all the fun that was this past weekend

(intro) -
here i am, again, exhausted on a Monday afternoon.
Kieran is napping and i should be too. and i will be once i type all this out of my head.
after Kieran was born, our time was suddenly measured in "weekends".
Jana goes through her tiring day at work, as do i (at home)
after she returns home from work, none of us has enough energy left to go on field trips or mini-late night adventures or excursions.
this goes on all week.
but then ....
IT'S THE WEEKEND!
and then we spend (most of) that time either trying to cram a whole weeks worth of fun and excitement into Saturday and Sunday,
or we try to spend the weekend relaxing and taking it easy after a long series of back-to-back rushed weekends.
i call this the "binge and purge weekend routine"
then we begin the cycle of tiredness all over again.
this weekend was a fairly good example of the "binge" aspect of the routine.


(body) -
Friday -
the "plan" was (and i say: "plan" because that's all it came to be, ... a plan.
you know what they say about the best laid plans right?)
where was i? (re-read. okay....)
the "plan" was:
get up, eat, get dressed, get outta dodge, get home in time for lunch, Kieran's nap, get up, play outside, start dinner, Jana's home, eat,
play w/toys, tuck Kieran in, read him a book, relax with Jana and watch "Land of the Lost"
(i know. that movie was not very good. but come Friday night, i would watch paint dry if i thought it would relax us both and not put us to sleep.)
SOOoooo ...
Kieran wakes up later than usual, isn't in the mood to eat anything i put in front of him, all the while he's Mr. Cranky McCrankerson,
get him dressed.
sweet. we're ready to go.
enter stage right: explosive poop diaper.
okay, clean up again, re-dressed, Kieran's in a much better mood now, but now he's suddenly hungry.
so we have ... brunch.
then we race to LaGrange/Arlington to try out this hidden gem, my friend Krissy told me about, called "Kid's Kingdom"
this place is awesome!
Kieran is having a blast in the sandbox, ball pit (you know? those large padded/net boxes filled knee deep with plastic balls),
and jumping around in the inflatable jumpy thing (?)
after only an hour i realize, it's lunch time and he is going to be exhausted/cranky soon.
so, no time to get back to Red Hook for lunch, let's swing by St. Francis and have lunch with Grandma (so we're straying from the "plan" again)
we wrap up lunch, Kieran says hi to everyone in the hospital and goodbye to everyone that leaves each room and then we, ourselves, head home.
if i drive a little fast we can get home in time for Kieran's nap before he falls asleep in the truuuu ,
NOOO don't fall asleep yet!?
so Kieran falls asleep five minutes before we get home. which means ... he will wake up as soon as we pull in the garage and he will not go
back to sleep after that, no matter how tired he is.
now i have a grumpy, over-tired, crank pot whining/asking for me to read him every book he has
(meanwhile i NEED him to nap, because now I'M falling asleep)

i'll skip the rest of Friday's details and simply say that none of the other items in the "plan" worked out either.
all the way down to Netflix not delivering our Friday night movie until Saturday.
When convenience becomes inconvenient, it loses all of it's merit.
i'm not complainin', i'm just sayin'.

Saturday -
so instead of relaxing/lounging around until after Kieran's nap and heading over to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner, Jana and i
decide to start some spring cleaning (this involves work and stress, and not so much relaxing/lounging)
then we realize it's 50 degrees outside!
so we stop everything and decide to take the mile walk into the Village (again this doesn't involve relaxing) and have lunch at J&J's Gourmet
(which would seem relaxing but Kieran wanted to run around and touch everything and talk to everyone
[which is fine. i mean, come on, he's two years old!] so obviously, he was not at all thrilled about being strapped to a high chair and eating
"gourmet" sandwiches), then on the mile walk back we decide, rather than waiting until after Kieran's nap to head over to my parents ...
a much better idea would be .... let Kieran nap in the truck while i run all of my errands around Poughkeepsie and then go to my parent's
house and wake him up there.
when will we learn?
south-bound route 9, through Red Hook, Rhinebeck, Staatsburg, no sleep
finally ... Hyde Park, he's out.
drive the other 20 minutes to my destination, gently close the door, tip toe away from the truck, leaving Jana sitting and Kieran sleeping inside.
return outside two minutes later, i see Jana aproaching the door with a screaming, crying Kieran in her arms.
He's going through a "daddy phase" and i was nowhere to be found when he woke.
i'm sure some teenager with a "high performance" weed whacker muffler racing his lowered, pimped out Honda down 9 woke Kieran from his nap.
damned teenagers!
(yes, i've become a crotchety old man, who dislikes most people who can still do all of the things i did as a disrespectful brat, punk kid.)

okay, well now we don't have to drive around until he wakes up, he's already awake. but now he has had an insufficient nap and he will be
a ball of joy in a few hours if he has a meltdown.
so we figure, since he's awake already we can either go straight to my parent's place
or swing by Mark and Laura's house real quick first and meet their 8 week old puppy, (who was named NOEL for about a minute and a half and then suddenly, and much more appropriately named RORI)
so who doesn't want to meet, pet and get licked by a puppy?
Rori is adorable. Kieran plays with Loki and Dot's cat toys and has no idea there is an adorable puppy in the room. maybe he's a cat-guy like his parents? anyway, now off to my parent's house.
why is trying to relax at someone else's house never relaxing. or rather, never AS relaxing as when you are at home?
so that didn't work out.
we ate.
delicious.
thanks.
stuck around until Kieran had to go to sleep. so we get him in his pj's, head out,
and he falls asleep right before we pull in the garage.
fortunately, this time, he goes right back out. phew.
movie time.
we're both pooped.
Jana falls asleep on and off during the "not-so-funny" movie. we don't even bother to critique it.
two sets of two thumbs down.
time for bed.
and now, i'm wide awake.

Sunday -
plan: relax all day and then i'm going to see Ray Davies at the Bardavon with Bud.
that's it! that's all! nothing else!
so instead ....
we realize again it's going to be in the 50's. has spring sprung already?
so we eat Jana's super, duper pancakes, get dressed and head off to the park.
then we chase Kieran all over the place in the mud until lunch time
(chasing a two year old around a park involves absolutely no traces of relaxing)
so we eat lunch. it's now 1pm. Kieran's napping. Jana's going to take a nap. i should take a nap too.
but with the warm weather here (at least for now) i begin remembering all of the things i need to get done.
the brain starts racing. then the body starts following it.
so i decide, ... before i nap .... i'll just run the motorcycle for a little while to charge the battery.
and THEN i will definitely take a nap.
except the battery is totally dead. (i soooo miss the simplicity and ease of motorcycles having a kick-start.)
i start the process of getting the battery out of the bike to charge it.
finally get it out. it's on the charger.
but now i have to wait 30 minutes, test it, put it back in and then let the bike run long enough that i trust the battery will hold a charge.
it starts right up, but there's a hesitation in the throttle. it's now 2pm. if i start tuning it now, i'll be doing it all day.
so i stop where i am and decide to pack it up, and take a nap, right after i wash my hands.
i try the outside faucet.
no water.
i forgot i turned all the outside spouts off for the winter.
basement.
turn some knobs.
back outside.
leaky handle?
really?
let's see if i can make the leak worse before i take a nap?
yup!
i sure can.
i'm off to the hardware store.
all of the plumbing fixtures in our house (that i haven't already replaced out of necessity) are antiquated and obsolete.
you no gots?
okay, thanks for nothing.
screw it. i'll fix it without any new parts (after all, that's my super power! i'm like freagin' MacGyver! or McGruber? i guess a little of both)
so i resolve that incident.
then i realize i could have just temporarily returned to the basement, retwisted some knobs to their original position
and worry about this later .... but that ain't my style.

(you still reading this? man oh man, you are a trooper. thanks for hanging in there)

now it's 4pm. i'm supposed to meet Bud at the Bardavon at 6 which means i have to leave home by 5:30.
it also means that the weekend is coming to a close in a few short hours and i'm not ready for it to end yet.

so i can nap for an hour and a half before i leave to meet him. SWEET! finally.
oh wait.
i still have to shave and shower.
no biggie.
shave,
shower,
get dressed. ...
and now ...
i'm wide awake.
(for now)
in between moments of Kieran jumping feet first into my crotch and him hitting me in the head with books, i start to doze off.
then i had that wonderful yet horrible moment. you know the moment i'm talking about. it's like trying to sleep on a plane and your brain is
juuust entering sleep and with the speed of lightning your whole body jerks you awake almost fearful that you were drifting into death.
with this scary awakening i realize, i'm late, i've got to go right now.
sure enough, i show up late and now i am REALLY tired.
Bud doesn't seem to care that i'm late (or tired for that matter).
opening band, "The 88" ... freagin' awesome! i really enjoyed them alot. and i usually need to acquire a taste for a lot of new music.
kinda like breaking in new shoes and you're not too sure if you've made a good investment and then eventual they're your favorite pair.
these guys were like comfy old shoes in no time at all. (that last sentence sounds horrible out of context)
i instantly liked them.
so, anyway, they're all done.
so now i am thinking of how tired i am as i am waiting in line for the bathroom in between sets.
and i'm forgetting completely, in my tiredness, that i'm out of the house, on a "school night" about to see a musical legend perform.
suddenly some of the tiredness takes a backseat, finally, and some of the inner teenage giddiness is now riding shot-gun.
or am i just over-tired? whatever. doesn't matter.

Ray Davies is a man of many talents but his ability to entertain through music is a splendid and natural gift! I had seen him once before,
also with Bud. And before that day, i had heard many Kinks' songs, but i had never really listened to them regularly or got heavily into them.
I still am not familiar with his entire body of work but i've really enjoyed the stuff i've taken the time to listen to. The man is going to be
66 years old this year in June. And here he is, up on this stage, excitedly performing songs (some of which he wrote when he was 17 years old!),
for a sold out crowd of devoted fans (and me). And then he ended his two hour set by inviting the opening band "The 88" (all young rockers)
to come out on stage and close with three loud, heavy, awesome songs as he danced about the stage and shook hands and played and sang and
screamed. the man didn't slow down for a minute. i'm not feeling so tired all of a sudden. in fact, now i head home and i'm wide awake.
10:30pm and i'm wired.


(conclusion) -
i figure, if i'm this tired all the time now, i'm never going to make it to 66 rockin' years old.
i walked around tired all weekend. so tired i didn't pay attention to all the really, good stuff i was missing:
watching Kieran play, hanging out with my mother, spending time with Jana and Kieran together, enjoying dinner with my family,
being outside, getting out of the house, seeing friends, enjoying good, live music.

i was so tired i almost thought to call Bud and tell him i wouldn't be able to go to the show with him.
and i can't tell you how glad i am that i went.
it took a 65 year old stranger, rock star with the energy of a young boy to remind me:
1 - there's plenty of time to sleep when we're dead
2 - keep it simple stupid
3 - there's going to be many more tomorrows, but there's only one today

i am also now aware that once your time is measured in weekends it continues to be, until your children are grown and off on their own
and you have retired (if you are so lucky).
and then you finally get to relax and lounge around.
or at least, i hope so.


funniest part of all of this ...
i started writing this when Kieran went down for a nap. and i thought, "i'll nap after i write and before he wakes up"
well ...
i'm done writing
and he just woke up.
irony?