Our pup is not a fan of baths.
Wet Dog
gary
Haircut
The Boy has gone through several hairstyles over the years. When he was little (i.e., when we made the decisions), it was quite short. Given his violent cowlicks, it seemed the safest bet.
As he grew older, his hairstyle preference grew longer. A couple of years ago, he kept his hair almost down to his chin all the way around.
Today, we went to a new barber shop for a haircut. Despite E’s protests, I showed the barber a picture of the long-hair phase: “It was Lord Farquaad style!” the barber said. E just laughed.
Today’s cut was about the best he’s ever gotten. K loved it. “Approved” was L’s verdict.
Paris Mountain Warmup
Repairs
Sometimes I wonder if anyone ever goes more than a few days without something somewhere breaking. Usually it’s small things that we can almost ignore, I think, but the medium and large issues seem to cluster up and hit all at once.
K’s car required some work (issue 1), so yesterday I drove it to our Polish friend who’s also a mechanic. He lives in the north of the county, right off the rails-to-trail project that runs through the county, so I usually drive the car up there and ride my bike back.
But issues never come alone: they always bring company. On the way back, I got a flat (issue 2). In the same tire that I’d just repaired. Or didn’t repair — what’s the difference?
But issues never come alone: they always bring company. The ramp to Papa’s room (it will always be “Papa’s room”) needs to be repainted (issue 3), which means it needs to be cleaned, which E remedied this morning. Upon returning home from Lowe’s with the appropriate paint, I noticed a bit of wood sticking up from one of the knot holes. I bent down and dug it out with my finger only to discover that the entire knot hole had somehow rotted out.
Which meant I had to get a new 1×6 to replace it. Which meant a trip to Lowe’s. Which is where we had just been.
Fixing the board was one of those projects for which the prep and cleanup took longer than the actual project.
But issues never come alone: they always bring company. While I working on this, L returned and informed me that her car stalled three times while driving home.
“And there’s a weird emoji on the dash,” she said.
“Probably the ‘check engine’ light,” I thought.
I checked; indeed, I was right. I cranked the car. It started stalling immediately. It was as if it weren’t getting enough fuel. Fuel pump? Clogged fuel filter? Not sure — and of course I couldn’t find the error reader that would have given me a little more information on the nebulous “check engine” light.
Breakup
Who could have seen it coming? Surely two rich megalomaniacal narcissists should be able to get along if they have the same goal: make themselves richer at the expense of the rest of us.
Who am I kidding: we all saw it coming. What we didn’t anticipate was how fast everything would escalate. Trump remained uncharacteristically calm and approached the border of magnanimity at first, but then the cliche gloves came off:
- Trump threatened to kill Elon’s government contracts and subsidies.
- Elon brought up the Epstein files and claimed (probably accurately) that Trump is in them.
- MAGA diehard Bannon called for Elon to be deported and for the government to seize Space X
- Elon retweeted a call for Trump to be impeached.
All this within a few hours.
There’s a part of me that’s absolutely gleeful about this. But most of me finds this just as horrifying as everything else Trump does. Think of what Putin and Xi are saying about this. Sure, Putin lost a lot of bombers this week, but he’s looking at the long game, and a civil war within the MAGA party that could further destablize America — what a gift for him.
Summer Job
The Boy is well into the “don’t take pictures of me” phase. L is coming out of it — she positively loves having her picture taken if you’re using her phone so she can post them to Instagram, I talked him into this one with the excuse of wanting to send it to K.
The work itself is obvious: our deck needs a refresher of water sealer. We usually do it every two years, but we decided to give it a quick wash and a single coat this year.
No other pictures for the day because I spent a good chunk of it at the computer, working on this site and the other two hosted on this account. Two of them are for school: they’re coming down since I won’t be teaching English any longer. However, I don’t want just to delete them: I might go back to English at some point. So that makes the process a bit more labor intensive.
Memorial
Dam Progress
In an effort to prevent a major ecological catastrophe if the Conestee Dam breaks, the state has finally begun construction of a new dam on the site.
Thursday Ride
In an effort to regain some level of fitness, the Boy and I have been mountain biking several times a week. E, of course, is already somewhat fit: youth and soccer see to that. I, however, have been reverting to a state that could only be described as fat slob. In fact, a couple of months ago, I got on the scale and saw that, for the first time in my life, I was close to 200 pounds. One sees all the internet ads suggesting that cardio workouts do little to help with weight loss, but I do know that eight or so years ago when I set a goal to cycle to work 100 of the 180 days, I lost significant weight relatively quickly. So we’re cycling more.
Today, I went on my own, though: the Boy was not in the mood, and since I want this to be something he enjoys, I didn’t force the issue. One benefit of going solo is that I get to listen to music as I ride; another benefit, I get to go faster. E can keep up with me for a handful of miles but eventually, he tires. That’s not to say I don’t tire. I just enjoy that pain and push through it (or at least I say I enjoy the pain).
When I was riding on the gravel portion of the ride, I encountered this young one:
We used to see a lot of deer during our evening rides, sometimes a dozen or more. Lately, though, they’ve been scarce. I have no idea why they’re suddenly rare. The fact that they can live in the midst of a city is itself surprising. There are developments all around the Conestee mountain biking area; we see deer in our own neighborhood. It seems all they need a handful of trees and a water source.
Track Awards
Conestee
Twenty Years Ago or More
Graduation Party
Final Eighth-Grade Day
Classroom Final Glance
A few last pictures before I take everything down.
Graduation
Eighteen years ago to the day, I wrote about how time was likely to fly by, and suddenly K and I would realize that our daughter was no longer a little girl but instead, a young woman:
And then, a little voice: “That is how you’ll wake up one morning and realize she’s going off to college and for a brief moment, feel complete unprepared for it, and feel she’s completely unprepared for it.” (Source)
That was May 20, 2007. L would in a few years be chirping that she’ll be “the class of 2025,” and that year seemed impossibly (mercifully) far away. Until it wasn’t.
Our sweet little girl graduated high school today. It’s difficult to imagine that I’m not just writing some fictional piece when I type those words. But eighteen plus years have passed; elementary, middle, and high school flew by, and suddenly, we have a college freshman.
But she does still have that little girl in her.
Something else that hasn’t changed in all that time: people are still mispronouncing her name. Even when, during rehearsal, she corrects them. Three times. Today it was a long E in her first name and then “Marie” instead of “Maria” for her middle name. He got the last name — 33% accuracy. I know: it’s not that big a deal. But still, at one’s graduation, it would be nice to hear one’s name pronounced correctly.
Medal Ceremony
State Champion
The Jump
The Result
Awards Night
