June 2022

His summer started late with a twelve-day swim class through school, to avoid the class in his Sophomore year, and take another elective instead.  Smart, no one wants to swim in winter.  Brandi bought him a new swimsuit, and equipment for the class, which all arrived after the class was over. Ordering online is not her strongsuit.  The pic here is of the swimsuit she bought him... which looks like an elastic loincloth.  Return labels were created for Bran.

Nick and Brandi mare a quick trip to Atlanta for Seth's birthday, where the kids didn't interact, or do anything at all, as usual (literally the only picture of him interacting with anyone is with the cat. The most active photo is him chewing the candy off a piece paper on his hotel bed.)  The highlight of the trip for Nick was a stop at Buc-ees along the highway for a brisket sandwich.  And then Seth, who can now drive, running out to bring them back junk food each day.  I stayed home and enjoyed the local fireworks right from our bedroom window. He no more than got home and tested positive, had to lock into his room for ten days while we slid food under the door.  Horrible for him (not really.)

Nick and I continue to practice driving on Sunday mornings, he has darnedest luck.  We went out into the country one morning away from people, and the country folk decided to hold a bicycle marathon or some stupid charity ride that morning, and they're all over the roads... two and three wide on a two lane road, Nick is surrounded by bikes like an insect swarm, he's freaked out.  We got around them.  Ironically, nearby a few weeks later someone ran over a similar group of bikers.  

My uncle passed away at the end of the month, so lots of family time. I'm impressed how mature my niece and nephews are, just a little older than Nick.  I can follow Joe, who's only 16, and he will lead, whereas Nick in the front of a group is likely an adventure into the unknown. Joe makes sure I'm accounted for... Nick leaves me leftovers in the fridge and it's nothing more than a bone. Benefit of having older siblings, I suppose.
Strawberry picking this year was without Nick, who just isn't interested.  We picked a more normal 14 lbs this year, which equated to four pies, and a couple shortcakes.  And Brandi and I walked the Toledo Zoo one morning where I met my spirit animal, a 100-year-old tortoise who hates people. We did drag Nick to the DSO with us for the annual Summer Blockbuster show, one of my favorites. We got a late start this year, and missed a nice sit-down dinner, it was chicken on the run instead.  And he and I stumbled into a car show at the Churchill's Plaza one morning.  Time with Nick is less and less these days, even when he's at the pool he's staring at his phone.

Photos here.

Jason

May 2022

We continue to practice driving on Sunday mornings, which all he looks forward to is breakfast, and prefers the Waffle House.  We've driven thru the Point, into the country, morning errands like recycling and down past his school for practice, but generally places where he can run the stop signs and not be a danger to anyone.  We did a drive downtown, where he got a little nervous in the park when we hopped out (which was a good lesson, there was never any threat), and then down by the university where he almost rear-ended a truck.  Slow progress, but still best to get up early while we're alone on the road.

Nick and Brandi took a day trip to the Cuyahoga Railroad to see the Steam in the Valley celebration, there was a history train there, the Nickel Plate Steam Locomotive 765 visiting from St. Louis. While there, he ran into a couple friends from online, two guys he'd never met before in person, and didn't know what they looked like, until he saw a hat he recognized.  They don't even know his real name, they called him 'Raz' which apparently is his online handle. I assume these are the guys he's helping build stuff online on the graveyard shift.

Spring piano recital was this month, he played Chattanooga Choo-Choo (video at right), of course, a piece of his selecting. Still not quite enough practice to nail it the way he should, but he did OK.  He's probably an excellent pianist, and just won't let me listen, still practices when the house is empty. I love to hear him play but have to force him to let me listen. Our music tastes have also begun to diverge, I want to listen to Dua Lipa, and he's playing Billy Joel.  You can see from the way he dresses, Nick is an old soul.

We drove downtown into Toledo for a pizza at Papalis after the last day of school, walked around the stadium and soaked in the sun, I got a new hat, before our place opened for dinner.  For a brief period, he was engaging... remembered we needed to visit the cemetery for our annual Memorial Day beer with my grandfather, and remembered our parking meter was running out of time.  Oddly the memorable part was this bug that was on his shoulder, which he brushed aside outdoors and it returned to him in the car, then he brushed it off again and it went back to his shoulder.

But he's still Nick... my former boss and colleague came to the house for dinner, and all Nick could say was, 'Hi, your fly is down'.  Sigh. 

Photos from May.

Jason

April 2022

We did fit in Easter this year, always sad to see Lent come to a close, the fish frys are one part of my Catholicism I still love.  Nick smartly plays along with Easter Morning, so there are baskets hidden when he wakes, and plastic eggs with cash in them.  I think he made off with $140.  He volunteered time again this month at the elderly home in Ottawa Hills, so he comes out even.

Nick caught a version of Long Covid that took him down for a week or so, nothing serious, just slowed him a bit.

I grabbed tickets to see Miguel Cabrera hit #3,000, and Nick opted out, so at the last minute Grandpa went along with me. It was the Tigers' best game of the season, a 13-0 rout, perfect weather, seats in the shade, and the first milestone I've seen in all the years of attending ballgames. Long drive in, almost missed the action getting through the gate, and concessions were closed, but memorable all the same.

Wanna know what makes it difficult not to nap more? Having a mattress in the kitchen, right in the middle of the house.  Brandi's search for a new mattress continues (we've bought two, returned one, so far,) and the old one sits in the dining room, where we flop on it all too frequently. Gives us a nice view the indoor garden that Brandi is preparing, which is over-growing the dining room and is ready to be relocated outside.

I had a work trip to Dallas and Chicago for the week, ate like a king, ran like crazy with delayed flights and short sleep, but successful for D-Ford connected features testing, and only got thrown out of one session. The highlight: my videographer lives in Chicago, and has a new Cadillac, which made getting around so much more pleasant.  Nick's car experience this month is washing his own, pic here.

Few pics here for April.

Jason

March 2022

Not quite his first job, Nick volunteered at an elderly home for a full weekend to fulfill his school's community service requirement. He waited until there was two weeks to finish before starting, so the twenty hours was a bit of a squeeze. Brandi found him two days at 5+ hours apiece.  Overall, he got a free meal, it wasn't hard labor, serving food and setting up for events, and he said he 'liked his manager' (feels weird with Nick having 'a manager'.)  It felt like a real job to him, long hours at one time, and he's learned to appreciate break time. I think other than school and his black belt test, he's rarely worked at anything longer (yard work at Grandpa's usually ends after three hours or so.)

SFS was in the Frozen Four in Columbus again this year, so Nick and scooted down for a Thursday night playoff hockey game with Brad. Tickets were a challenge (it's Ohio... the site was broken so you couldn't buy them, then once you did, it was broken again so you couldn't use them), but we got in, after a stop at Tommy's Pizza, one of my favorite spots. We won against Brad's high school, UA, in double overtime, and got home before the random snow started. Worth it.

More driving practice, we're settling into an hour on Sunday mornings, I've figured out the app we need to use to record hours.  Other than missing stop signs, he's coming along. Still mostly out in the country away from people, early in the morning.  This is where not speaking gets more difficult, the passenger can't anticipate his intentions, and when I ask him a question, he doesn't answer (out loud).

Overall, we're ready for spring.  Ready to reduce the number of mattresses scattered thoughout the house. Brandi lost a pack of fifty floss threaders in the laundry and now they drop out of our clothes at random. Nick adds, "two-and-a-half tons of sour candy" to the shared grocery list to see what we might buy.  It's business as usual here.

Jason

February 2022

Some days he's grown up, like when he'll shovel our driveway and those of all the elderly neighbors, without being asked. Other days he's still Nick.  In the course of an hour, while the snow fell, he managed to scrape the paint off my outdoor chairs with a metal snow shovel, use his $100 Ugg leather gloves to dig ice from the corner of our concrete stoop, and come in soaking wet because he, "accidentally stuck his head under the gutter."  He's to the point of remembering and buying greeting cards (it's a must witih his mother), and covered Valentine's Day on his own, so that's no small deal.

Short trip to LA for me this month for the new Mustang clinic, back downtown near the Convention Center.  Almost got pummeled by an angry parking attendant (saved by Heul!), but ate really well and avoided the LA Rams traffic.  While I was away, that's Brandi's cue to try something new, so I came home to a greenhouse in the dining room, hundreds of little plants getting ready for summer (no, they don't help her breathe, yes, it's a bad idea). Spring is in the air, indoors this time.

We've been watching Nick's kidneys closely, which means lots of blood tests, not his favorite activity.  But I must admit, what started in December as an uncomfortable visit, he's getting used to having his blood drawn, now it's not much of a big deal.  Not the ideal way to adjust to something, but he has.

I stumbled across Nick's YouTube channel, had no idea he'd been creating videos. He wiped out all the old dinosaur stop-motion content, and it's all trains now. These kids were raised watching videos, so it should be no surprise they can naturally edit these things like professionals (what gets me is the copyright credits, ads, references... learning all this stuff somewhere). I'm not a train guy, but I can listed to Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen all day.  Thousands of views, and hundreds of comments, his colleagues are enjoying the posts, that's what matters.  In my consumer behavior work, we refer to the digital self as 'phygital' as it crosses the physical existence... they call him 'raz' online, so apparently Nick's phygital self has a name.  That's just nuts (in a good way.)

For the first time in 15 years, almost a full month without a single photo of Nick. There's one... him and his mother asleep, Christmas decorations still up, laundry hanging around the house drying. This is what we live like in a typical day, for everyone to see.