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Monday, June 17, 2013

Happy Belated Father's Day Men-Friends!

I guess this is a belated Happy Father's Day post since it is Monday after all. I hope all of you men folk who happen to be fathers (or uncles or brothers, etc who impact the lives of the younger generations) enjoyed your special day.
My dad wanted a rain barrel of all things, so I checked online and ventured out to Lowes in search of one on Saturday. They had a wide selection featured online. All Lowes had in store, however, was a "half whiskey barrel" planter...not quite the same thing, folks! This was the conclusion after much debate amongst the employees about what exactly a "rain barrier" actually is. Barrel people, barrel...you know, like a barrel of monkeys or a barrel of laughs? I left and went to Home Depot instead.
At Home Depot, they had two options. One looked like a large tan trashcan. There was dirt on top of it and it looked like it had weathered a storm or two in the lawn & garden section...not exactly gift-giving material! When we pried off the lid, there was indeed garbage inside of it and the "parts" (spigot and hose) were missing. Why oh why would you keep "inventory" like this on the floor with an information tag on it as if selling it were an option? So, that left one choice really. It was some type of poly-resin material that resembled a wooden barrel. It had the spigot, filter screen and instructions, and it was wrapped in a large plastic bag. I took it. I delivered it to dad a day early so he could have it up and running before it rained again.
I delivered my BIL's birthday cake to him and picked up Mom's eye drops from Costco. By the time I dropped off the eye drops, a proud Papa had his rain barrel propped up on cinder blocks with the gutter raised to just above the rain barrel screen filter. Now, to wait for rain...
Father's Day itself was pretty uneventful (much to my poor sister's chagrin). Our family has a tendency to wait til the last minute to "plan" things, you see. Talk of what to do for Father's Day actually began earlier in the week, but "talk" is about as far as anyone got. No one really volunteered their homes...mine's a mess, my brother's A/C is out (and that is a big deal in June in Texas, let me tell you!); my sister's busy with her kids' sports, et cetera, et cetera. My SIL suggested that everyone just do their own thing. That idea was poo-poo'ed as soon as it was voiced. My sister took the reigns and declared we would go out to eat at 3:00 on Father's Day...location TBA. I wanted somewhere with reservations because I hate being hungry and waiting around for hours to be seated. Naturally, no one accepts reservations, but they do "call ahead seating" where you call about an hour before you want to dine, they add your name to the list as if you were already present, and you get to wait that hour at home or doing whatever you need to do before showing up at your designated time. No further plans were firmed up until my sister called me at two o'clock yesterday to see what the plan was. I had no idea as I had mentioned earlier that we (my immediate family) probably would not be joining the crowd. I know there's something about celebrating all of these occasions on the day designated to celebrate; however, I  hate the crowds and waiting and rushing to eat because others are waiting to be seated...My sister was frustrated because she had not heard from our younger brother or his wife who originally had been part of the plan and on and on the story goes. Long story short...my sister and her family ended up eating at Abuelo's with my parents. We stayed home. I baked Mike a "golden caramel cake" and picked up hot wings for him to eat while he watched Game 5 of the Miami Heat vs San Antonio Spurs basketball play-offs. It was a good day, overall.
Mom called about an hour ago  to report that the rain barrel is full thanks to a storm that blew through the area at about eight o'clock this morning. Happy watering, Papa!
I'm off to finish up some laundry and make my bed so I can crawl back in it in preparation for work tonight. Until next time...

1 comment:

  1. Hi Eastlyn!!!

    Oh my goodness...it was so nice to see your comments on my blog. Indeed, I see you've been posting, so I have some "catching-up" to do. This post made me laugh out loud--a rain barrel? I find it hilarious that even the employees at Lowes were trying to figure out what it should look like... So glad to hear that you found one, and your dad even had some rain to try it out :) Happy Belated Father's Day to your husband and your father. It's so good to hear from you Eastlyn!!

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