Upon Papa Butch's Supervision of Mikey's Perspiration...Another Day for Cementing Posts as a New Deck Is Built

Two days ago, it took us four hours to remove cement and to plant a new post. Yesterday and today, we cemented a few more and with a half day for Mike tomorrow, we hope to finish the posts, anyway. Lots of cement stirring, measuring, and leveling off. Got a Chubby's dinner out of it...Val's chicken wings rarely go wrong, although my stomach doesn't do well with fried foods any more. I typically avoid them. 

The morning was spent with grant work and walking the dog, before Casey and Karen visited. Karen picked up her cottage pie and Casey finally picked up two years of birthday gifts that have been adding up and Mimi and Papi's Homefront. Her car has tree drippings on it, so the bees are all over it. It's like her car needs an exorcism. 

My plan was to leave Syracuse this morning, but I'll help Mike another day and it will give me time to get groceries for the parents to clean around a little. 

Cynde, Mike, Dylan, and I worked up a sweat with the work - putting a cherry on it in the end when we moved 24 bags of 60 lb-cement into the garage. I just treated it like it was an overdue workout. 

The good news is the $100 hearing aids my mom found on Amazon appear to work for dad, as he can hear without us having to scream out to Caughdenoy Road. 

And with that, it's been a week of being on the road. Nice to get away from the daily responsibility and hustle of my Fairfield University work. Still not a break, but I can pretend it is one.