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Shop Talk

I got up this morning after very little sleep and got to work again. Autumn came out shortly after I did and scrambled some eggs with tortillas that turned out really good.

Around lunch time, I made another “everything” sandwich, and Autumn joined me for lunch with Summer at the shop. Then we went by my house for a bit to clean up, and I was excited to see that one of my shrimp had eggs again. It was a lower quality shrimp, but I was just glad to see them breeding. When we left, I had to run by our office to sign some paperwork, then stop by the high school to set up a webcam in the athletics office.

Once all of our business was taken care of, the two of us went to do a little shopping, going first to Five Below, then to Dollar Tree. Summer had a team meeting after work and had me order some pizzas for the crew. While we waited, Autumn and I ran through Walmart for some high color sidewalk chalk but couldn’t find any. I did score a pretty good deal on a bike pump though.

When the pizza was done, we picked them up at Papa John’s and dropped them off at Superfast. Then we headed back to the house after a really good day together. Everyone just sort of picked at leftovers for dinner, and then Autumn wanted to play Monopoly.

I clearly dominated that game, and then Eaddie joined us for some Sorry where Autumn broke out in first place. We were all pretty tired by that point, so everyone settled in for the night. Eaddie and I watched an episode of Iron Fist until I started dozing off and called it a night.

The end-of-school stress is coming. I can feel it.

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Uncaged

I couldn’t sleep very well this morning, so I didn’t have any choice but to get up and start the day. Work was mostly housekeeping with stuff from last week between Animal Crossing sessions that were mostly me trying to document my progress in the game somewhere other than the game itself.

I was unsuccessful in getting Eaddie up even close to a reasonable hour, so we just munched on whatever leftovers we could find in the house. Autumn called her, after spending the last couple nights with her grandparents, to decide on a dinner for their father and Zach to bring them. The whiny semi-verbal gymnastics that Autumn muttered when Eaddie suggested Subway as something even remotely healthy were both hilarious and predictable. In the end, I think he brought them food from different places because that’s the kind of catered world they live in.

When Summer got home from her long day at work, she picked at some leftovers as well. I still had to go home to take care of things there, so I took Eaddie with me so we could leave the other two with some time to settle in again. On our way out, Autumn fussed about not wanting to be back, and it got me wondering if we could get her to verbalize why she would rather be with her grandparents than with us. Everyone seems to just accept it without making her identify why it could be a problem.

Back at my house, Eaddie and I finished up the last season of Luke Cage. We were both pretty disappointed in how it ended, and I thought it was odd how the whole season just kind of seemed like it didn’t know what kind of show it wanted to be. No matter, though. It’s on to the next Marvel series.

Gwan den.

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Ache Rolls

My body felt completely battered this morning. We took our time getting out of bed, then Summer woke Eaddie up and we had some leftovers for lunch. Julie wanted to uncover the pool, so the girls sat around watching The Voice and I did laundry while we waited for her to be ready. Eventually we did get out of the house and across town, and we uncovered the pool pretty quickly and easily by shifting the whole cover, then fan folding it from the middle.

My parents had egg rolls ready to fry when we finished with the pool, so I stood out and fried them before we went inside to eat. They stayed busy cleaning up outside, and the girls and I ate inside once the rice was done. Summer eventually had to get home to do her own chores around the house, so I went home to clean up. Jack showed up online and I spent some time catching up with him before Johnny got on. Then I joined them in a really terrible game of PUBG where the game seemed to run pretty smoothly, but my mouse lagged nearly a full second behind for some reason. One game was enough, and then I was off to Summer’s.

Eaddie was still up and bored, and I was super hungry, so I snacked a little bit. Eaddie shared some of her apples and Tajín with me, and we watched an episode of Luke Cage until I was ready to pass out.

Overripe Banana: 3/5
With Tajín: 2/5
With Cheddar: 4/5

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Summer Float

Julie invited us to meet up with them in the morning to go kayaking, but we didn’t get moving quite fast enough to actually make the rendezvous. Autumn was going to work in the yard with her grandparents, but that fell through as well. Summer took the girls home instead, and then returned with some lunch to take on the float trip while I got things packed up and ready to go. My GoPro memory card was taking forever to back up old data, but I had plenty of other things to prepare anyway. Summer even had time to run out for gas and a couple flatbreads from Tropical Smoothie before we left.

I told Suzanne we were going out, so she waited outside a house in Dover and waved at us as we drove by. We got up to the creek about two hours late, and the place was packed. The water was high, and the COVID-19 outbreak had the camp grounds closed, but the park was waiving kayak parking fees. We got the kayaks in the water without too much trouble, and we were off to my usual start.

We made it through the first set of rapids without too much trouble, but the second or third long run of them got both of us. I really expected the high water to fix that for me, but I went up on one giant rock in particular that almost folded my kayak in half. Summer’s kayak got stuck on another rock and she floated by, and for some reason I felt the need to throw my paddle with my GoPro on it to her. I ultimately managed to free my boat, but then I tumbled over the rapids the rest of the way with nothing left of my shoes but the straps around my ankles. Summer didn’t catch my paddle, but I eventually caught up to my boat.

Summer was across water with her boat stuck on a rock upstream, but luckily an older gentleman was able to get it free for her. It was the same gentleman that ultimately returned my paddle after Summer and I cleaned up and got back in our boats. We assumed we were going to have to split her single paddle, but as I pushed ahead to scout for my own, a group of kids plucked it out of the water and got it back to me. It wasn’t until after pulling my GoPro out and recording a video though.

With that spill out of the way, we made our way down the creek without too much more trouble. We did eventually find Julie with her posse at the big sandbar, in what appeared to be a big frat party. Loud music blowing out poor speakers, and teenagers all whooping and hollering about alcohol wasn’t quite our scene, so we stayed just long enough to say hello and then shoved off.

It was a pretty good time with what was unfortunately probably my normal amount of mishaps and bruises. The water was probably higher than I had ever floated, so large parts of the trip were actually quite a bit better than some I’ve made in the past. At no point did we ever have to get out and drag our kayaks across a long, rocky high point. Summer had a blast, and a quick bite to eat along the bank kept us in relatively good shape.

Taking the boats out and packing back up was its usual pain, heightened by my complete lack of footwear. With just the two of us there, I drove Summer’s car back to Long Pool to trade for mine so we could load everything up. Another guy there helped me load Summer’s kayak, but I still had to pull up to flat ground to re-tie it. We headed back to town, completely forgetting to get Summer’s car until we got back to the highway.

After some extra time and extra miles, and a brief stop by the side of the road to pick up a slice of mouse pad I was using to keep the rope off of the hood of the car, we got everything back home. We didn’t die, and that was my usual win. Summer helped me clean off the boats and stowe them away, then went to get the girls while I cleaned up myself.

Autumn convinced Summer to let her stay with the grandparents, so it was just Summer and Eaddie here for the evening. They brought a family meal from Venezia’s, and they ate while watching The Voice. I needed the quiet and sat in my room, watching GoPro captures upload to Google Photos.

After we ate, Summer went to bed and I did some shoe shopping to score a deal. Then Eaddie and I watched one episode of Luke Cage since I didn’t get to spend any time with her today.

Josie likes Tucker! Josie likes Tucker!

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I Made Sliders

My medication alarm kept nagging me awake this morning, and I got up to make an “everything” sandwich for lunch. I got the girls up and had to go out to air up my front bike tire again since it was completely flat. Then we rode to the shop for lunch with Summer. There was quite a bit more traffic in the middle of a Friday, but we managed without too much trouble.

They were pretty busy, so Summer had us go upstairs to eat inside away from the paying customers. I guess the bagged sandwich was too loose and the meat and cheese slid down through to the other sandwiches, leaving Autumn’s first end piece without. It wasn’t terrible to correct though, and we had a feel-good lunch. Afterward we rode back home, the long way again, through the city park. The heat was hot and the ground was dry, but the air was full of sound.

When we got home, we drove back to the shop so Autumn could stay and work for some money to “buy” the Matrix from her grandparents. Eaddie had to get her bag with a change of clothes too, since she forgot to bring the bag inside last night.

With just the two of us left, Eaddie and I decided to try and clean up the house a little bit. We were going to start in the garage, but as it got warmer that felt less appealing to her, and she landed in the kitchen instead. She poked around a little bit while I got some dishes shuffled. We didn’t get a whole lot done, but at least it seemed like a noticeable difference.

Summer and Autumn eventually came home and we had to figure out dinner. We were craving Chinese but decided against Sumo because of the price. Then Summer got set on Brown’s but I discovered they had shut down for a few days to remodel for social distancing. At a buffet. Still seems like a bad idea, especially with how many old people eat there.

We ended up getting Wendy’s, then came back home and ate while we watched Autumn’s pick of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Summer seemed a bit broken after a decidedly non-happy ending, but we made it better with some Yahtzee and Moana. Julie invited us to kayak tomorrow, so we called it an early night to give us plenty of time to get everything together for Summer’s first time on the creek.

Listen. For a thousand years, I’ve only been thinking about keepin’ this hair silky, getting my hook, and being awesome, again.

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Not Friday

I wanted to sleep in so much this morning, but one of the cats came up and bit me on the forehead. The cool weather all night with the windows open had me at an absolutely perfect level of cozy, but I had to get up and face the day. Autumn got up and made bacon and pancakes for breakfast, but we didn’t have any syrup, so they sent me to Dollar General for that, Nutella, and ice cream for later. I used the app to check out, but the tablet at the front was turned off for some reason. Luckily I found the power button and got it booted up, and was able to check out without any trouble.

Breakfast was great, and then I got into some work for a while. I took some game breaks either with Animal Crossing or Grid on Stadia. Since Google was giving away two month trials of Stadia, I figured I could hop back on and try it again now that there are more games available, and I was pretty pleased with Grid. I wasn’t any good at it, but it looked and played well.

Eventually I had to get the girls out of their rooms to do something, so Autumn started on some laundry and cleaning the house while Eaddie went outside to mow the front lawn. They get along way better when they’re separated and productive, but Eaddie definitely takes the lion’s share of the work without too much fuss. We’ll have to watch for that though, and still need to reign in their screen time.

When Summer got home, we had some leftovers while the girls went outside and had dinner with their father. Then we packed up and headed to my house for the evening since I didn’t get to go during the day. I played a game of Yahtzee with Autumn, then she went to sleep watching Alice in Wonderland. Eaddie and I ended the evening with a pretty good mid-season episode of Luke Cage.

Calloo-callay, no work today. We’re cabbages and kings!

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Hunter, Gatherer

I woke up a bit earlier this morning and did a bit of work while the girls were in bed. Eventually I made them get up and start hunting for the TV remote. It started out okay, but they slowly got snippy with each other and it all kind of fell apart.

Autumn had therapy, so I dropped her off before going to Walgreens for a drug refill. I was a little surprised they hadn’t gone completely touchless there, and made me type my phone number into the card reader. At least it was a quick in-and-out. I stopped by to see Summer on my way out, then got gas, and headed home for a quick shower before going back to pick up Autumn.

I made a quick stop at Casey’s for a freebie, got Autumn, and we headed back to their house for the evening. I told the girls they couldn’t eat until they found the remote, and for a moment they actually got their heads together and retraced their day. Autumn found the remote stuck way down in the recliner, and peace was restored.

We all picked at leftovers, then played a couple games of Yahtzee where we learned that Summer had all of the statistics preloaded in her brain. Then Eaddie and I snuggled up for a surprisingly long Luke Cage marathon.

Wha yuh deh pon?

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Quarantine and Conquer

My lip was still pretty swollen when I got up this morning, and it took most of the day for it to go back to normal. The refried beans I made the night before were really soupy, so I left the Instant Pot on all night to steam off. I kept having to get up and blend them some more, but eventually they thickened up. I did what I could for work while the girls lounged around for the first part of the afternoon. When they did get up, I had Autumn clean up inside while Eaddie mowed the back yard.

Summer had chili going in the slow cooker, so we had that for dinner when she got home from work a little early. Then I had Autumn drive me home so I could take care of a few things and give her some time away from everyone else. She watched the second part of The Deathly Hallows while I showered, and then we headed back up to her house in a torrential downpour.

Summer was already in bed when we got here, and Eaddie wanted to watch Luke Cage, but I was too aggravated by the loss of their TV remote, and subsequently the mess I found in and around the furniture while trying to find it. They’ll just have to spend some time really cleaning tomorrow.

With everyone else in bed, Eaddie stayed up with me and started chatting the way we sometimes do, about everything from the mess I made of the living room, to those Magic Eye pictures they used to sell at the mall.

Call me punctilious, but I refuse to live with someone that can permanently lose a television remote.

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Stiff Upper Lip

I got up this morning after a pretty decent night’s sleep and began another week of working from home. There wasn’t a whole lot going on, but we’re used to that by now. I took a break when Travis invited me to his Animal Crossing island, and he taught me how to bury fruit in holes to grow new trees.

Arby’s had another $1 special on roast beef sandwiches, so I left for lunch, took a shower, and took Summer some lunch. Then I made my way back to the girls so they could eat before I took Autumn to her physical therapy. While she was there, I went back home to clean up a bit more, then loaded up some of Dad’s tools from our bathroom demolition.

Autumn didn’t want to get out of the car, so I went up to return the tools and visit with my parents for just a little bit. Then we went back home to start dinner. I wanted to make refried beans and carnitas, but I had already run out of time as it was. The carnitas recipe was pretty simple, but I had Autumn help with some of the prep work.

At the end of the day, the food was really good, especially when lifted with some specialty Great Value salsa we found yesterday. Somewhere along the course of the day I got into something that had the middle of my upper lip swollen. It got worse as the evening progressed, and after a near-panic attack for seemingly no reason, I laid down in bed until everyone went to sleep.

I had started the beans after the carnitas were done, so I had to get out of bed to try and finish those. I blended them too early though, and ended up with more of a bean soup than anything else. I don’t know what was so different from last time, but I don’t recall having any liquid left after cooking. Hopefully leaving the thing on overnight won’t end horribly.

Relax. It’s fine, probably.

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Off Trail

Summer and I got up late today and went to Walmart for the last few things we needed for lunch. They had a bunch of “everything” bread marked down, so we got all of it to freeze, and I took one loaf to make a sandwich. Since it was already late and a bit warm outside, we decided to eat at home rather than take it all to the bike trail. It was a quick lunch in the back yard, and then we loaded up the bikes and headed to Old Post.

When we got there and unloaded, I climbed onto my bike only to find the front tire was completely flat. I loaded it back up and went home for air, and decided that a portable pump is probably a must-have. While I was gone, Summer and Eaddie checked out the trails but couldn’t leave Autumn behind, so they all rode downhill to the main park area. I made it back and met up with them, and we rode all over the flat park area.

We stopped for snacks on the amphitheater stage, then made a couple more loops around the drive before packing up to head back home. The girls left pretty quickly after we got back to my house, and I spent a few minutes doing a major trim in my shrimp tank. Then I loaded up and headed up to their house for the evening.

Summer made sloppy joes with mashed potatoes and corn for dinner, and then I planted all of my trimmings in Autumn’s aquarium. Summer, Autumn, and I played a game of Sorry, and then they went to bed while Eaddie and I started the second season of Luke Cage. We both got bored with how slow the first episode was, and decided to quit there for the night.

Back to the grind.