Day 134

Another list! 

I made my first batch of zucchini bread for the summer.  Between our home garden and the community garden we share with V and a friend, we are living in Squash Town.  We have yellow squash, pumpkins, a few little cucumbers and a bunch of flowers getting ready to produce something.  The zuc bread was delicious and surprisingly a few slices made it through the day.

Will slept-walked  (sleep-walked?) last night but none of us noticed it (including him) until he woke up this morning to find a tote of old legos and toys on his chair next to his bed and his Harry Potter wand on top of his desk. Glenn thinks it's his inner child trying to play with more toys. 

This afternoon, I was getting off of a work call when I heard Coco start to gag nearby so I zipped over there to try to put a kitchen towel under her and instead I caught her barf in my hands.  That was fun. 

Reina was feeling a little under the weather but is better tonight, fever free and all of that good stuff.  She at an entire container of cherry tomatoes yesterday so that might have had something to do with it.

Wyoming has 2,520 cases and 25 deaths as of today.  Most of the big retailers in town are requiring masks and you definitely notice more people wearing them all over town.  I don't know what to do about school clothes shopping. I think I'll try to order some stuff for pick-up here in town but we'll probably have to do some online shopping too.  Reina wants a Hamilton tshirt - so do I!

Day 130something

Things that happened this week: 

1.  We ate an entire loaf of banana bread in one day.  Granted it wasn't the biggest of loaves but that's a sign of teens and tweens in the house, isn't it?  Okay okay, I had my share too.  It was delicious.  I haven't been baking as much lately because we don't need something else that makes the house warm but it was a crisp morning and the brown bananas were perfectly ripe.  Yum! 

2.  I broke down and bought Reina a kiddie pool that's actually designed for dogs but pools-for-kids are hard to find right now.  She loves it.  The dogs are scared of it - apparently it's too much like a bathtub.  When it's set up, Tootsie refuses to leave the deck.  

3.  Our camper was hauled away.  Last month's hailstorm that dinged up the garden ended up totalling our cute camper.  We decided to get our money back and save up for a more durable version, instead of fixing up this one.  I was sad to see it go. 

4.  Reina and her friend held a funeral for her rat Simon who passed away in February.  He was a good rat. 

5.  Glenn installed a new disposal and we got about 75% of the way done on a new storm door but we didn't read the directions closely enough and now we have to order another part.  We are so close to being handy. 

Another week in the books.  Still no word on official school plans and our county's case numbers are fluctuating.  We'll keep taking it one day at a time. 

Day 128

Has it really been almost a week since I wrote about rotting potatoes?  The next day, I was convinced that I'd lost an entire rotisserie chicken somewhere in the house (it's really not that messy, I promise!).  I'd searched the car a couple of times, check random cupboards and weird places for it to be hiding, but no freshly cooked chicken was found.  On Friday, while driving to Casper for baseball, I had an epiphany that I'd actually left the chicken at the self-checkout at the grocery store. I hope somebody had a delicious lunch.  

Will played a tournament in Casper this weekend.  Reina and I and Grandma H drove up for Friday's games.  Glenn, Will and Pop-pop stayed in Casper for the duration.  Back at home, Reina had a birthday party and a sleepover so I had one of the rarest of the rare events - a night at home ALL BY MYSELF.  As usual, I had big plans but mainly cleaned some random areas in the house, watched murder mysteries, missed everyone and went to bed early.  

Is Frontier Days week without Frontier Days and it feels strange.  I"m glad we aren't dealing with massive crowds and stupid traffic for Cheyenne but it also highlights just how weird everything remains.  I'm still working from home mostly, Glenn is back at the office and we don't have any concrete plans for school.  Baseball winds up in a few weeks and then we await word on football or fall baseball.  

Tonight, Will had a doubleheader starting at 4:00.  Despite storm warnings, it only rained a few drops and was a little windy at times.  Until about 5 minutes before the end of the last game.  You could see the clouds rolling in from the north and they just looked ominous - that weird purplish gray that means something bad is probably going to happen.  We made it to the car just as the big drops started.  We had a little hail but nothing damaging on our side of town.  Other areas were reporting ping-pong sized hail and broken windows.  Oh Cheyenne.  

Day 122 and how I know I don't have COVID-19 today

Glenn is back at work so the dining room (home office central) is quieter but I still like to escape to the basement because it's cooler down there and since it's not right by the kitchen, no one asks me to make them ramen.  For the last week or so, the basement has been a little stinky but I brushed it off to normal basement funk, we've had some rain, the dogs sleep down there, etc.  Finally today I couldn't ignore it any longer.  I threw all of the dog bedding in the wash, which is no easy feat because there's enough dog hair on those old towels and blankets to make another dog. I even threw some of the older rugs away.  I smelled everything and it mostly smelled of dog.  But I thought well maybe that'll take care of everything.  I resumed my spot on the couch and the smell was just as bad.  It hit me what I was smelling.  Something was rotting.  In our basement.  I knew it wasn't animal because if the cats had caught a mouse, they wouldn't have been able to keep it to themselves and I have no doubt it would have been paraded through the kitchen like a trophy.  It hit me.  A giant bag of potatoes, one that we bought in our more desperate "we'd better stock up on stuff" was literally turning into liquid on the basement carpet.  I threw the pre-vodka potatoes (is that how they make vodka?) into the trash (I couldn't even carry them to the compost because it was really gross and there were already bugs) the garage and sprayed the carpet with every cleaner we had in the house.  There's still a slight rotten-y perfume but I'm taking the steam cleaner down there next.  So, yes.  We've been in the house for 122 days straight and still didn't notice a bag of potatoes turning to dust.  Well not dust, I'm looking for a metaphor that won't make anyone gag more than they are already. 

So I know I don't have COVID-19 today because my sense of smell is still very intact.  Ewwww. 

Day 119

Another summer weekend in the books.  We had fun watching Will play baseball even though his team had a tough row to hoe.  The weather was HOT.  After the games on Friday, we came home and were all really grumpy with each other.  Okay, fine. I was mostly grumpy with everyone but we survived.  We don't need air conditioning in Wyoming very often but boy this was a weekend when it would've come in handy.  Instead, we took turns trying the Glenn strategy of taking a shower right before bed and turning the water as cold as you can stand it before getting out.  It's not great for water conservation but it works well.  The weather was slightly cooler on Saturday and then today we sought out more projects in the shade, or in my case, the basement.  Glenn decided to create a hail tent over the garden and he made amazing progress.  I'll take pictures of the finished product but I think it's safe to say that the baby beets and whatever squash things that are going will be well-protected before the next storm. 

Reina told me today that she's pretty nervous about going back to school.  We don't have a final plan from the school district yet so I reminded her that a lot can happen before the first day of school.  We talked about how she likes being with her friends and learning from her teacher, but she's also scared of the germs and kids being all in the room together.  So just like everything else, we will take it one day at a time.  I went through my fabric stash and she picked out some Harry Potter fabric for some special Reina masks.  It was fun to pull out the sewing machine again.  Glenn has some tote bags he wants to me make and Will's baseball pants need a mend.  Too much sliding in the dirt.  

One day at a time.  One week at a time.  Bring on a new week!  

Day 116 and some pictures

Will was watching me type the last post and when he saw the number of days I put on there, he was surprised. "Has it really been that long mom?"  Yep.  Some days I feel every single hour of those 116 days and then other times, it feels like it's just been a moment since we started staying at home.  But here are at Day 116.  Glenn may be going back to the office next week, his agency has provided a plan for bringing some people back . My office is still telecommuting for the near future.  Our case numbers are still higher than they were a month ago so I don't know what the plan is.  Quarantine and significant budget cuts are making it an interesting time to be a state employee.  

Let's talk about fun stuff!  Glenn and I are taking tomorrow off because Will has an actual baseball tournament!  The first game is at 9:00 a.m. and it's supposed to be hot tomorrow.  We've been using the shade canopy we bought specifically for baseball but I know we'll need it tomorrow.  We had to order some extra tie-down straps and tent stakes that look like they could drill for oil because of the Wyoming wind but it works.  

Reina's art class this week had a Wyoming theme so she's been painting the state flag, a buffalo, Indian Paintbrush and a bunch of fun things.  Tomorrow is Statehood Day so we are all in on Wyoming this week.  Most of the teams coming up for the baseball tournament are from Colorado so I'll have to make sure I'm wearing the attire that clearly states my allegiance.   

What else is going on?  Between Will's baseball practices and Reina's dance classes, our evenings feel a little more like 'normal times' than they did a few months ago.  We still have time for dog walks in the evening and random home projects so things are quite back to normal.  I'm still doing most of our shopping online and doing store pick-up which is probably helping our budget because I'm not distracted by shiny stuff in the sale bin.  

I'm finally getting my camera out a little bit and here are some pictures from our week.  

Will's on first and those pants will never be white again.  I've tried.  One parent takes her kid's pants to the car wash and apparently that does the trick.  I'm not there yet.  

Jogging back to the dugout after crossing home. 

Our reluctant baseball game attendee.  Last weekend was the first time he actually played with a toy during the game.  Picture by Reina.  

Our hail dented camper that we bought last October.  Sigh.  

Momma and twins! 

Day 112 I think and Fourth of July weekend

It's Day 112 possibly.  I'm honestly losing track.  Its Sunday night and I'm sitting on the couch with Charlie on one side and Will on the other.  We are watching some basketball tournament on tv with no fans and no one we've heard of but hey it's live sports. 

We had a busy but fun summer weekend.  We had Friday off and spent most of the day at the baseball field.  It was a rough day for Will's team and then went 0-2.  We came home that evening and ordered pizza and watched Hamilton with Grandma H.  Will didn't really watch it but he wandered in and out and made comments like "I don't think they rapped in the 1700s."  The rest of us loved it and Reina said the next morning that we had created a monster as Glenn ate breakfast and played the soundtrack on his phone.  Saturday morning, we were back at the ballfield and Will and team had a much better day and went 2-0.  Will had a lot of hits and came home with a baseball sized bruise on his arm after wearing a pitch to get on base.  After baseball, we went home for a little while and then went back for a socially-distanced bbq with some other baseball families.  We also spent some time at the Fry's house for socially-distanced pre-fireworks and then we came home.  Reina and I watched fireworks for a few minutes but in typical Wyoming fashion it was a little chilly and we ended up wishing America a happy birthday from inside the house. 

Today, was a lot of laundry, some gardening and dog walking.  Glenn and Reina went to Windsor to swim at the grandparents house.  I watched church online this morning and Glenn and I braved the grocery store afterwards.  Man these details continue to be boring but that's what this summer is.  A bunch of tasks that make up the day, with some fun family time and the excitement of washing hands when you come back from the grocery store.   After last week's hailstorm, some of the garden is bouncing back and I saw the first baby antelope of the season and I was glad to see that they survived too. 

This week brings more baseball, another art class for Reina and some 90 degree weather. I'm looking forward to 2 out of the 3 of those things.