowing the exact opposite would be the case.  Well for once I was glad I got it wrong, both flights to Atlanta and Fort Myers were uneventful, I actually got to Fort Myers 15 minutes ahead of schedule.  To make things better, the empty seat next to me that I paid for was not resold by Delta on either flight meaning I had space to relax where 98% of the rest of the cabin did not.

Cindy and Elsa picked me up and life was back to normal.  I quickly stripped off the long sleeve thermal shirt I was wearing as it was clearly no longer necessary.  One of the first things I did when I got home was to verify that the glued together and carefully packed ceramic skull I bought for Katie survived the trip intact.  It thankfully did.  I left my luggage in the laundry room so everything could be washed, even though I did some laundry at my dad’s.  There was just too much cross contamination going on. Wednesday night we just chilled out and caught up on some back logged dvr content.  It felt very comforting to be back inside my own four walls and even more so to sleep in my own bed.

So Thursday was a fresh day and I decided I needed to get shit done, despite a right leg that continues to give me a limp worthy of a medicare patient.  The first task was taking down all of the exterior Christmas decorations.  This is a job that is much better suited to two people but Cindy was teaching a class and I didn’t feel like waiting.  I slowly made progress unwrapping the lights around the six palm trees and then wrapped each set around it’s own spool for storage.

As I was removing the icicle lights from the front entrance area I noticed the gutter on that side of the house was packed with oak tree leaves.  This spun off into a side project of my cleaning the gutters on that side of the house.  I grabbed my battery powered DeWalt blower and went to town.  It worked very well.  I also noticed just how much asphalt continues to build up in the gutters, another reminder that doing something about my roofing material is going to have to be done in the next few years.

So I finally got the gutters cleaned and the lights packed away, a good days work.  It should be now time to relax, right? Wrong.  I got another bug up my ass to clean out and reorganize the small shed, something I have been meaning to get done for a few months.  I began the arduous process of pulling out shit and throwing it around the yard in piles that designated if it was to go back in the shed, taken to the curb, or thrown out. Cindy got back after I ate lunch and was starting on the reassembly process which she assisted on.  I am much happier with the end result as it makes it easier to get to what I need.  The purging also had the side benefit of clearing some shelf space which is always a good feeling.

Finally I got to rest for part of the afternoon.  The labor had left me feeling all kinds of sore, not only in my right leg but back as well.  Katie stopped by Thursday evening to eat dinner and pick out clothes for the wedding we are attending this weekend.  We also did some riding on our wheels over at the school.

This was a big moment because it was the first time Cindy had her new Inmotion wheel out in the wild.  She was being very protective of her wheel, she didn’t even want me to carry it to the car and she placed a pillow between her wheel and mine.  I reminded her that hoping to keep an electric unicycle blemish free is an impossibility.  She said she realized that but she wanted to be the one to create those blemishes, fair enough.

While Katie and I rode around Cindy headed for the magical rectangular fence that she used last time as a training aid.  It took a little time for her to get reaccustomed to  the physics but by the time we left ahe had done a number of corner to corner free wheeling rides which are at least 50 feet in distance.  She really has the hardest part behind her, now it is just putting in the time so she trusts her body to just react.

This morning there was a steady light rain going on but it didn’t stop me from getting outside to knock out the weeding and do a few other things.  It still is hard for me to believe just a few days ago I was marching around in 5 degree air and surviving.