January 28, 2024
Look out boys, there’s a new (coffee) sheriff in town. I woke up this Sunday around 5 AM, eager to exercise my newfound barista skills. This morning, the espresso machine was my paintbrush, so I warned Wifey to stay in her lane. There’s only room for one artist in the kitchen at a time. In all seriousness, I was excited to make the coffees this morning. My wife praised the flavor, but I noticed she didn’t drink all of it. I thought mine was splendid, though. Can’t please them all.
My wife asked if I wanted to grab some breakfast with her at the Wilson Cracker Barrel. You never need to twist my arm to get me in front of a plate of food across from this pretty girl. Breakfast was tasty. As is often the case, we ended up ordering the same thing: Grandpa’s chicken fried steak, eggs over-medium, hash brown casserole, and biscuits with gravy. The typical light, country breakfast.
As we drove around town, I noticed how beautiful it was. Last night, it rained hard, but the clouds had disappeared and the sun was shining brightly while the breeze kept the temperatures feeling cool. I told my wife the perfect weather was putting a real damper on my sadness.
After we arrived home, we packed my wife’s SUV with everything she would need for the next month. Since she is the prepared type, she packed everything a few days ago. This made loading up the car quick work. Although it didn’t take long and wasn’t very hard to do, the weight of the trip had us both feeling exhausted. We took a couple of hours to relax together and before we knew it; we had fallen asleep in a rare nap together.
We felt better when we awoke, and even though it wasn’t one o’clock, our planned departure time, we both knew it was time to rip off the bandaid. I walked my wife out to her car, gave her a big hug and kiss, and we said our goodbyes. We laughed, because it was all easier than expected. We mentioned the time we first said goodbye to each other after we had spent a week together in Austin. That goodbye was ugly, with almost as many tears as there was snot. It was one of those ugly cries. Today, almost eight years later, we knew we had this.
After she left, I spent some time folding the laundry and doing the few dishes that were in the sink. I felt like I needed a reset, so I went to the bathroom, cut my hair, and took a hot shower. After, I got dressed and spent a little time with the dogs, who by now were highly suspicious because their mother was gone. They looked like it was the first day of bootcamp. Good afternoon, ladies.
We had shopped the week before for groceries, and the fridge still held plenty of food, but I made a drive into Wilson to grab a few necessities: a box of Noda Radio Haze IPA and a box of Daycation IPA. A man has got to wash his sorrows down.
I dropped the trash off at the service center, all the while watching the dramatic clouds stirring in the sky. While the contrasted cumulus clouds looked moody, with dark streaks intersecting the sun’s bright rays, I could tell the sight was temporary. I almost went home to grab my camera and head to the reservoir, but as I suspected, the sky cleared within thirty minutes.
I went for a short walk into the woods before spending an hour collecting firewood. I picked up a lot of pine, cherry, and some oak, hauling them in my cart back to the patio. After, I started a fire in the Solo Stove and spent the next three hours burning wood, listening to music, thinking about my honey, and planning out the next month. The dogs were happy to be outside, although I chose not to BBQ. In fact, I wasn’t hungry, so I ended up skipping dinner for the night. My wife made it to her destination safely, which made me happy.
Although it was still early, I wanted to be in bed on time, so I put out the fire, cleaned the kitchen, and took a shower. My clothes wreaked of smoke, which isn’t a terrible smell, just a strong one. After my shower, I read for a while before retiring for the night. While six days a week, I’m waiting for morning, Mondays have a way of arriving earlier than expected. I had a great weekend, and I was ready to get back to the grind.