Work from home.

Spencer arrived at the farm house and headed to his home office to get a bit of work done. While he was no longer a full-time lobbyist, he still stayed up to date with current politics and the occasional piece of consulting if he could do it remotely. The current assignment he was working on was a think piece for a disruptive technologies company. Spencer had compiled a list of key senators and congressmen that he felt could be convinced to aid the company in their efforts to have some of the more preventative laws repealed. Thereby allowing them to have a greater opportunity to compete with the established players within their industry.

Gone were his days of muckraking and underhanded that had been the modus operandi of his time in D.C. Now he simply advised on where he felt change could be achieved through the path of least resistance and not which senator had a penchant for transvestites and the photos that would prove it. Finishing up his report Spencer sent the document to the C.E.O. along with a sizable billing sheet.

Feeling hungry from a number of hours in front of a computer screen, Spencer made himself a sandwich and washed it down with a glass of milk. Noticing that the refrigerator was getting low, he thought about making a run into town for groceries but remembered with that with Kimberly staying the night, he could probably get away with ordering pizzas. He was sure they would much prefer that after the softball tryouts than his adequate at best home cooking.

Feeling the need to work with his hands after the morning's intellectual exercises Spencer spent the afternoon sanding the wooden floors in one of the spare bedrooms. He was meticulous in his renovations and ensured that every mote of dust was cleaned up before applying a fresh coat of varnish to dry overnight.

Seeing that it was almost time to pick the girls up, Spencer rang through a pick-up order to be collected on the way home. He arrived back at the school oval with enough time to watch the second half of the girl’s trials.

Eventually, Amy and Kimberly came running over to the car. Darcie had rung through to the school asking them to pass a message through to her daughter that she would be spending the night at the Askren’s tonight and to not be surprised when she wasn’t there to pick her up after school. Spencer held the rear door of the SUV open so the girls could put their school bags and sports kit away.

Getting into the car, Spencer turned to Amy and Kimberly in the back, “So how did the try out go?”

“Amy made third base and I made pitcher Mr Askren,” Kimberly told him excitedly.

“That’s fantastic girls. Congratulations. How about we get some pizzas to celebrate or I could make my amazing tuna casserole?”

“Seriously Dad! Enough with the casserole. It's disgusting,” Amy said as she mimed being sick.

“Pizzas it is then,” Spencer said as he began the drive to get takeaway.

He gave the girls money to go in and get it while he stayed in the car with the motor running. On the way back, the girls started on the pizzas, barely giving them enough time to cool without burning the roof of their mouths.

At the house, they took the food and drinks into the lounge while the girls ran through the newly added section on Netflix looking for something terrible to watch. Spencer allowed the girls to stay up a bit later than normal in order so they could finish the end of their movie. By 10 o’clock everyone was in bed and not long for sleep.

The next morning Spencer bundled the girls back into his Mercedes and prepared to run the gauntlet of the school drop off once again.