One of my longest-held gripes about working full-time is that “they” have it all backwards. We should work two days and have five days for weekends. (LOL).

This past two days was packed, and involved managing a day of exceptional cold with snow flurries, work-booted demolition, dusty boot-n-wranglered supplies calculations, socks-with-sweats pasta making, chasing ten LOLITS, a ride on my Harley, electrical repair, hair chop, and even some “down time” with the spouse.

To give you a glimpse of what I do on weekends, read on…

Saturday’s early morning weather proved the forecast correct: freezing, cloudy, and windy. Heck, We even had some snow flurries. (Blecch!! This time of year???) I bailed on my usual 10-miler for morning exercise, and pulled the covers over my spouse and myself for a longer-than-usual morning snuggle.

But the work day was beckoning, despite the cold. I got dressed in a flannel shirt, an old pair of Wranglers, and Double H Work Boots. I prepared my usual four gluten-free flour waffles for the spouse, and I prepared myself a ham-and-cheese omelette, toast, and OJ (no coffee; we don’t drink it.)

By 0830, the spouse and I headed over to the house I bought a couple weeks ago to check on the progress that workers I had hired had done. So far, so good. Soon enough, Emelio, José, Raul, and Paulo showed up. These guys are very hard workers. They explained what they had done and I reviewed what else was needed. Together, we completed the remaining demolition of what needed to be done. We gutted the bathroom, kitchen, and took down a wall so that we could eventually have an open-plan living/dining/kitchen combination.

My spouse does not speak Spanish so he could not understand what my crew and I were talking about. He busied himself by cleaning out junk that we found in the basement. Between the demo materials that my crew and I removed and what the spouse found in the basement, we filled a huge roll-off container which will be picked up on Monday.

My crew completed their work by 1400, while my spouse and I finished determining the supplies and materials that will be required to execute the remodeling. Fortunately, I have very good construction estimating software on my laptop, so by the afternoon, I had a list of materials by size and quantity that had to be ordered.

We drove home and I got busy in my home office. Using that construction estimating software, I placed orders on-line with my go-to-plumbing, electrical, and building supplies vendors.

Only 1630? Can’t knock off now. I quickly showered and changed.

Time to get creative for dinner. I pulled on sweats and clean socks, then went to the kitchen and got out the ingredients and equipment to make pasta for tonight’s dinner. Nothing like fresh pasta! My sister found some gluten-free semolina flour and I used it to make spaghetti. Sounds simple, but gluten-free flour is very hard to make a good pasta dough from. But it worked; the noodles were superb.

I made home-made meatballs and tossed a salad. Into the pasta (once cooked), I threw in some sprigs of basil and parsley with a little olive oil and some sauce, tossed it, and plated a great “comfort-food” dinner.

Enough for Saturday. I was beat, and after dinner, the spouse and I settled in to watch a little TV, but within 5 minutes, I was asleep in his arms. I do not remember him guiding me to bed.

Sunday morning at 0400, I was up-and-at-it again. While the spouse slept, I worked some more on my renovation plans to create a day-to-day weekly schedule of work for my crew who were coming back on Monday morning. It was well below freezing, so again I bailed on my usual 10-mile walk. About 0700, I cuddled with the spouse a little bit, then we eased gently into our morning routine.

Gluten-free waffle for the spouse; regular waffle, an egg, and OJ for me. What was the uniform of the day? Since it was so cold — leather jeans, leather shirt, Chippewa hi-shine engineer boots, and a leather jacket. Ball cap (not Muir — I may enjoy leather but I also have limits for public LeatherDom.)

By 0800, I was in my truck, and at the door of the first of ten LOLITS who I had the pleasure of escorting to the grocery store. Between 0800 and 1230, I completed three trips to three different grocery stores with 10 LOLITS and the spouse. This is truly fun and pleasurable, but time-consuming sometimes when trying to run herd on a bunch of little old ladies who scatter everywhere when we hit the stores. (Giggle.)

As I was driving between my LOLITS homes and stores, I would see some bikers on the road and let out a sigh. I didn’t realize it, but the spouse did. After returning home from the last trip, the spouse suggested, “it has warmed up, why don’t you get out for a ride on your Harley?”

I thought about it, but remembered that I promised a sr. pal that I would drop by to repair a faulty electrical outlet, as well as visit the woman who has been cutting my hair for some 30 years (I’m not gay enough to call her “my stylist,” but she’s not a barber — so she’s just the woman who cuts my hair.)

I put together all three — I rode my Harley to my senior pal’s house to do the electrical repair. It took only five minutes, and I shot the breeze with her for a while. Then I hopped on the Harley and rode to the shop where my friend has her chair. She did the usual monthly chop-chop on the noggin and again, I was out of there in no time.

Having more time available than I thought, I pulled up my boots onto the riding pegs and let loose. Or let’s say that I took the long way home via a nephew’s house at which I stopped for a little while to visit. But even as layered as I was (leather chaps over leather jeans, leather shirt over a t-shirt; leather vest; quilted inner jacket; high-vis jacket on top), I began to feel the cold while riding, especially when the sun got obscured by clouds.

I arrived home by 1600. I cleaned off the Harley and rolled it into the back of the garage. I kept the leathers on while preparing a hearty beef stew for dinner.

As my spouse and I were eating, the doorbell rang. Who’s there at 1730? Grrrr… one of those electioneering door-knockers. I opened the door. The visitor took one look at me (woops, I forgot that I was dressed in full black leather). She gasped and then said, “am I interrupting something?” I answered, “yes, we’re eating dinner. Have a good evening.” Then I shut the door without taking whatever she was trying to hand to me. I used to do door-to-door electioneering, so I can’t be grossly rude, but I don’t like being interrupted during dinner! (I could have said something else, accounting for the leather, but I refrained. LOL.)

After dinner, I took off my gear and cleaned it with leather wipes to remove the day’s grime from the jeans and the boots. It amazes me how much dirt gets onto leather and boots from just riding around. I hung the jeans and leather shirt in the closet, took a quick shower, and pulled on a pair of sweats. (with socks.)

Once again, the spouse tried to watch TV with me, and once again, I was out like a light, nestled in his arms. He guided me to bed by 2030.

So that is a recap of a rather typical weekend. Work boots, construction, lovin’ the spouse, caring for my senior pals, seeing family, riding the Harley. Now I get to go back to work this week to — rest!

Life is short: be booted while productive.