Weekend Roundup

Every Monday my sisters and I have this thing we do where we E-mail each other a description of what we did over the weekend. It’s a way to keep in touch and keep each other included on what we’re up to with our families. I’ve never done it here because I can’t imagine anyone really caring. I can’t imagine my sisters caring all that much, either, but they seem to. This weekend was so good and, yet, so awful that I feel like sharing. Perhaps writing about the bad will be cathartic, or perhaps I’m just hoping someone can tell me when it will all end.

I have to start by telling you that beginning last Wednesday afternoon it started hitting the fan here at work. Just a couple of small things, one after the other, that made me think, “Well this day is ending badly.” It wasn’t just that day, though, because the next day it got progressively worse – the work stuff I won’t bother you with, but you should know that our air slowly began going out at home. In June. In Memphis.

Things at work began turning around a bit by Friday evening when I ran in the Gibson Guitars 5k and posted an official time of 29:06. I say "official" because the start of the race was so poorly organized that I feel it cheated me out of at least a minute, which would explain why I was over my time of 28:20 the week before in the Harbor Town 5k. But it was a good race and a lot of fun and afterwards we went with S.A.M and Miss M to Fresh Slices to eat an overpriced meal while GK crawled all over the table and the kids complained about various aspects of their food. Then we went back to our un-air conditioned home to lie very still in an effort to stay cool.

Saturday morning I got up early to work on the air. It was the only chance I’d had to do it since it began going out. I thought I knew what needed to be done, and I planned to take the unit apart and clean it out thoroughly as I’d done in the past when it began freezing up. I did just that, spending more than an hour and a half inside the Goodman package unit. And when I was finished and had put it all back together, I turned it on and … nothing. Nothing. No cool air circulating throughout the house, just frost on the pipes. So I resigned myself, mostly, to waiting until Monday to call an air guy and find out how many gold pieces it was going to cost to fix this whole mess. I decided to take C on a short bike ride before Rock-n-Romp started. He had been out riding his bike earlier and was eager for us to ride together. As I got my shoes on he came in and said, “Somebody took my bike.” I went outside to find an inferior bike lying on the sidewalk in front of our house and C’s bike gone. Some piece of crap had come into our yard and taken his bike. So I jumped in the car and drove through the two neighborhoods I was sure this piece of garbage had ridden the bike in to. For half an hour I drove around and it’s probably a good thing I didn’t catch him because had I caught him within that first half hour I would probably be in jail right now. But I was angry and I went home and took it out on various things in the garage because everything that had happened since Wednesday afternoon was piling up on me until I felt like I couldn’t breathe. But I did breathe, and I eventually relaxed and I took the rotted seat and rusted gas tank off the Rebel to help me feel somewhat productive. Then I had a beer. And then we went to Rock-n-Romp since I had the day off, and had a good time talking with friends while the kids played. Afterwards we went to S.A.M.’s where The Admiral grilled out for us and we discussed strategy for the next day of sailing. Later, we went home to lay very still in an effort to keep cool in our still un-air conditioned house.

Sunday morning I woke up and ran six miles. Six miles. I haven’t run that far at once since before my surgery. But I had a Forrest Gump thing going on and I just wanted to run, and keep running. Later in the day we met The Admiral, S.A.M. and Team Greenberg-Oster at beautiful Arkabutla Lake in Mississippi to christen The Admiral’s sailboat he’s been building since last year. The christening was an actual ceremony he’d planned and that’s when we learned that she would be called Nevinston. And then we all went sailing and the winds were good. He even taught me to sail and let me take the tiller and control of the main sheet and I learned what it means to be "close to the wind." It was the best part of the weekend, though surprising that I didn’t sink that vessel to the bottom of Arkabutla Lake with the week I’d been having and everything I’d touched turning to crap. We boated and swam and grilled out and then we went home to lie very still in an effort to keep cool in our still un-air conditioned house.

This morning, Monday morning, I came in to work and parked in the lot but then decided to move my car. The Volvo wouldn’t start. And so it goes.

I realize this is a very long post, and I would have broken it up into various posts, but the brain trust at Comcast has pushed the wrong button or pulled the wrong lever so we haven’t had internet access at home since Thursday. Or maybe I did something wrong and broke it, which seems just as likely.