Miniature horses, lots of miles, and big rigs

Yes, I know I missed my Saturday roundup but things are happening. All of my anticipation is about to come to a crescendo and hopefully at this time tomorrow night I will have a sense of relief to go along with the ever present trepidation of the future. Since I missed yesterday I will update both as quickly and concisely as possible. Saturday morning came in with the sound of the alarm clock at 6:00. This has become the norm and they say you get used to it but I truly believe that whoever said it was just trying to make the other person feel better. Once I trudged out of bed I realized that I needed to put on my happy face and get the day started. Michelle, Brianna, and I were out the door at 6:50 heading to take care of the horses before our other big plans for the day. Around 11:30 we were back at the house getting ready to head to Frostproof for my niece’s dance recital. At 1:00 I was sitting in a dark, well air conditioned auditorium watching young ladies present their yearlong efforts for adoring parents and fans. The dances were entertaining and I always find myself dancing or singing to the music from the safety of my seat. To add some spice to the show there was a mother’s dance that was just outstanding. Besides my niece’s performances the one that stole the show was my brother-in-law. Yearly he is involved with McKenzie in the father/daughter dance which is always a heartwarming and somewhat jealous moment for me but this year he stepped it up a notch. He was also in the surprise daddy only dance based upon the Blues Brother’s routine. He was simply awesome and I didn’t know he had those steps in his soul. I won’t say that he was Fred Astaire but I will say that I was ultimately impressed by his smoothness and courage. I don’t think I could allow myself, sober, to get up there and dance in front of that many people. The group got a rousing round of applause and I must admit I was thoroughly impressed. After the recital my family hustled back to the house as we had about 45 minutes to be back in Lake Wales for Father’s Day dinner with Michelle’s family. Like I have said before, nothing is too good for us so our feast this evening was at Woody’s. You really can’t go wrong with BBQ. We enjoyed a good meal and my mom joined us which is always nice since even though we live next door we probably don’t see each other enough. After gorging myself with ribs we headed to Topper’s Creamery for some dessert. This called for a chocolate dipped waffle cone with butter pecan ice cream. I am now stuffed and needless to say I haven’t taken or had the time to work out over the past couple of days. Those cheat meals are starting to stack on top of themselves. I guess my discipline has gone haywire like my schedule. Having the nice dinner, enjoying the company of family, and devouring some delish treats would have capped off most individuals evening but not for my family. We headed to Auburndale, 45 minutes away, to run an errand and check out something. To our surprise the item we were checking out was at the same address as an adorable miniature horse. You guessed it, I’m screwed. With three ladies in the car who love horses we were there for longer than needed or intended but they were having a blast and that is always fun to see. This horse weighed around 100 pounds so when I say miniature I am not kidding. I cannot say I was bored because the grandfather of the house is an over-the-road long haul truck driver and pulled out pictures of some of the loads he has hauled all over the US. For those that don’t know I am a big rig geek and the little kid in me thinks they are so cool, so the opportunity to speak to an actual driver is just the biggest thrill. I saw pictures of massive military machines, huge combines, tractors, storage tanks, hay bales, boats, you name it if it can go on a flat-bed he has hauled it. We were finally polite and left the people alone and when we finally got home it was around 11:00. I was exhausted and also realized that the alarm was going to go off at 6:00 Sunday morning and even though it would be Father’s Day I still had responsibilities to attend to. This is why I skipped last night. Today is Father’s Day and the alarm did go off. Brianna had spent the night with her grandparent’s last night so Michelle and I headed out to the barn to do our chores and also take care of a few things with our actual horses. We spent some time doctoring some boo-boos and just given the boys some needed attention. After we were done Michelle took me to breakfast at Fat Boy’s. This place was where we spent a lot of Sunday mornings before we were married and it’s like a comfort zone close to home. We shared an order of sausage and gravy with biscuits and an order of home fries. True Southern eaten at a true redneck eatery. Oh yes, there was some sweet tea drank as well. Enough mushy stuff, it was time to head back north towards Lake Wales to meet up with Michelle’s parents and Brianna. Brianna had given me the cutest card Saturday night for Father’s Day so I wasn’t expecting anything this morning but when she saw me I got the biggest hug, a Father’s Day song, and an amazing amount of daddy loving. Yeah, I liked the card but this was just the best gift I could have received. We all met up and hammered out the work we needed to accomplish. Now, let’s have a little lesson on lawnmower tires. I have a Craftsman lawnmower I purchased from Sear’s. I need two new tires for said mower so Ken, my father-in-law, and I headed to the Sear’s tire center to get the tires. Once inside they informed us that we needed to go to the actual Sear’s store in the mall to get the tires. We trudged over to the actual store and once we finally got a customer service representative he informed us that although they sold the mowers and some minor parts that we would have to order the tires from the store in Lakeland. He didn’t offer to order them for us. We then asked if he knew where we could get them. Now mind you he works for Sear’s, the same place I got the mower and here was his response; “I believe you can get those tires at Tractor Supply.” Not, hey can I order those for you or anything related to Sear’s, his employer, profiting from our inquiry what so ever. You know where I am going tomorrow, that’s right, Tractor Supply. After the debacle at Sear’s we headed back out to the barn to check on the horses, grabbed a quick bite at Subway and then headed to the house. Oops, the only problem with that scenario is that we all had forgotten that we had left Michelle’s SUV at her parent’s office. We eased our way back to their office, retrieved Michelle’s ride, and pointed the hood towards our house. We made it home almost an hour earlier than last night so there was definitely some improvement in our schedule today. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon all of this will make more sense but until then I am headed to bed because for anybody reading this you know what time the alarm is going off in the morning. Not everybody who wanders is lost. Explore what you want to be.