I blinked and my week was over. It seems like I was up North yesterday pulling the dock out, cleaning the garage, and tidying things up for the long winter or maybe the day before, but that isn’t possible, it was a week ago and a week has passed in blink of an eye.
I must have the best job in the world; no, I have the best job in the world. Continue reading Blink
I am up north for the weekend. It’ll be the last weekend for a while and I enjoyed the sunset last night and the morning view with my coffee for one last time this summer.
I drove up by myself Friday after school. B and the kids stayed home; W had a football game Friday night and again Saturday morning along with loads of homework, I do hope he is making a dent in it, and O had softball Friday and Saturday, too. It’s strange being here alone. I had a long list of things to do and I added to it as I walked around yesterday. The boats are out and stored for the winter, the dock and boat lifts, too. The patio furniture is in the garage and I have shuffled the organization from summer to winter mode with snow shovels and the snow blower ready for action when we come back this winter. I have a few more chores before I close up and leave this afternoon and I am debating about leaving the vents open and scheduling one more trip before winter sets in to close them. Continue reading Blame the dog
It’s Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer, and I am home instead of up North. I should be there, we should be there; there is work to be done, boats to be pulled out of the water, and a dock to be pulled out, too and so many more chores – summer is over and winter is coming. We planned to be there but it didn’t happen. We didn’t leave. Usually, for labor Day weekend we leave Friday evening and come back Monday afternoon. But, with W’s football schedule we’d planned to leave Saturday after his practice session. That meant we could take in the varsity game Friday night; it was a big game against the defending state champion who had beaten us the past two years in a row.
Last week was the first full week of school; it was exhausting – mentally, physically, and emotionally. I was drained and with one look in W’s eyes, I could see it had been a long week for him, too. Going back to school (or work) after a vacation is difficult but the weather changed to make it even worse. The week began with a heat wave and ended with a spectacular storm Friday night. If it hadn’t been for the storm, I’d be sitting at the table and looking out at the lake, instead I am home sitting at the dining room looking out at the neighborhood. Continue reading Endless summer
School started Monday and the kids, my students, arrived Thursday. It was a good week, no, correction, it was an excellent week and it was over before I really knew it.
All things have a beginning and an end – there is a season for all things. I was unwinding Thursday after school trying to piece together all of the papers, memos, reminders and notes I had made during the day and I was tuned into my iPhone listening to a playlist headlined by “Long Cool Woman” by the Hollies. I don’t really listen to music anymore, like I did as a kid, rather I hear the music, the beat, and using it to block out other noise. Continue reading A season for everything
School let out two weeks ago and I have never been tireder. Is that even a word? Actually, it is not – I checked. The correct word, or words, should be more tired. It is the comparative form of the adjective, tired. In case you are wondering the superlative form is most tired and not tiredest like you’d think. Its comparative and superlative forms are irregular so the normal rules do not apply: example small – smaller – smallest and big – bigger – biggest. I would have thought tired – tireder – tiredest, but that does not work. Oh well, I have never been MORE TIRED, seriously.
The basement isn’t going as smoothly as I thought it would. The paneling is glued to the studs with super adhesive stuff and some of the paneling has come off easily, and others have not. The job is taking much longer than I anticipated. I did find a couple of the cracks in the foundation, they were the cracks we discovered in April and they were hidden behind the paneling near the window wells. Fortunately they are small cracks and easily sealable or seemingly so. I still have a lot of work to do. Continue reading Day 15: two weeks in, nine more to go
A couple of weeks ago, my phone buzzed I looked down to see I had a comment posted to my about page and it was from the Undeaddad. He had nominated me for the Liebster award an award given to Bloggers by Bloggers and I am honored. I’ve been at this blogging thing for almost three years and I’ve been mentioned on other blogs a couple of times and given a previous award, but never followed up on it. That’s on my list of to dos or wishes, and I can change them to I wills. More on that later.
I stumbled across the Undeaddad after he had been Freshly Pressed for writing about shoveling snow. It was a great post that encapsulated my feelings about work and pride. He has written several more posts that resonated with me, most recently about ‘date nights’ and children who are picky eaters. If you have time, please give him a whirl.
The sign says it all, ‘The quiet room.’ My kids tried to avoid it at all costs; I guess I would have, too, at their age. But, I’d sure like to go there for the next couple of days. Continue reading The quiet room
I am conflicted. It’s Monday morning and everyone is up. I got up early this morning, well early for a day off and instead of working, I read. It was good to read, but the opportunity cost is that I’m writing and it’s time to work to get things done, move, shake, rattle, and roll. But, I want to write. I also, need to grade and plan for the coming week. Before I know it, the day will be gone.
Instead of working, I read. I have been reading Continue reading Conflicted Monday
Fall is here, like it or not. I’ve known it was coming. I could tell, every morning the light seemed to come later and later, and last Wednesday I returned to O’s softball practice in a panic that she was waiting for me because practice had been called for darkness. They were still practicing, but I can no longer rely on time of day as a way gauge light or dark. Today is the Autumnal Equinox when we’ll get an equal amount of daylight and darkness and then it will go downhill from there. Continue reading Fall is here
This weekend is B’s birthday. The actual day was Friday and we were all at school. Saturday was softball and football games and household chores. Sunday is church, normally, and homework and relaxing, when we can. So, we decided to celebrate the weekend, the entire weekend.
Last weekend, after dropping W off at football, I stopped by the French market and scored some beautiful roses for my wonderful wife. Continue reading Lazy Sunday Morning