Side-by-Side...

Monday, June 30th, was a good day to record how life can be a retired couple.

It started Sunday as I left my visit with Papa.  I assured him I would be in Monday to buy his groceries but it would not be until the afternoon.  I had a front yard that needed weeding and, if I woke up and it wasn't raining, I was going to do that first before coming in.  The plan was in place for my day.

Sunday evening as Claude and I reviewed his schedule he had nothing but an afternoon meeting in Georgetown on Monday.  Could we combine trips and only use one car?  That is always the $64 dollar question.  We looked it over and determined we could.  Here is how it played out.

We were awake, dressed and out the door to work in the yard before 8am.  I set to weeding all the flower beds in the front yard.  Claude's project was to work on the drain under the driveway and make it a little better in the draining.  We both worked steady until after 11:30am.  When we met on the front porch with large bottles of water, we were both exhausted but had done an excellent job with our chores.  I even got all the water breaks along the side of the house and down the hill done.

Once we perked up a bit with the nice cold water, we each found something to eat.  My favorite Greek yogurt and a banana. Yum.

I hit the shower first and then headed downstairs to accomplish a few things on the computer.  Claude showered second and hit his office to knock out a few chores.

We left the house in the Jeep at 2:30 to go to City Hall so Claude could sign checks and pick up a deposit that needed to go to Georgetown.  Then off to Georgetown to make the deposit.  Then Claude took me to Kroger where I picked up Papa's groceries.   The Claude drove me to Papa's to drop off groceries and check on Papa while he attended his meeting. 

Papa's phone has been out of order due to something in the area (that is it's own story) from Saturday.  It was working Monday afternoon because I was able to call Papa and get his grocery order before I left my home in Sadieville.  However, he couldn't call out.  He had no dial tone.  I had started to mop his kitchen floor when he told me he couldn't call out.  I finished the mopping of the kitchen and bathrooms and then set to work on his phones.  I was able to reset the stored numbers in his phone so he could call on his main line.  I was able to get the second phone to take a charge and it may work now.  I left it charging.

Claude picked me up and we went to Red State BBQ.  This is a place we had not tried before.  Tyra, my beautician recommended it, so we tried it.  The food was excellent. Their fryer was broken but we didn't want any fried foods anyway.  We'll definitely go back to this place again.

Next, to Walmart to do our grocery shopping.  Then we cheerfully headed home, ready to put our feet up and rest.

Upon entering the house with our groceries, I heard that beep a fire alarm makes when its battery is about dead.  I told Claude.  It took us a while to figure out several were going at once.  Alas, we did not have the right kind of battery.

Sooo, we piled back up in the Jeep and headed to Pilot. Between the two Pilot stations at Exit 129 we were able to secure 5 of the right size battery and exactly what we needed to complete the chore of changing those batteries.  Back to the house.  Changed the batteries. Then we could settle down.

My evening was spent until 12 midnight working on my computer project.  Claude watched television in the family room so I could feel like we were close together, sort of.

That is how life rolls when a retired couple gets to spend an entire day together.  It was a good day.