Fishing with Grandpa got cancelled. The weather was bad and there was a small craft advisory for sailing. Shane didn't get to catch his flounder.
Instead, he spent a day in the VA Beach area with Grandpa.
Timeline:
- Carrie drove Shane down on Thursday. Shane left with Grandpa for the beach area. Carrie stayed and worked with Grandma all day. I worked on the blog and some house chores.
- Friday, Shane and Grandpa spent the day in VA Beach. At night, they went home and watched a lot of The Mandalorian with Grandma. I blogged. Carrie worked.
- Saturday, Carrie went to pick up Shane. He really thought he was going to Nana and Pop's Sunday...but that wasn't the plan! They had Matt and Renee's kids and we were scheduled for Monday.
I don't have a lot of pictures, because I don't. If Shane did bring home the flounder to eat, there would have been many!
I did get Shane to play a 2nd set of rounds of Spirit Island with me. I understand the way the game works much better now, but I don't think I'll manage to get him to play it again. He loves the theme and imaging things, but what he really wants is something really fast so that he can play Roblox games online and narrate his every thought to whoever he's on the phone with. (Usually a cousin and usually Slap Battles).
Carrie's been re-evaluating all sorts of things. She was looking for something, so I started poking around some myself. I found a box of old photos in the garage I figured she'd find interesting.
She pulled out a bunch of photos and even handed me a few...including someone I knew! I meant to take Shane and catch up this summer, but it never happened.
Looking at these pictures, I'm realizing my first thought was wrong: These aren't all from after the fishing trip. The photos and Spirit Island were from before. I spent Thursday or Friday assembling the desk Carrie bought for me.
I spent a lot of time listening to an audiobook and cleaning (Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi).
Aria came up to the house to visit me a couple of times. She seems pretty happy outside. Tsuki comes up to the house more asking to become a housecat again (Sorry, Tsukes! I was surprised Carrie was so quick to shift you outside, but I'm a-okay you're there!).
I worked on weeding Friday (Audiobooks make menial labor better). We had a bag of peat moss sprout Japanese stiltgrass (Weeds! They grow everywhere!).
I drove to the new convenience center and cleared out a ton of recycling as well (It really is convenient!).
This was always supposed to be a catch up week for me, on the blog, on the house, just life in general.
Shane came back by Saturday afternoon. He played with Legos instead of packing.
I took him to the library to get some books for the car ride. He usually complains about going. Then we get there, and he plays with stray cats.
And when we get back home, he sits in the car reading.
It gets hot fast. Sometimes, he'll be out there long enough I go back to make sure he didn't pass out.
Currently, Shane's working on the My Hero Academia manga. I'd prefer for him to read actual books, but comics are better than nothing. I picked up some volumes of Love is War (super goofy comedy) to show him something new, but he was so embarrassed "Love" was in the title. He didn't want to be seen returning them and asked if I'd do it for him ("Nope.")!
Shane had to do some catch-up Duolingo since he didn't do any while at Grandpa and Grandma's. Honestly, he's plateaued. We haven't had any Sunny lessons for a little bit with all the traveling and summer plans (We need to sign up again). Shane hasn't pushed himself and mainly does it as an obligation. That's...fine. If he was motivated, he'd find ways and places to use it, but he's not. I'd prefer for him to watch anime in Japanese or show more interest, but it's at least a tool for building discipline.
Carrie crashed on the couch early. She used to do that all the time, but it's been rare this year.
I let Shane take the phone and watch One Piece in his room to keep things quieter for her.
Carrie woke up long enough to permit me to give Boomer hay. I had to promise to do no other work. She's been dead-set against me doing any work in the barn.
I got to see the resurrected rabbit and the barn cats while I was out. Shane still hasn't seen Hopkins! There was a close call where he saw "something that looked like Hopkins" when Carrie was backing out with him to go to Grandma's, but he didn't make the connection.
The cats were both friendly. As stated earlier, Aria seems to prefer the barn life. Tsuki wants to be a part timer at best.
Sunday was "Move up" day for the kid's programs. Shane got to welcome the new 6th grades to Youth Group! He was playing Switch when I came to collect him. There was a pool party later in the day, too!
I dropped Shane off right on time. He'd been "meh" when I first mentioned it, but was eager the day of (swimming + people = FUN! It was nice I didn't have to convince him this time).
I dropped by a coffee shop in Fluvanna a few miles down the road. The party was a couple of hours and it was almost half an hour home, so I stayed near by. I didn't think there'd be any drama, but it's less likely to happen when you're available (The Rule of Irony). I drove around a little to explore, but spent most of my time reading.
It started to storm minutes before I picked Shane up! He came running out through the downpour, but he'd been in the pool anyway. He was proud, because everyone took shelter in the barn when they first heard thunder/lightning. He got to show off his horse knowledge when some girls mistook a mare for a gelding ("And then it started to pee!").
Shane was in a great mood when we got home. He'd gotten to be social all morning and he was looking forward to driving to SC on Monday! He sat down next to me with the Duoslime and told me all about it when I was trying to blog, heh.
I normally just let him talk. He's that social.
I'll throw up a pair of posts about our trip to SC next. I had so many pictures, I broke it in two.