White Lightning Axiom: Redux

Yesterday afternoon was very nice.  The sun was out, the air was cool.  There was even a slight breeze.  I thought that it would be a great day to get the grass crop harvested, the beans pruned and some other outdoor stuff.  As I drove home on the Turnpike, something nefarious happened.  My vim and vitality was drained away.  My eyes started to become heavy and I just could not shake that drowsy feeling.  Ugh.  It's a nice feeling if you have the time and the place to nod off, but I'm going 75 on the turnpike between a fuel tanker and a semi hauling anti-personnel mines.  Not a good time for a nap, a pretty awful place to start to drift off.   I could see the newscast now, "Irrelevant Bore dies in fiery crash; Thousands of Angry motorists curse his name and dance on the burnt out hulk of his melted plastic Saturn.".  I wag my head furiously to cast off the fog.  I do  this about every minute or two until I get off the turnpike.  The stop and go of the local roads helps me concentrate.  Ugh, I have complete disdain for times like that.  I wish it would come more easily in the evening when I WANT to sleep.

  When I get to the Haupertonian manor, I commence my afternoon task schedule.  Get truck-load of junk-mail, let Mastodonic Thor and Tricksy Katie out to ruin the back lawn (what's left of it), start the prep work for the Twins' dinner.   This is an undertaking that can be a bit frustrating.  I pretty much prepare enough food to feed several people in miniscule servings.  Some fish sticks, some lo-mien, a bit of sugar-snap peas, a few steamed green-beans.  Chicken nuggets, sliced fruit, yogurt, pudding, fruit mush, beef, Bologna, mastodon, ostrich eggs.  Just enough for two servings, but variety that a Monarch would blush at.   Why so much, why the variety?  Because I can, dammit.  Sure, Jacob is a fussy and picky eater, but he can afford to be.  There may be a time where we cannot give them fresh produce from the garden.  Where they my have to make due with fatty ground beef and turnips.  While I can afford it and find it, I want them to have all they want AND supply an unending nutritional smorgasbord for their little growing bodies.

  After Mrs MDMHVONPA got home, I headed out to do some yard work.  I just did not have the energy or compulsion to mow the lawn.  There is nothing more draining than pushing around a roaring hot chunk of metal while being chased down by a multitude of biting, stinging, sucking little insects.  I don't want to muck about in the garden either.  The green bean plants have these little tiny spikes on their leaves that makes my skin crawl.  No, today I will do some more digging for the foundation of the Lookout Towers/AA Battery/Play-set.  I have about 10'x12'x1' left to dig out.  So I start to hum the battle hymn of the republic as I chock away at the packed clay we call soil around here.  I have NO idea how anyone managed to till this junk, let alone plant crops in it.  Its not anything like the pitch black loam we have back in the farming territory of Minnesota.  I need to import a few dozen tons of the stuff to enrich the Haupertonian City-State Agricultural sector.  My attempts with using the compost heap are starting to show progress, but it is coming along way to slowly.  Soon enough, it is 8pm and time for me to throw in the towel.  I've managed to reduce my target area to about 3'x2'x1'.  That's still a lot of dirt, but not nearly close to one square yard.  That would be 27 square feet and all I have left is a measly 6 square feet.  After that, the fun begins.  We build a retaining wall around the perimeter of the base and then level out the clay.  Pack it down and cover it with a heavy sheet of land-scaping cloth.  THEN, we can start to assemble the towers in order to find out where we want to dig the holes where the support piles will be poured.    While the cement is drying, with the tie-downs set in place, we will haul the 10.5 tons of sand to the pit and find out if I need yet another 300$ of sand delivered.  I have no clue how we can possibly expect to get al;l this done over the weekend.  I still need to level the dirt and pick up the blocks for the retaining wall.  Argh, I need a labor force for this, too bad that there are no indigenous inhabitants of the Haupertonian City-State Territories that I can exploit for cheap labor.  Thor and Katie don't count, they wont dig in the dirt.  They just eat it if there is bacon grease on it.  Bletch, don't lick me with that tongue.

  As for this morning, I got up late, really late.  I decided to skip my morning shave and made no lunch for myself.  I have some fruit on the desk at work that should tie me over.  I need to get on the road before traffic becomes too intractable.  I fully expect the Twin Twisters to be a little upset about their delayed release, but oddly enough, they are pretty cool about it.  Milk, change diaper, watch Sesame Street, new clothes.  It was all good.  I let the dogs out, they were good too.  No whining.  Gave the mammoth his ear salve to kill his yeast infection and then let them out.  Got their food ready and then run back upstairs to catch the kids on the way down.    There they were, standing at the top of the stairs waiting for me to escort them down.  Hmmm, things are going way too smoothly.  Must be some kind of alien mind trick.  Or is it a govt experiment to see if they can fool me into revealing the inner most secrets of the Haupertonian Combine International Empire's success!  Ho-ho!  Not so easy to topple this regime, is it!   As I carry Alexis down the stair-case, she insists the whole way that we should 'Blay, Blay!'.  'Ok, lets get you into your chair so, uh, into your chair ... urg ... ok, we are not going into your chair are we?'  'BLAY!'.  Sigh...  I drop her in the wing of the manor that we converted for their use and watch her run off and start hurling lock-blocks about.  Good for her, let her start her day early, I've gotta get washed up and get on the road.  Yeah, the wonderful commute of DOOOOOM!!!

UPDATE: Got to work, my index create failed again, still having resource contention ... time to try doing it at 2am.