Praise Mary

I got off work today, got to my bike, and the rear tire was flat. Because this has happened before, I carry a can that has "fix a flat" stuff in it that at least partially inflates the tire. I dug it out, and it worked to some extent. It was pretty messy. The tire wasn't fully inflated. But it was enough to get home.

When I got home, I needed to run to the store. I changed out of my biking clothes and looked for my wallett. It wasn't there. It wasn't in my pants. It wasn't in my bag. I remembered it wasn't in my pocket earlier in the day.

I searched the bedroom, took a cursory glance around the kitchen where my stuff would've been this morning when I was getting ready to go. Down by the computer. On the coffee table. Nothing.

Dang. Did it pop out of my bag on the way home? I didn't zip it back up after I got the fix a flat stuff out. Maybe it came out at work when I was loading the bag.

I drove back to work ... most of the driving route is the same as my riding route. I didn't see it. Looked in my office. Not there.

I drove home through the part of my route that goes through campus. Nada. Vicki called. "Did you find it?"

"No."

I got home. We looked fairly thoroughly all over the house. Still no sign of it.

The phone rang.

It was a lady named Mary who had found my wallett by the Newman Center on campus.

Dumb me.

I drove to her place, where she gave me my wallett and I thanked her profusely and handed her a $20 out of it. It didn't seem like enough.

Thank the Lord there are honest people like Mary in the world.

I really need to be more careful.

I went to Walmart to get a few things, including some real anti-flat goo for my tire.

I ran into Gary Godsy. Hadn't seen him in a while. We stood and gabbed for a while. Discussed the midnight fireworks from the Laurie Wedding saturday night (thought that was a bit rude ... couldn't they have done it at 10? Woke us from a dead sleep, and we heard continuous explosions. I didn't know what was going on until I went outside, sans assault rifle, and talked to the neighbors while we saw fireworks over the trees at the end of Bluegrass Ct. Daryl said it was probalby Paige Laurie's wedding. We'd read something about her being registered somewhere in the newspaper so we knew she was getting married sometime soon. Made sense.

I went back to bed and waited for the display of wealth to subside.

We went to Ray & Charlotte's 50th anniversary party Friday evening out at the Elks (I have to wonder how long Paige's marriage will last). There were no pyrotechnics. A few fireworks in their eyes, though. They are a very loved couple. 200 people there. A slideshow of well over 600 photos chronicling their life together played.

The DJ had a mixing board that was made for, and had -- two IPods plugged into it. How times have changed since my Bro Mark used to DJ events with vinyl records.

Saturday we cleaned house a bit ... I applied fungicide to a wet spot on the basement carpet in the basement that got wet due to a sump pump drain malfunction. It's still not dry, and I really sucked it dry with the carpet cleaner and have had a fan on it ever since. It's getting there. Anyway, we went to an annual BBQ picnic/party out at the Coats' place in the evening. It was a very, very pretty evening. They have a nice place out toward the river where they raise and board horses in a large barn (we were also at the barn-raising party) and raise alpacas and make things out of alpaca fur.

The zoysia plugs finally got here. I planted them thursday evening before the last rain. A few of them are starting to wake up. I'm putting it in the area between the sidewalk and the street where nothing will grow. There are a few clumps of grass, some lespedesia, and a lot of dirt. Later in the summer it'll be hard, cracked dirt with clumps of dried grass. In the winter, it's mud.

Hopefully the zoysia will take over and thrive in the heat. If it's brown in the winter, who cares? At least it won't be mud. And it should look nice in the summer from now on.

It's been raining a lot this spring -- it's been the wettest 6 months here on record since January. I have the veggies out in the garden, but they haven't done much yet due to the wet and clouds... and the shade from the trees in the yard.

Went out to dinner at Angelo's with Kristin, Pam, and Trenton Monday evening. Trenton was in a good mood and well behaved. Brian's in Norway with the Marines.

He loves Norway.