V: Big TV Rain

Today's post title brought to you by, I suppose, a distant hurricane currently roaring around the Atlantic coast and throwing massive rainfall our way. It's actually become sunny out by now but it poured for much of the day, which revealed our gutter was not really up to the task. Some seepage seems to have happened under the basement floor, something to keep an eye on.

I've been pretty anxious today, and I think part of it is simply not getting much time on the weekend to ourselves. Against our better judgment we agreed to do two, count em, two things. Saturday we drove up to Vaughan (Concord) to see David and Annie and Aubrey for little Bree's birthday. It was a lovely day but we spent most of it inside, only going out for a brief spell to try David's new axe throwing toy. It was good to see them, and Katie, and Kyle and Hans and some of David's other friends. We talked a lot about Hank. I hope we're not becoming too one-dimensional. Mel did a storybook reading of one of the books we got her (which had been a Christmas gift) and she really seemed to like the sticker toys we got her, opening it to play with, and even apparently staying up late to continue playing. We stayed probably a little longer than we had intended but I didn't mind. We got back to Hank in good time.

Sunday, we had agreed to host Dad and Deb and the guys for dinner. Now obviously, we're usually not quick to volunteer our place, but this was sort of a calculated move made after we had made the plans to go to David and Annie's and Dad had asked if we would come over that weekend. We knew Hank would be spending a day in his crate on Saturday and while I'm sure he wouldn't mind it again, we felt it prudent to stay home, plus that meant we could introduce him to the family. And also at the outset, Mel was like "Ehh, I don't know if I want to go out twice in one weekend." So I asked whether she would be interested in us hosting and she agreed to it... the logic of which is a little iffy, since it requires so much effort to host people but you don't have to leave your house which seemed paramount at the time.

It was OK. We were hoping people would want to spend time outside but it was too hot. We brought camp chairs into the house for added seating. Mel made potato salad, although she had some harsh words for some of my prep work and ingredient-buying. It was great. I barbequed some pork tenderloin, which was on sale at Fortinos, so that was a score, but there was only barely enough for six from two tenderloins. I felt kind of bad about that. I also thought it might be a little overcooked, despite using the meat thermometer prodigiously. Nobody said anything, but other than Eric, nobody would. Hank was really well-behaved, basically being asleep on the couch the whole time.

So yeah, anxiety. It's just one of those days where there being a world is inconvenient for me. Hearing news, dealing with work, addressing the future or lack thereof, everything seems to be setting me off. The weather. I don't want to do it today, life, but if I avoid it I'll feel more anxious about it.

Note: It's now August 3. I wrote this almost three weeks ago but got interrupted before finishing it and posting with my customary signoff, so keep on rockin- Scotto