Day 83, June 3, 2020

Day 83, June 3, 2020

Quite proud of our ability to fix Chrome Books over here.  After exhausting all other possibilities, I handed R. an external mouse, and said she could try using that, because sometimes, using an external mouse (instead of the touchpad) will at least make the cursor appear.  Well, the cursor came back!  This is big news.  Even better, R. experimented with unplugging the mouse, and the cursor stayed on.  It's like "The Cat Came Back" song, but with a cursor (if you are unfamiliar with this elementary school diddy, consider yourself lucky.  It's on the list for the school-wide singalong this Friday, and has burned itself into my brain like the jingle from Inside Out.

I then had a major Mommy Fail while making bread.  I was all excited to have soft, fluffy bread, but I was rushing around trying to do a million things (per usual), and while I've made this bread to the tune of 50+ pounds of flour over the last three months, I somehow managed to forget the yeast, which we discovered three hours later when I opened the breadmaker and discovered that the dough had stayed a small, round ball.  If you've never done this, the end result is the consistency of a very stale bagel with less flavor, and basically only good as a blunt instrument (if you need something like that to hurl at someone), or to use as a paperweight.

Before

We were rushing because my mom's pool is open, and we wanted to see it.  We also dropped off a gift E. had made for her best friend A.  It was a booklet of puzzles and games and writing and drawing (a small one) that we kept meaning to mail, but hadn't gotten around to.  Instead, we drove to A's house (on the way to my mom's), and E. hopped out of the car, and tossed it on the lawn.  A's dad and sister's were in the yard, so I called out that it was a gift for A. that E. had made.  We all waved, and then we were on to Mom's house.

It felt almost normal to sit next to the pool and chat.  The girls can't go in the water until Saturday (it's got chemicals in it right now), but they were still excited to see the water, and anticipate the swimming that is to come.  We're waiting to hear back fro Mom's neighbor about her house- she's going to put it on the market in a week, but he and his family are interested, and if they can come in with what she wants to get for it, she would sell it to him.  He and his wife walked through it a few days ago, and we sent over a survey for the property yesterday that they asked for, so we're hopeful!  It would be nice knowing the home is going to someone who loves it.  While we were sitting outside, I also got a text from A's dad- she had a little gift for E. and wanted to drop it off. I let him know we were at my mom's, so they cruised over, and E. and A. got to see each other in the driveway (from a safe distance).  These two besties need to get together, and it's so hard for them to not be able to have a normal play date.  I'm hoping that as the restrictions begin to lift, we will be able to do that soon (for their mental health).

That said- we are still waiting on some form of reliable treatment or vaccine, and that could be a long way away.  I'm happy the numbers are going down, but it's still worrisome and there is a lot being talked about regarding schools and how we are going to reopen in September.  The most recent thing I heard was the idea of having middle school and high school continue with distance learning, and moving elementary school children into the middle and high schools, so they can be more spread out.  I'm not quite sure how this works from a logistics perspective- how do you make the class sizes smaller without hiring twice as many teachers?  Even if you have the larger buildings, and spread the kids out, you still need someone to administer instruction.  So would it be half days for the kids?  How do they handle lunch and snacks (my kids get HANGRY if they don't eat enough).  It's a work in progress, but there was a survey that went around to parents in my town, to get feedback.  I'm interested to see what they come up with (especially since I teach in a high school).

When we got home, Jeff showed us a photo of Sam's kitchen- the countertop is in, and it's remarkable what a transformation it is from green laminate to white quartz.  We also had put in the fridge (free from a friend), new stove, microwave (from our house) and the newly-stainless-fronted dishwasher.  With everything, plus the white painted cabinets, it's like a new space. 

Jeff and I managed to begin setting up the Intex Pool in the yard.  The girls can't wait until there is enough water to swim in (tomorrow is supposed to hit the high 80's, so they can go in then).  There was a lot of smoothing out the edges, hooking up the hoses, and manipulating the hose to stay in the pool, but we got it going (even with some choice curse words).  And then, of course, the weather shifted, and the skies opened as we finished, a fitting way to send us scrambling inside.  Nothing like going from sunny skies to a flash thunderstorm in a few minutes flat. At least it helps with filling the pool.