Not An Ordinary Thursday

Thursday morning as I was getting ready for work, I turned on my phone which had been charging overnight and rather than the one beep alert for a message, I had two. The first was for the emails I had received overnight and the second was a text message from my dad. He asked me to leave a key for him in the usual spot so he could come by and look at the back door. Huh? I didn’t know why and it sounded kind of weird, but I text him back “OK” and left a key before I went to work.

Around 11:00 a.m. I got a call from my dad. He was at my house working on digging a trench for the pipe that drains the water from my washing machine and he cut a cable line. Now, I have about a million and a half cables going into my house, the majority of which are not even used. When I first moved in I had cable, then I got DirecTV, then I got DirecTV HD and then I got a line put in for the cable internet and needless to say, there are a lot of cables coming into this little house of mine.

My dad checked the TV (working) and the internet (also working) and so it seemed there wasn’t going to be any trouble. I asked him what inspired him to come out and dig that trench, a project I had scheduled for Fourth of July (even had an extra day scheduled off to get it done) and he said he didn’t have anything to do today and decided to come work on that. OK, sounds good to me. I told him if he wanted he could go ahead and mow the grass too. I was only joking because I had that on my own agenda for Thursday night. Since my shins are still in bad shape, I was going to take the night off from training and do a little yard work instead – exercise without the excruciating pain – I like it! So, I went on about my day and didn’t think much more of it to be honest.

After work I stopped by the Greene Street Market (more on this in a later post – I planned on writing about this tonight, but it will have to wait) and then came home only to discover that all the shrubs had been trimmed, the trench had been dug and the yard had been mowed! It was like the landscaping fairy stopped by! There was also a box on the house where all those million and half cables connected and it had been repaired! I have no idea what got into my dad, but goodness, what a nice surprise. Apparently it was all planned too because he brought his own lawn bags. I know this because his have blue ties, mine do not.

This Saturday I had planned on trimming the shrubs with the hedge trimmers I got him for Christmas; maybe he wanted to be the first to use them? Or maybe he didn’t trust me with them? Or maybe he thought I would do a bad job? I don’t know. Actually I just talked to him on the phone and he said he just wanted to do something nice for someone – how awesome is that? I have the best dad! I hardly even recognized my house! Those shrubs of mine were completely out of control and now look so nice and neat. In the back, the shrubs were practically covering up the back door and now you can go outside without being accosted by a branch of some sort.

When I got in and turned on the TV, it turns out that the line that was cut was indeed the DirecTV line. I had to call and walk through a plethora of steps to try and get the receiver operating properly and nothing worked. So, a service guy is coming out on Saturday morning between the lengthy window of 8 a.m. and noon. You’d think they could be a little more precise. Actually I’m just glad they had a slot available so soon. I have the service protection plan, but sadly, this isn’t covered since the line was cut by a third party. Oh well, it’s a small price to pay for all the work my dad did. He offered to pay it, but I said no. It’s not necessary and not really that big of a deal. If the TV season finales weren’t over, it might be a different story – just kidding. I’ve learned to not get too fired up about things like I used to. I’m not always good at it, but if I take some time to look at the big picture, this is really not a big deal, and I can just budget it into my next bill which is when it will show up.

So, that’s the story of my not so ordinary Thursday. Since I had decided to give my shins a much needed rest before I Cotton Row Run on Monday, I’m sitting at home with a whole lot of nothing to do, which is really weird. I will probably give the bathroom a good scrubbing here in a little while and will more than likely watch a movie. I also now have a Saturday with nothing major on the agenda as that was when I was going to get the shrubs trimmed. The only thing I have scheduled now is waiting on the DirecTV man and I’m getting a facial that afternoon (thanks to a gift certificate I got way back when). This holiday weekend is shaping up to be more relaxing than I thought it would be.

My house -with newly trimmed shrubs!

Another view

The new trench for my washing machine drain

Look - the box of a million and a half cables is closed!

I can walk outside without getting hit in the face with a random shrub branch

Some Day Lilies on the side of my house

A hydrangea on the side of the house