August 2020

From the pictures, you'd swear he's the most active, athletic kid on the block (we live in a 55+ neighborhood, so technically that's true.) He painted the backboard and has been shooting baskets (his form is outstanding), even on his own, regularly. He's back in karate as businesses open up. He's been in the pool every couple of days all summer.  And to see him at a piano recital, he is even musically inclined.  But alas, the real Nick is still face into a laptop every moment he gets, pried away only to eat and sleep, begrudgingly.

School is slow to start, back in the classroom at SFS all five days each week, but testing all the equipment with some class-at-home days so they are prepared for a shutdown. Nick's quite comfortable in his second year, he knows the routine, and has roughly all the same teachers.  We went into Packo's one evening for a late snack, and there was a kid named Sam there working that knew Nick, and they chatted it up like they'd known each other their whole lives; it's good to see him connecting with folks.

He can be independent, but prefers to lean on his mother, and she obliges.  He can fix dinner on the grill, he can back the car out of the garage and wash it, he's handling his work on the laptop mostly on his own (except for some basic tenants of security, he

got hacked this month.)  Send him in for a sandwich, he can figure it out on his own.  Although, he'd rather be a sloth at home, and nuke a bagel sandwich with one hand on the keyboard.

I was the first one out of quarantine at work, went to Chicago to moderate groups for HATCI for a couple days. Felt good to get out, distancing was fine.  Had my first Portillo's Beef and Sausage, was right across the street from the facility.  Awesome.

(Is that all we do is eat?!)

Photos here.

Jason

July 2020

Maybe it's the quarantine, because we're certainly all losing physical activity opportunities (he had no karate for months) but Nick's been doing pushups in the evenings, and it shows. Besides being taller than me, his strength has improved significantly, which he's asserting. He wants to shoot hoops more often, which I enjoy (now that our backboard is good), and he's trying to play defense on me.  Feels like the first time he's trying to impose some dominance, in any respect.  I love it, bring it on.

Brandi and Nick visited the Sugar Creek Roundhouse and Train Museum in central Ohio for a day trip, lots of photos, of course.  It's out in farm country, without much else around it, Amish buggies passing you on the rural roads. Funny to see photos with masks on, but Nick is already eager to go back.

He and I returned to Cincinnati for a short trip to see everyone together, Carrie drove in from St. Louis with her boys.  The older boys are all on the same page now, and essentially disappear together for most of the weekend.  Noah is the ring leader ('Mo Mexican' as his friends call him... he tells Nick, "you need a street name," funny how the churchgoers provide the 'bad' influence), Nick is the instigator, Mason is the middle-man, and Myles who is the youngest, just tries to keep up.  They created a skit on WWII and shared it with all of us at the end of the day, which was fun to watch. The scene where Nick and Noah disappear behind a curtain, start simulating a bar fight, and Nick yells, "That's my wife," was the highlight.  We made a stop at the firing range on Sunday morning before heading home.

Nick got an A/C unit in his room, because the upstairs in our home will not cool (incompetent builder ran the duct work wrong). He dials it down like an icebox and sleeps with his face pressed up against the fan.

We tried Cincy Crab this month (in Toledo, coincidentally), where they drop a trash bag of boiled everything in a pile on the table and you put on your gloves and dig in.  Nick enjoyed it, wasn't bad.  I still prefer a Chick-fil-A, simple is good, even when they forget the fork in the bag (forcing Nick to get creative and use a nugget sauce packet as a scoop... it's good to test his creativity/survival skills.)

Photos here.

Jason

June 2020

We opened the pool a little late this year, with a new liner coming, we weren't sure it would be in one piece and swim-able when we pulled the cover.  It was, and we had a hot few weeks of June to use it. Nick was huge help in opening this year, we're getting close to retiring Grandpa out from the assignment. Nick still generally struggles to finish his chores and get paid, he'll stop 90% of the way in, or not write it down, and not collect.

A family of killdeer nested in our yard (because they nest in the rocks, and you know, my yard is so awful from the lawncare and crappy topsoil, they figured it was rocks.) They sat on that nest for 28 days, we surrounded them with reflective posts, and we fought of the stupid lawn guys together.  They hatched, and left the nest right away, but I caught the moment on film. Very cool.

Brandi decided to return to work part-time (in the middle of a pandemic), and picked up some RDH days at two offices.  She comes home one evening, and says, "I'm exhausted.  If you're expecting me to provide dinner, your best bet is breast milk." She had a good run and made a little money, now both states are offering her an opportunity to add a nursing degree if she'll help in this COVID mess.  We shall see.

Overall, with quarantine still in effect, we've gotten out a little (went out to dinner with Eric and Deana @ Manhattan's, and I got out to see Becky for dinner, that's about it), still have our private room for breakfast on Saturdays, and got to visit family.

Brandi and Nick made a trip to Atlanta at the end of the month.  You'll see photos of go-carts, fireworks, and paddling on the lake. The kids generally stay to themselves, don't interact much with each other.  When Thatcher gets grumpy with Nick (who is eternally optimistic), they grapple a little, in a struggle for space and dominance, and rumor is that Nick can hold his own just fine (three years of martial arts has helped.)  I asked him how it went, he says "I'll play hardball when I need to."  They cut their trip short, and met me in Cincinnati on the way home where I watched Noah play ball in 14U, and Kiersten took me for a ride in her new Jeep (which I didn't know at the time she's not yet tested for her license, a little detail that got missed.)  With Kiersten, and now Seth, both getting their license, and Nick confidently driving, all the kids are creeping up on adulthood now.  Nick says, "You hope I'm the same chill self I am now."  Yes, I do.

Photos here.

Jason

May 2020

Full lock-down quarantine in Michigan lasted from mid-March to mid-June, then lifted for nearly all services. Inability to get a haircut nearly started civil war in the state (because...priorities; people didn't consider hair dryers spreading a COVID, the reasons are essentially too sensitive and complicated for the average Joe.) So Brandi places the beard trimmer on #6, and attempts to cut my hair.  Nick walks by, looks at me and says "I’m glad you went first," and refuses to have his head touched.  He looks like a mop, but no one sees him, with piano and school all virtual. He watches the world go by from the window in his study. "The old people in the neighborhood are gathering outside," he tells me.  "Are they coming for you?" "I don't think so." "Then you have nothing to worry about." They sit on their lawn chairs and drink wine in the cul-de-sac. I do love my 55+ neighborhood.

So our time outdoors is on Spring chores, from mowing lawn, to tying up tomatoes, and cutting dead branches from the trees. We had lots of clearing needed this year with extending the privacy fence in Grandpa's yard coming soon. Nick was a big help in opening the pool, which was the toughest year, with lots of water and crud, and his effort to save every tadpole.  He's earning money from his work, puts the cash in his 'fee shark' (the name of the bank on his nightstand that holds his cash.)

School finally ended, and he passed every class, with plenty of unnecessary anxiety. They better have a plan for Fall, or we'll be second-guessing the school. With time on his hands, he's usually building/coding stuff on his laptop, or pressed against the window to my home office making faces at me. "I'm just trying to keep my feet off the ground," he says.  I don't know if he's confused or has a self-awareness at his age that I didn't reach until my late twenties. We're starting to slowly get out of the house, Brandi is getting impatient, such as threatening to hurt me with a box of Mac & Cheese (she's running out of possibilities.)

Jason

March & April 2020: COVID-19 Quarantine

We've been inside since March 13, with me working from home and Nick's school forced to online instruction for the remainder of the year. Nick could not leave the house for months and not care, as long as his laptop works and the cupboards are full of food, we forced him into the yard to plant some grass seed at the point we realized he hadn't walked outside the doors for over a month.

Schoolwork is the biggest struggle, Brandi helps as much as she can, and he stays on it for the most part, but the school hasn't made it easy.  Six different teachers on six different platforms, moved him from an 'A' student to nearly failing some classes in only a couple of weeks (assignments we submit but the teachers can't find.) Brandi has been on top of the school to get answers, and in the end, it won't matter, but it's been considerably frustrating.

I spend my days in the office downstairs, while Nick has a space above the garage adjacent to his room to focus on his schoolwork. There's an old table up there, and a TV and beanbags, and of course, a good internet connection. I get to experience his workspace habits when we switch, such as when he has remote piano lessons and needs the piano in the corner of my office.  He doesn't keep his desktop as organized as I do, I need to clear space between the cans and planes and books and empty cracker boxes to function.

Inside we fill the time by tossing socks up the staircase and swinging at them like baseballs with a stick, or polishing cars or working at the train table.  And lots of cooking.  Brandi is trying new recipes all the time, and Nick is heavy into her Chinese run... fried rice and beef-and-broccoli being consumed in mass quantities (when we can find rice in the stores. We do have plenty of TP.)  I needed a TV show that I could stream that would last me the entire quarantine, and most new shows are 6-10 episodes per season, so I had to reach back... been watching the original Dallas on Amazon Prime, for free, which should keep my occupied (350+ episodes.)

Nick's best quotes of the month, those random things he says for no reason that fit into no conversation.
"Can you imagine a life without pose-able thumbs?"
"Beavers invented refrigeration."
"I'm going to take a lap." (He says this when he's headed for the bathtub, because he runs enough water to go for a swim.)
"I lost track of time due to daylight savings time." (When we was scolded for being up until near midnight on his laptop... over a month after daylight savings time switched.)

Jason