I just wanted to go to Sears

I planned for only one thing this weekend: a trip to Sears. I planned nothing else. Nothing at all. I just wanted to go to Sears. I have gift cards, you see, and they have the best price on the Agri-Fab 48" de-thatcher.

However, first, it turned out someone volunteered to babysit one of HannahC's friends starting at 7:30AM on Saturday. At that same someone spent the whole night before complaining of being sick and needing extra rest, so I figured I was pretty much doomed - especially since HannahC rarely gets up before 8:30. As luck would have it, though, The Mrs. has been suffering from insomnia, so she was up at 6am, and I got to sleep until about 8.

Then, it turned out The Mrs. had volunteered to let two of the neighbor kids come over at 9:30. And we were going to drive everyone over to the roller rink where MaxieC was having his belated 4th birthday party from 10 to noon. We rented out the whole rink, so it was just MaxieC's peoples. That was fun.

Then, as it turned out, The Mrs. had planned for us to go to Little Shop of Physics at CSU, and we took two of the three not-our kids there, along with our two. I got the task of watching MaxieC, who whined and complained the whole entire time. It was mobbed, so you had to proceed around the exhibits in order and wait your turn. The Childrens hate that.

Then, as it turned out, The Mrs. decided we should go to Culver's and get everybody ice cream. Or frozen custard, as it were. That went about as well as you could expect.

Then back home to play in the yard. At last this was my chance. It was warm and sunny, so I got out the garden hoses and did pond maintenance. Then, I started in on the hot tub.

Whoo-wee, it was stinky. And when I put the water clarifier in it, it got a little chunky, too. I hadn't been in it for about a week. The Mrs. used it a lot, and she never adds any chemicals to it after she uses it, so I often get a surprise on Saturday when I open it up to clean the filters. I put in all the junk and ran the pumps for about a half hour, and it wasn't clearing up.

So I decided to drain it. It had been a while since I drained it, as it's not fun to do in the winter. Apparently, I should be draining it about every 60 days given our "bather load". Whatever.

This was a great opportunity for me, as I got out the Bud and guzzled while watching the tub drain, every now and then giving the newly-uncovered sidewalls a rinse with a jet from the hose. It took over two hours to drain, so I got to enjoy my beers. The Childrens all went off and did their thing, as did The Mrs., so it was just me and FreddyC. Ahh, the joy.

I filled it back up while we ate dinner, and the water was 45 degrees according to the digital readout. Needless to say, it did not warm up in time to go in last night.

So that shot the whole day, but at least I could go to Sears Sunday, right?

Wrong!

Sunday came about with The Mrs. complaining even more about being sick. She slept in, I made breakfast. She took a nap in the basement bedroom, I made lunch. Then it was time to start think about smoking the ribs.

I hadn't used the smoker for months, so it was full of nasty coagulated fat and misc. meat bits stuck to the racks. That took a half hour to clean up.

I used a handful of sugar maple, a handful of alder, and a handful of Jack Daniels oak whiskey barrel to produce the very special smoke. I don't recommend you try that at home, as it takes quite a seasoned touch in order to not overload on the JD casks. It was fabulously tasty.

So, now I was ready to hit Sears. Having done some additional research on the web, I determined this was probably a mail-order-only item, but the website has only been correct about 50% of the time in the past, so I always like to swing by to see for myself. I also had planned a side-trip to Lowe's to see if they had anything comparable. Their website claimed they might have something, but it wasn't sure ("will arrive in the store on or before March 8"). I also needed some PVC tubing and glue from Lowe's to fix a laundry hamper that The Mrs. destroyed by accidentally stomping the living hell out of it.

HannahC was going to go along for the ride, but she decided at the last minute that she wanted to play in the mud instead. She made mud pottery.

Thus, The Mrs. said to me, "Can you get all the stuff you were going to get at Lowe's at Ace?" Ace being very nearby, whereas Lowe's is about 15 minutes away.

"Yes."

"Why don't you just go to Ace and then go to Sears some other time? Cuz I'm sick and can't watch both kids."

"Uhh...........ok."

Thus ends another weekend where I had one and only one thing planned, and I spent the entire weekend doing the stuff The Mrs. planned instead.

I guarantee you I won't make it to Sears next weekend, either.