It was literally just a few days ago when I realized I had a day off today. Memorial Day! It barely even registered. So that's cool, a day off I hadn't even counted on. Not that we did much with the long weekend. I rode with the 2nd Mile group B on Saturday (Bronwyn came out again, but she was lagging a lot and decided to drop out by the time we got to Eisenhower School. I raced to try to catch up with the group and finally made it back up to one lone rider, the only other B, after several miles of hard riding). We all went out to see the new "Mission Impossible" movie on a Saturday matinee. I cut the grass. I fixed the drone (the one that Beth and the kids got me for my birthday last year and broke right away; the lifetime warranty wasn't for life because they declined to replace it after it broke a second time.... I replaced one of the motors in one drone with a good motor from the other drone, and it flies again!). I went for a run Monday and a geocaching bike ride later that same day. So anyway. Chill weekend.

Softball was rained out again this week, second time in a row. And we were playing that winless team again, too, darn it.

Beth and I went to see a comedian in Fort Wayne Friday night. A few months ago we happened to be driving past the Clyde Theater and Beth spotted an upcoming show... Henry Cho....who we just happened to see 35 years ago at a Rose-Hulman homecoming show during my senior year. Of course we had to go. Back in 1990 he was just a young comedian trying to make it in this big harsh world, now he's a member of the Grand ole Opry. He is still just as funny as he was back then when nobody had ever heard of him. There were seats at the theater this time (see 1/23/22) so we were all good. He had an opening act who was ok, but we liked him better than the opening act for the comedian we saw in SB a couple years ago (see 7/16/23). Henry Cho did a pretty long set complete with a Q&A session (still with the jokes) and then did a set of 'requests' where he asked the audience if they wanted to hear a particular joke that he'd done in the past. There were a couple he did that I can actually remember from when he did the show at Rose... being the only Korean kid in the neighborhood playing army with the other kids (it's all of us against....you) and cowboys & Indians (I was always the cook). We even happened upon the Foxes at the show as well. Anyway, great show, we had a great time. We were going to spend the night in FW at a motel but in the end decided not to, one because the motels were all pretty expensive, and two because the power went out at the house while we were away. 

So yeah, the power outage. There was a big wind storm while we were gone, and the power just went out. Tree fell, probably. It was still out when the show let out, and when we got home, and when we all went to bed a bit later, and in the morning....and it was off long enough that I started to worry about the meat in the freezer, since last time (see 7/21/24) the power was out for multiple days. Last time I borrowed a generator from Trey, but this time when I got up and the power was still out I went out and bought a generator myself. A small one, big enough to run the freezer in the garage and the fridge, and charge all the phones. However we found that it cannot run the freezer and the microwave, at least not at the same time. But it can do a toaster and the freezer. Anyway, we now have a generator so the power will never go out again. And I thought for sure the power would be back by the time I came back from Menard's, but it wasn't so I ran the generator from around 9:00 until around 2:00 when the power finally did come back. 

Softball was rained out this week. We were scheduled to play another winless team, too...

Mother's Day weekend, and you know what that means....flowers! Beth wanted to get flowers for the gardens again this year, so Saturday we did some shopping at the old Sherman & Lin's place. The selection wasn't as great, but we did find a lot of flowers that will look nice. Now we just have to get them into the ground. Probably in a couple days. The weekend was a lot about yard work, too; I borrowed a power washer from a guy at work to clean up the patio mostly. It worked a lot better than the last one I rented from Menard's, but still not as good as the first one I rented, although maybe the grime is just getting more set in there or something. But it did a pretty good job cleaning overall, and I also cleaned up the front patio and the siding on the back of the garage near where the neighborhood cats all spray. 

Another weekend job was to put up a new ceiling fan in Missy's room. Her old fan has been buzzing and blowing out light bulbs a lot lately, so last weekend the girls went shopping and got a new one. The new fan is much brighter and quieter, and it also hugs the ceiling much more so it's easier for her to get in and out of bed. That's always good.

Went out on a bike ride again on Saturday morning even though it's still pretty cold. It was only me and one other older guy (Stuart), and since the A and B groups were going the same direction for the first several miles we tried to keep up. That didn't last long; by just a few miles we were lagging and soon after we told the A leader to just go on and leave us behind to do the B ride. Shortly after that, we lost sight of them. They beat us to the rendezvous point too; we were doing basically the same route except B was truncated, but after a while we would be on the same route again on the way back, so A rode about 10 miles further than B. But we never saw them again. 

Another loss for the softball team. We were never in the game. Never got anything going, and I pulled that sore tendon in my hip again (not like the first time, when I pulled it real bad stumbling down the steps). We couldn't play at anything in that game, and lost 10-0. You shouldn't get shut out in this league... usually you can score runs by accident. Not us though. 

Alex is back to work at Kroger. He had no problem getting the job back: when he went in to ask about working there, they essentially asked him if he could start right away. Like, tomorrow? Today? Right now? So I guess they're shorthanded. He should get some hours, which is good. He needs to find a real job in his chosen field, that he went to college for....hopefully that can happen soon.

Summer mode is definitely on now. The house is now completely full again, and will be for the foreseeable future. Last Wednesday Beth, Alex, and I went down to Muncie to pick up Missy and her stuff from Ball State, since she is now done with her junior year and is officially a senior. We headed out with the truck just after I got out of work and made a few trips loading everything into the truck and her minivan, so everything went into one trip. Took several cart loads to get everything out of her third-floor dorm room, though. Anyway, she's the third young adult we've added back in to the house, so we're full up, no more please. 

Saturday morning was the first live & in person group bike ride of the season. Slow pace, short trip overall, or maybe it just seems like that... we did about 22 miles and averaged like 12.5 mph (3 riders, I'm the youngest) so it was definitely not pushing the limits. Even the A group was a slow, short ride (for them) so we're just getting back into the saddle after a winter on the trainers, I guess.

The rest of Saturday was about yard work. Mowed in the front, cleared weeds in the flower beds, hauled away the remaining winter leaves beside the garage and in the corners and gardens, etc. Placed a few more stepping stones in the bare spot behind the garage. That sort of thing.