Category Archives: Family matters

In which we discuss matters of the family.

It was an OK day

Today was pretty alright. We had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, and we had a Zoom meeting with my brother and his family, my dad and my uncle. We chatted for more than an hour. It was very nice seeing their faces. Right now I’m watching “The Tweedy Show,” featuring my favorite musician Jeff Tweedy and his family. They’ve been broadcasting from their living room almost every night, just talking and playing the occasional song.

Consistently inconsistent

For a minute there I thought I would be posting something here every day. Oh well.

Today was OK, all things considered.

Poppy had to watch a little bit of the Franco Zeffirelli “Romeo and Juliet” from 1968. She says Romeo looks like “an off-brand Zach Efron.” She asked for my help paraphrasing Romeo’s description of Juliet (“she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night.”) for her assignment, and I regret to inform you that she did not go with “Like OMG, she is so hot I literally cannot even.”

Pete wasn’t assigned to talk to his teacher during his virtual office hours, but he decided to check in anyway. They chatted for awhile, and Pete showed off his LEGO creations.

After Poppy finished her assignments, we went for a drive to do a few errands. I had to go into the post office, where I encountered the largest congregated group of people I’ve seen in more than a week. There were about five people in there, and it made me pretty uncomfortable. I was glad Poppy stayed in the car. The other errand was a stop by our local bookstore to pick up my pre-ordered copies of NK Jemisin’s new book, “The City We Became,” and Emily St. John Mandel’s new book, “The Glass Hotel.” That did involve speaking to a human, but she just opened the door and handed the books to me. Very limited interaction.

We had Breakfast For Dinner tonight. It sounds like it should be a quick and easy meal, but it always turns into a production here because of our varied dietary issues. Tonight Rockford made pancakes for the kids, bacon for everyone and Malt-O-Meal for himself and I made terrible hashbrowns for myself and scrambled eggs for my in-laws. Far too many dirty dishes.

I took a nap this afternoon in hopes that it would chase of the headache I’ve had on and off all day, but it did not. Of course, every time I have any sort of ache or pain or sneeze now I assume it’s The Virus. Even though I know I have allergies and I always have a headache this time of the month and my legs hurt because I’ve been doing Pete’s PE class with him.

Good Things

  • Playing euchre with my dad online
  • Watching “The Good Place”
  • We baked some things today

    Today was considerably better than yesterday. The weather was just about perfect — around 74 degrees, sunny and breezy. It’s my mother-in-law’s birthday, so Poppy made a birthday cake and I made the chicken pot pie she’d requested for dinner. (They’ve been living with us for the last several months for health reasons; we’re not visiting anyone or having visitors.) Both the cake and the pot pie were delicious.

    Our county reported its first resident COVID-19 positive test today. There were two previous positive tests, but they were both people from other states who are visiting the area. They’ve both gone to other counties to “shelter-in-place” wherever it is they’re staying. That’s what happens when you live in a place rife with vacation homes, I guess.

    I did a much better job taking care of myself today. I haven’t been eating well or on a regular schedule, and I made a concerted effort to do both today. We also spent some time outside and went on a nice walk. I don’t know how long this whole thing is going to last, but I should probably continue doing those things even when we aren’t in a global pandemic.