Bonus Monday

We had an unexpected bonus added on to Karen’s visit. Karen had planned to meet her friend Lauren for lunch at a restaurant in Crestview. Crestview is only 30 miles up the road and is the city where Karen gets on I-10. She packed up everything and was ready to leave when she realized she had no way to handle Truman, her dog, when she was with Lauren. It is too hot to leave him in the car and she can’t leave him outside the restaurant. Penny quickly volunteered to hold Truman and we would drive Truman up there when they finished their meal. It was the best solution to the problem. It gave us the bonus of seeing Karen and Sophie a little longer, seeing Lauren and her daughter Kate and spending some quality time with Truman.

For the first half-hour after Karen left I went outside with Truman. I planted some of the vegetables. He piddled, pooped and sniffed around (I know there are cats here somewhere, I can smell them). We drove up to Crestview before Karen called us (we told her to call when she thought she would be another half-hour. We got up there, found a nice bench in front of the restaurant and received Karen’s call. I sat on the bench with Truman, people watching, while Penny struck out and explored the strip mall we were in. Truman got a number of comments from passer-bys saying he was a beautiful and attentive dog. I think he enjoyed sitting there. He behaved wonderfully. Basically he just sat there with me, quietly taking it all in.

When Karen and Lauren came out we all chatted a while. Little Kate was wearing a stick-on bow. Karen changed Sophie’s diaper in preparation for the first leg of the drive home, we all hugged and she was off. It was a good visit.

Penny had scoped out a Philippine restaurant that was in the strip mall and that is where we had lunch. It was a buffet and both of us ate too much of the good food. Then we walked through Big Lots (our local Big Lots closed so we checked out this one). We finished up our Crestview adventure with a walk through their Wal-Mart. Penny wanted to check out their craft department. Then it was time to head back home.

I still had time to finish planting the garden and I did so missing Truman’s company. I’ve got all the plants in now. Now I’ve got t make a trellis or 2 for the tomatoes and the vines to grow on in a controlled manner. Then, of course, I need to connect a sprinkler line to the pots to automatically fill the water reservoirs. Then I can go out of town for a week or 2 and not worry about cats or plants.

We just got Karen’s arrived safely call so she and Tim and Sophie are all in one place again. That makes a nice ending to our Bonus Monday.

Tomorrow will be another Monday on Tuesday. Since I didn’t do laundry and catch up today that will be tomorrows chore—maybe. The weather is so nice we may just run off and enjoy it. Can you say “kayak”?