Summer 2020: Days 26-28

Another work week in the books, and this one went just as fast as the others.

Not that I don't mind another weekend, but I'm simply astonished how quickly the COVID weeks continue to fly by. I'm not sure if it means I'm not being as efficient during the workday and stretching work to after dinner (which I did almost every day this week), if I'm not getting an early enough start, if I'm not varying my day with enough productive, engaging breaks, or if I'm just in a rut.

Michael has a basketball tournament next week, then we have July 4 on the horizon -- maybe that will provide the variety that will slow things down.

I didn't sleep well last night, which prevented a run this morning -- and I missed it, which is a good sign that the routine is feeling good. I grilled bratwurst tonight and got the dog on a long walk. I've been following too much news the last few days as coronavirus cases are ticking upward. We officially canceled the trip to Texas, and I'm even leery of watching Michael play basketball the next few weeks.

Yet, summer continues, and today was absolutely gorgeous -- blue skies, and not too hot. Ben is swimming just about every day, and the lawn looks the best it's been in years. I'll stop whining now and simply enjoy the next 70-something days that are ahead of me.

Oh, on Wednesday, the boys and I went to a used videogame store, where I bought four old Atari games: Astroblast, Pac-Man, Empire Strikes Back and Q-Bert. The last two I already had, but the Parker Brothers cartridges had no labels on it and the store gave me them each for 99 cents. The luck of the draw was fun, even if it didn't yield anything.

But the best part of the excursion was just getting out and driving around. Again, I just need to add variety into each day. Maybe a little drive here and there to someplace new will be enough.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summer, Day 8

Today was Memorial Day, and as far as Memorial Days go, this one seemed somewhat anticlimactic. The sun came out after three less-than-stellar days, perhaps preventing the weekend from being a total bust. I worked late last night but was awake earlier than I wanted to be this morning. I fell back asleep and woke up around 10:30 to a thumping sound outside. Michael, Lori and my father-in-law got the rest of the sand in the base of the new basketball hoop, and Michael and his friend from across the street were shooting around. This was Lori's parents' last day in Utah, so we treated them to The Cheesecake Factory at the new City Creek mall downtown. I had the macaroni and cheese burger and most of a piece of Oreo cheesecake (no matter how much I pushed on my sons -- they wanted to share Lori's banana cream cheesecake). The boys and I wandered City Creek a little and came home. The afternoon wasn't much more eventful. Michael and I took Popcorn to the park for about
Read more

Vacation finale

Image
As expected, the last three days of vacation were much less eventful than the first 12. This happens every year -- we get back from Wisconsin for at least one day before leaving for Utah, and it's just wind-down time. And that's OK -- going nonstop for two weeks isn't easy, especially with kids. And vacation is supposed to be a time to relax, and for the past three days, that's what we did. The past few days weren't that relaxing, however. Monday, we met my mom, who is in Chicago this week, for lunch and then to Old Orchard Mall. That night, we met some friends at the new Superdawg (my favorite Chicago hot dog restaurant) in Wheeling. Tuesday, after pondering going downtown, we ended up just seeing the Smurfs movie with my dad. Last night, we went to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant here in Edgebrook. Wednesday was mostly devoted to getting ready for our return trip Thursday morning. The heat and thunderstorms finally subsided -- this might have been the m
Read more

Nine days after the solstice

Image
The summer solstice was nine days ago, but I'm only now getting around to writing my annual reflection that is supposed to be created on the first day of summer. Nine days ago, I was frenetically trying to finish up work and get ready for a road trip to Denver, where Benji was competing in a swim meet. We got back Monday afternoon, but I was too exhausted to come up to my usual spot in Donner Park. The last three nights were overcast (though the skies cleared a little too late to embark on my quest last night), spoiling the goal of watching the sunset. So, nine days later, I'm finally here. And now that I am, I'm not totally sure what to write about. To say the last year has been a blur would be cliche, and I don't think it's gone faster than any other past year. But I've been struggling to wrap my head around the current summer and, thus, what's really on my mind. I could write about how we're a year away of having two kids in college and being sort of
Read more