the boy | matching tracksuits

Spicy

Tuesday 01 September 2020 | 0 Comments

The Boy has a love/hate relationship with spicy things -- well, things he calls spicy. Coke is a little spicy, he says, and I guess there is something of a tingle in the flavor, a small little bite from the carbonation. Of course, we drink it so very rarely that that alone might account for it: he's not used to carbonated drinks.

Yet he loves chips and salsa, and he prefers the medium salsa to the mild. And Aldi's spicy salami? He'll devour that.

Today, while out shopping with K, he was insistent on getting some Listerine to try, because he knew it was "spicy."

His verdict tonight? Not too bad. His expression, though, belies his calm proclamation.

Downtown

Sunday 30 August 2020 | 0 Comments

We decided today we needed to get out, to take the kids and the dog and go into the world. Our first stop: a new mural downtown.

It took a month to pain this eight-story mural, and it's been in the news a few times.

Afterward, we went for a walk in the ever-growing park downtown, followed by a light dinner.

It was almost like normal times except for the masks, which we left off most of the time as there were hardly any people about.

First Communion

Saturday 22 August 2020 | 0 Comments

Prep

Friday 21 August 2020 | 0 Comments

Today was a day of preparation. Rosol for tomorrow; lots of cleaning; a bit of discussion.

Tomorrow is the Boy's first communion. We're having the god-parents and their families over for dinner tomorrow after Mass.

Trim

Monday 17 August 2020 | 0 Comments

The beard was getting out of hand.

I'd sworn that I wouldn't trim the thing until we went back to school, back to school for good, not in some awkward, inefficient once-a-week/elearning hybrid. Real school.

When I put on a mask, it looked absolutely horrible.

And it left this awful wrinkle in the beard, a little curl that forced the lower part of the beard to shoot straight out, away from my face like a cowlick from hell.

So there was only one thing to do: let L do what she's been begging to do for some time now. "When you trim it, let's put the mask on and the cut around it.

The results, after the initial trim, weren't that promising. I went in and cleaned it up but never got a real "after" picture.

But she enjoyed doing it, and the Boy enjoyed photographing the adventure.

Family Sports

Thursday 13 August 2020 | 0 Comments

"Can we play some family sports tonight?" the Boy asked during dinner. He's always interested in doing something as a family: a family bike ride, a family film, a game of family soccer. But our busy lives (busy even in this time of pandemic) being what they are, it's rare that we get to play together. Tonight, for example, K had to write an offer on a house for one of her clients, and that takes a fair amount of time. So I went out with the kids and the dog and played some soccer and volleyball with them.

Tonight, the Boy learned a lesson during the game. He'd been bragging to L, insisting that he was a much better soccer player than she. Had the Boy developed fully the critical thinking skills a thirteen-year-old has, he would have looked at relative size, relative experience, and relative speed and thought, "It's unlikely I'm much better than she."

Then again, I've had plenty of thirteen-year-olds challenge me to chess, swear their going to beat me badly, and then ask as soon as the board is set up, "So, how do you play?" that a thirteen-year-old's critical thinking skills can be less than ideal.

So they played. E lost. E fussed. I encouraged. And in the end, instead of giving up, he kept trying, kept attacking, and made some really good plays in the end.

Raven Cliff Falls

Sunday 09 August 2020 | 0 Comments

Today was the last Sunday before the school year starts, so we made the most of it with a hike that was supposed to be 5 miles total but ended up being 8. A lot packed into that sentence.

Starting school. What does that even mean this year? For weeks we've been wondering about what the year will look like. When our average daily new C-19 statewide case number was 100-200, we ended the school year in March and spent the rest of the year online babysitting for the most part. Now our daily numbers are 1,000+, and they have been for weeks. And we're talking about going back to school? It seems like madness. But we've got a Republican governor and a staunch Trump supporter to boot, so science be damned -- let's send those kids back to school. (Our governor pointed out that there's little risk in school-age children dying from this. When asked about the risks to teachers and their families, our fine governor said, "Well, they signed up for the job" -- as if he were talking about police officers or infantry soldiers.)

As for the 8-mile-should-have-been-5-mile hike -- what can we say? We used AllTrails.com to calculate the distance and didn't realize it was only calculating the portion of the hike that was on the red trail, neglecting the portion of the blue and pink trails we had to go on to reach Raven Cliff Falls. One would think that "Raven Cliff Falls Trail" leads to -- guess -- RCF. But it only gets you so far -- the rest is whatever the blue and pink portions were called.

But all the kids made it -- with minimal complaining. Well, "minimal" is often so very relative...

Lake Jocassee 2020

Friday 07 August 2020 | 0 Comments

To say we're creatures of habit is an understatement. Every time we go to Polska, we end up going to Zab roughly the same time. And here we have two years ago another trip to Lake Jocassee.

Lake Jocassee, Day 1

And then within another day, last year's trip:

Lake Jocassee 2019

Each trip a little different. 2018 was our last family camping adventure at Jocassee. Last year we went without K as she was preparing for the real estate exam; this year, she's so busy with said real estate that she sent me with E and his friend N. Other considerations, of course, but that was the main issue.

We arrived Wednesday evening and quickly set up camp before heading out to the lake. E wanted to show N the little "private" beach (which is not very private but is in fact limited to park campers only). It was here that we'd caught so many little minnows, and E was eager to show him how to catch them. Yet things had changed: the log from which we'd fished and around which all the minnows swam had lost all its branches and was thus no longer so inviting got the minnows.

Day two -- our only full day -- began with some fishing. We went to another location and immediately caught a few little fellows. The boys even managed to remove the hook and release the fish with little to no help from me. After a snack, the wanted to go back for some swimming. After lunch, they wanted to go back for more swimming. After dinner, they wanted to go back for more fishing. We basically spent the day on that little outcropping of rocks.

And today, pretty much the same.

More Hearts

Monday 03 August 2020 | 0 Comments

Papa won, hence the "heart attack."

Saturday

Saturday 01 August 2020 | 0 Comments

The day began with a challenge: the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Our goal was to ride the whole distance (well, the main part of the trail) and back again -- a total of 22 miles. For K and me, it was probably not that big a deal -- we've ridden further, and faster. For the Girl, it was no big deal: she's been cycling a lot lately, plus she's just young and strong. But for the Boy? His longest ride to date was 16 miles, just over a year ago.

Other than being younger and not as strong, he has another disadvantage: a smaller bike that cannot possibly go nearly as fast. Yet he soldiered through.