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At Home, 3:20 pm

Posted by Mark David Manders Mon, 24 Apr 2006 15:20:00 GMT

I have had a crazy schedule the last four days, some business and some pleasure. It started last Thursday when I left for Abilene to audition a fiddle player.

Business: band audition
Pleasure: driving down the road by myself

I left the house around noon to avoid traffic between Dallas and Fort Worth. The suburban had been making a strange noise for several months and Tony, my mechanic, told me a few weeks back that he thought the rear end was going out. I wasn’t sure if the truck would make it, so I spent most of the day with the radio off, listening to the ever-increasing whine coming from my drive train.

It was cloudy in the west and I knew I was going to hit rain, so around 2:00 I pulled over in Eastland to check my windshield wipers which didn’t work very well the night before. I found the problem – the driver’s side wiper was broken at the tip and there was nothing to keep the rubber blade from flying off once I turned them on.

Now I know I should have bought a new pair at the truck stop, but for some reason I decided to tape the rubber piece to the wiper arm using electrical tape. Bad idea. Once I got back on the road the rain started and I hit the wipers switch. The only parts of the blade that even touched my windshield were the two areas where the tape held the blade, one on top and one on the bottom. The entire middle of my windshield was left untouched. It was raining hard and I didn’t feel like stopping again so I ended up driving blind the rest of the way to Abilene. It really wasn’t too bad, except when I got behind a semi. Then it was pretty much a guessing game as to where my lane was.

I made it to Abilene around 4:00 and hooked up with Eddy. We ran through quite a bit of material and I think it was close to 9:00 before I left to find a hotel.

Business: hotel accommodations
Pleasure: invitation to a Texas Hold ‘Em game in the lobby

I was a little hungry as I entered the Holiday Inn Express to register. As I walked into the lobby I smelled the unmistakable aroma of barbecued ribs coming from the party room across the hall from the desk. I poked my head in and asked the six or seven men seated at the table if they had cooked the ribs. They said yes and asked me if I’d like to sample a few. I didn’t hesitate.

Apparently these guys worked for a road construction company and were staying at the hotel for a few weeks. I noticed they had a deck of cards and I asked what they were playing. They replied “Hold ‘em, you want in?” They noticed I had a couple of six packs so I broke out the beer and sat down for some poker.

It was only a ten dollar buy-in, but I somehow managed to lose thirty bucks. I didn’t care; it was nice to have the company.

I went to my room a little after midnight and watched TV until I fell asleep. When I’m in a hotel I love to fall asleep with the television on in the background. For some reason I didn’t sleep very well that night and I woke up feeling run down the next day. The good news is the weather Friday morning was sunny and warm. All I had to do was worry about the suburban’s rear end making it home.

Business: meeting with Danny from Coors Beer
Pleasure: an unexpected gift

It was a nerve-racking drive from Abilene to Fort Worth, but I made it in one piece. I had an early afternoon meeting with Danny Anfin, the Fort Worth Coors distributor, and I rolled, or should I say limped, into town just before noon. Danny had made me some new bumper stickers and wanted me to check out some koozie designs he had been working on.

After our meeting he asked what my plans were for the weekend. I told him I was off both days, but I had plenty to do around the house. He said, “Do you need any beer for the weekend?” Once again, I didn’t hesitate.

I pulled my truck around back to the loading docks where Danny was waiting. I figured he’d throw a few cases of Keystone my way. You can imagine my surprise when a forklift showed up carrying fifteen cases. I thanked him profusely and we loaded up the suburban.

Business: home life responsibilities
Pleasure: just being home

I made it home around 2:30 Friday afternoon, checked my e-mails, and then walked up to the school to pick up the kids. Jessica went home with her friend, Sophie, and the boys invited their friend, Nathan, to our house.

NOTE: In the last two years I have become acquainted with several housewife customs involving kids. One practice in particular I like to call “the kid swap”. I have always wondered how stay-at-home mothers make it through the day once their children get out of school. I have three kids and there are times when I come close to pulling my hair out. The answer is the kid-swap. It works like this – “I’ll take your kids today and tomorrow they can play at your house.” If you’re lucky you can sometimes end up with a day where you don’t have anyone else in the house. The flipside is not that bad either. When left with just their siblings, brothers and sisters will fight like hens. However, invite a few friends over and everybody gets along like peas and carrots. I have had as many as six children at our house at once and it was much easier than trying to baby sit just my three.

OK, so the boys and I walked home from school and I immediately put them to work stacking beer. I know it probably wasn’t the best thing to have them do, but it did expedite my unloading. I’m sure Nathan went home that evening and said, “Gee, Mom and Dad, Mr. Manders sure has a lot of beer in his garage.”

Kathryn came home from work a little later and I thought we were going to spend a quiet evening relaxing and watching TV. I was wrong. I guess you’d have to know my neighbors to understand completely, but once they heard I had scored a bunch of Keystone, they descended on our house like flies. (Not really, but neighbors from three different houses did end up stopping by for a beer Friday night.)

Business: early morning father duties
Pleasure: baseball

The boys had an 8:00 baseball game on Saturday and I knew if I didn’t get a good night’s sleep I’d be worthless. So around 10:00 I took a Wallgreens nighttime aspirin and I was out within fifteen minutes.

Now I am not a morning person. I don’t care if I get twelve hours of sleep; 6:00 am is still 6:00 am, and I don’t function that early. I did manage, however, to get the boys and Jessica to the baseball diamond by 7:30. I couldn’t believe it: we were the first ones there.

The game was great. Justin, James, and their buddy, Nathan, each batted three times and each got three base hits. Nathan’s dad, after the game, started calling them the triplets. The game ended in a tie, but I was still proud of my boys and Nathan for batting like champs. Nathan came home with us after the game and I treated everyone to a Slurpee.

Business: putting out fires
Pleasure: none

Here’s where the downhill, out-of-control slide began. I had Ronnie Yandell, a drummer from Fort Davis, coming in on Saturday to audition with the band. I was under the impression that he would arrive some time in the afternoon and that we would rehearse later in the evening. I got back from the baseball game around 9:30 and as soon as I walked in the door my cell phone rang. It was Ronnie saying that he was on Central Expressway in Plano and heading in my direction. I picked up the home phone to call Grant and inform him of the schedule change but I had no service. Apparently the lines had been cut the day before while SBC was working in our alley.

I then called Grant on my cell phone and he said he’d be over in about an hour. Kathryn had class Saturday, so I was left alone with four kids, soon to be joined by a drummer and his significant other. Then two of Jessica’s friends from the corner showed up. They were followed by three boys from the next street over. For some reason they all wanted to play at our house. All said and done, by the time Ronnie arrived there were ten kids running around the front yard.

Ronnie showed up shortly after his phone call and I helped him unload his cymbals and stands. His friend, Elaine, wasn’t feeling very well, so she stayed in the living room and watched TV. I felt bad because she had just gotten over the stomach virus Grant and I had back at the beginning of the month and she was feeling weak. The last thing she needed was to get thrown head-first into the chaos that was swirling around my house.

I had promised Kathryn the night before that I would keep the house clean while she was at school, so I decided to lock the front and back doors. I told the kids that no one was allowed in the house unless they needed to use the restroom. The only other door was to the garage and I thought I would be able to police that entry. They still managed to get by me on several occasions and I spent the better part of the next hour chasing children out of the house.

By this time Grant had pulled up on his Harley. He could tell that I was reaching the end of my rope. Ronnie had finished setting up his hardware and I was still trying to run the wires for the PA system. I had just begun to test the system when Jessica appeared saying that all the kids were hungry.

In the meantime, I still hadn’t heard from Lafon, whom I had called several times earlier that morning. I knew something must have been wrong because he is always good about returning calls.

I introduced Grant to Ronnie, apologized to Ronnie for the craziness, and then got in my truck and drove to Cici’s pizza and bought lunch for the crowd of kids in the front yard. When I returned Lafon called and told me that his grandfather had passed away the night before. I said I was sorry and told him that we would continue the audition without him, but he said it might do him some good to get away and that he’d be over in half an hour.

A few minutes later James came running out of the house to inform me that the faucet in the kitchen had broken. I was working on the faucet when the phone rang. It was Kathryn. She asked me how it was going and I just laughed, not a funny laugh, but the laugh of a man on the verge of a breakdown. She said she’d be home around 6:00 and I replied that it might be too late.

Lafon showed up about twenty minutes later. The kids had by then finished eating and were beginning to congregate in the garage. I tried telling them that we were just rehearsing and that they should go out front and play, but they were bound and determined to see a show. Nathan’s dad came by a few minutes later to pick up Nathan. I think he could tell that I was loosing it too.

I can’t remember what time we finally got around to the audition. In fact, from the time Lafon showed up until Kathryn got home from school is a blur. I think my mind finally kicked into self-preservation mode and I just flew on autopilot.

Ronnie, Lafon, and I ran through about thirty songs Saturday afternoon before calling it quits. Mac and David, the Cajun neighbors, dropped by close to the end of the audition to remind me of the crawfish boil we had planned for Sunday and to discuss the final preparations. Somewhere in the middle of the conversation it was decided that we would all get together and play poker that evening. (I think it was because they knew I still had all that Keystone in the fridge.) Chad, my neighbor from the end of the street, came by afterwards and offered Ronnie and Elaine a complementary room at the Intercontinental Hotel where he works. They accepted and drove to Addison to check in.

Business: relaxation
Pleasure: poker with friends

By 7:00 the neighborhood kids had thinned out and I was beginning to return to normal. James and Justin were invited to spend the night at a friend’s house and, once again, I didn’t hesitate. Five minutes later Jessica asked if she could sleep at her friend’s house across the street. I don’t have to tell you my answer.

By 9:00 our regular poker group had assembled in my garage. By now I was well into the Keystone and breathing at regular intervals. Ronnie called and said that they wouldn’t be able to make the game. The Intercontinental is a four star hotel and they wanted to enjoy a full night there. I told him I understood, hung up the phone, and turned my attention to the Texas Hold ‘Em game.

We really did have a good time Saturday night. There’s nothing I enjoy better than when all our close neighbors get together and play poker. I never win, but I have a damn good time trying.

I haven’t even touched on what transpired yesterday. I’ll write about that tomorrow.