I can’t believe it has been over a month since my last post. Although on the other hand, I can absolutely believe it. April was wild, wasn’t it?
So what’s been going on with us, you ask?
Our state went on lockdown and as a result Denis, the kids and I were all at home full-time. The kids began staying up all hours of the night because their “classes” didn’t start until 9 a.m., 11 a.m. or 1 p.m. on whatever day it might be. Denis and I enjoyed the ability to roll out of bed at 7:15 a.m. and log into our computers at 7:30 a.m. to begin the work day, as opposed to waking at 6:00 a.m. to get ready and commute to work. Since I worked closest to my office, I received special permission to continue going in to work a couple times a week to check on the facility, bring in the mail, and complete projects that could ONLY be done on-site versus at home.
The weather over the past several weeks has been wacky, which resulted in a pair of trees in our backyard coming down after a storm. Fortunately, it fell AWAY from the house and actually came down quite gently on the shed in our backyard. In fact, it was so gently that it didn’t even damage the shed’s roof. A second portion of the tree was leaning towards our neighbor’s house, so we tied that one off to another tree on the other side of the yard to ensure it did not fall into their house and promptly called a couple tree services to come out and take a look. We got two quotes and the following morning a team came out and made very quick work of removing both trees. It was expensive, but fortunately we had the stimulus check funds available and so we did not have to dip into our emergency fund.
The neighbors’ kids all had fun watching them work, whether it was the next door neighbors watching the tree come down, or the ones across the street watching them throw trees into the woodchipper. After being housebound for several weeks, I’m sure those parents were happy to have an excuse to come outside even just for a few minutes.
Denis and I then continued tree trimming and cut down a few branches on another tree that hangs over our patio and was about to provide easy access for squirrels to access our 2nd story roofline/attic. The result with that little bit of work is that our patio feels less oppressed by the trees again, which is nice.
In other news, Dobby the Dog, since February, experienced 4 UTIs despite being on meds and getting tested by the vet. It came to a head last month when the vet absolutely could NOT figure out what was wrong with him and admitted him to keep an eye on him with the potential of surgery being the last resort. Fortunately, Dobby responded to the super-aggressive meds and was able to come home without surgery. SO HAPPY about that.
CootieGirl and I have spent a lot of time catching up on movies and tv shows thanks to the more relaxed school schedule. My workday ends at 4:30 and every day by 4:35 p.m. she is downstairs asking if she can turn on the TV so we can pick up with whatever we had been watching the night before. We rewatched all six seasons of “Community” in under two weeks. I’ve also DVRd a LOT of movies because all the premium channels keep offering free weekends for people during the COVID lockdown.
Travel-wise, both Denis and I had to cancel upcoming plans. My spring break trip with CootieBoy in early April was canceled but we were able to reschedule the cruise for April 2021. Denis’s trip to New York City next month has been canceled and he’s not sure when he’ll reschedule it. My trip to California in July has been postponed to October. We are all disappointed given how much anticipation we all had for our trips, so April was a sad month as we worked to shift our expectations.
The main sad bit of family news is that my uncle Jack, who had been battling recurrent cancer for the past ~15 years, passed away (it was non-COVID related). I have many fond memories of my uncle, and he will be missed. My kids, who got to know him very well during the brief time he lived in our area after he retired, were very sad to hear of his passing. Because of the current COVID restrictions, the hope is that the family can gather in a few months for a memorial service of some kind.
And that’s kind of where things stand at the moment. How are things by you?
