Our first evening alone.

After bringing Alexe to the airport at 5 in the morning, we had a very lazy day.  

Without drawing any Samson parallels, I had been feeling under the weather for a few days. I'm thinking it was a combination of slight allergies to various things, feeling blue about Alexe's departure, and possibly the absence of my beard, but I was pretty worthless.  It helped that there were the first major rains in a week, which the lawn here needed, giving us the extra excuse to snuggle up and stay inside.

By the evening, I was contemplating everyone making an early night, but the pooches were not as tired as the rest of us, so we suited up, and took them for a walk. 

The kids have worked out a nice joint-leash-holding method with Chipper: 

On our walk I was wondering why so many cars were whizzing through the neighborhoods.  I checked my phone, and realized it was a little after 6, and folks were getting home from work.  There's a mark of how effectively removed from corporate life I've become.


The storms did a number on small branches and leaves, so after getting back from our walk, and having been invigorated by the clean post-storm air, we set about cleaning up.  The kids took the wheelbarrow and picked up little branches from the driveway and yard, and I pulled the trailer around and loaded up the piles made earlier for the trek to the landfill.  

It looks nice with the piles gone. (Rather, loaded and waiting for me to get to the landfill when they're open.)  After the storm, and not-so-distant memories of dead limbs falling on vehicles, I took the pole saw out and climbed the big oak to bring down the reachable dead wood.

The kids finished picking up sticks, moved on to filling the wheelbarrow with stones that had been exposed in the fresh cut area by the storm, and then started their own project of cleaning up leaves in front of the garage.

They found their own containers, their own tools, and were annoyed with me when the sun set and I dragged everyone in for a bath.