Loki wants his people back

Loki has learned what the alarm on Carrie's phone means. She said that when it goes off he goes nuts!

Loki is a regular rider when it comes to picking up Shane from school. She's picked him up every day of the school year, but Loki's only been in attendance for half that (It probably helped he had a date with the groomer for a bath!).

Carrie said he does something similar when I get home. She and Shane know I've arrived, because Loki get hyped!

I know that Loki doesn't like me leaving in the morning. He sits on my feet.

I noticed one of my shoe laces looked chewed on a couple weeks back, too. Stress related, perhaps? Or maybe Loki thinks he can stop me from going to work?

I don't know, but I do know he gets very clingy whenever I sit down to tie my shoes! 

So I guess it was according to Loki's plan when my shoe lace snapped right before I left.

I had to switch shoes! I didn't have time to deal with it then. 

The turd is lying at my feet as I type this. He's happy, though: We're all at home.

Comedic Complaints

I miss the bathroom by my old room sometimes.

The staff bathroom near my new room is right off the main hallway.

It's akin to an outhouse alongside an interstate. The wind of everyone passing shakes the door and you never feel alone. 

The bathroom isn't soundproof yet somehow manages to capture smells (and not the good ones). I don't know if the staff on this side of the building are 'more productive' or if there's someone with gut issues consistently making questionable food choices. 

For the first several days, I didn't know how to tell if anyone was using it or not, either. I was afraid I'd open the door on someone! I know I wasn't the only one to have that issue. I've felt that special dread that hits when someone else's key starts fumbling in the lock while half the school passes by as I relieve myself. Headlines flash in the mind's eye: "Teacher fired for exposing himself to students." 

Thankfully, there is a bolt. The door doesn't fit flush with the frame and I've learned you can see if the bolt is engaged. That allows you to avoid the awkward knock and key fumble if you don't hear the response over all the hallway traffic.  

I give this bathroom a final rating of 5 out of 10 stars. It's normally physically clean, but the sounds, smells, and location leave much to be desired.

Froot Loops Fail

I should've looked closer.

I bought Shane a variety pack of cereal at Costco. I didn't realize they all had 'spooky' marshmallows.

The only thing spooky about the marshmallows was that someone could make straight sugar taste bad. I didn't think it would be a big deal until Shane stopped eating his first bowl halfway through. "I don't like the marshmallows."

....well, darn.

I picked the marshmallows out as I ate. I didn't want the cereal to go to waste and I like suga...Froot Loops. 

I ate the whole box. All of it....minus the marshmallows. There were a lot of marshmallows.

Crop Duster Monday

We had our annual visit again. This video makes it look like he was going to crash right through our neighbor's house.

The crop duster was back. I swear he was flying way lower this time. There were multiple times I looked out the back window and wondered if he was going to crater into us. 

The flybys started during morning chores and kept up all day. He was still going at it when we went out for evening chores!

The horses ignored it for the most part.

It was new for Lane. He had one moment where he got worried after dinner, because Carrie let out the other boys, but left him in for a minute to take a quick video of the aerial acrobatics.

Loki desperately wanted to catch the plane, but he wasn't fast enough.

I really liked this one angle where I got the duster flying out of the sun and trees.

I got a great still that made me think of almost every WW2 aviation movie I'd ever seen.

Why was I home to video all this? Wasn't it a Monday? Yes, it was, but it was also a teacher workday! I had zoom meetings and an opportunity to update grades instead of chase kids. The ability to have virtual meetings and stay at home is one of the good things that came out of the global pandemic!

Getting Social

Shane and Hazel got together to play video games this weekend. They hadn't seen each other in months and months! Our schedules failed to mesh up all summer.

I was happy, because it gave me a chance to beat The Crew with Scott and Mark! 

We tried an EXIT game, as well. It was a challenging one. Mark was into it, but Scott seemed to get frustrated at times.

It wasn't the most active meetup for Shane, but being social is being social! By the end his energy was pent up and his stomach was empty, so we said goodbye for the day.

I was feeling generous, so we got a special snack on the way home! It tided us over while we shopped for groceries at Wegmans.

Other than soccer, the trip to see Hazel was our only social outing of the weekend. Shane's had a cough at night and in the morning. No, I don't think it's COVID(He still complains if I fart). Shane's a little snotty and he gets congested laying down, but it goes away during the day and there's no fever or the like. He took some allergy meds one day (a pill!) and said it helped.

A cough/cold used to not be such a big deal, but the COVID climate makes me hesitant to go on too many adventures when everyone's not 100% (Especially after Jama got it! She's okay, though, thanks to having been vaccinated).  

I'm glad we got some activity in. It used to be I'd try to drive Shane all over the place! Maybe the quiet weekends help him to be excited about school. Shane enjoys his education way more than I did at his age.

Is it still good to eat?

Did I mention Carrie washed my phone?

Washed, not cleaned. My phone went straight into the washing machine.

We pulled it out after a few minutes and put it in rice.

It still works. We left it in rice overnight. The volume on the phone was off for a little (and water even came out of the speakers), but two days after the incident it was fully functional.

So how does that happen? A lot easier than you'd expect.

I was in the bedroom working on the computer. My phone was with me or on the bed. Carrie came in and asked me to help her with the sheets.

Now, when Carrie wants help with something she doesn't wait long before she just starts doing it. In this case, she was already grabbing at the sheets as she asked!

I hopped up to help her and she scooped everything up. I might have put my phone on the bed or the bed frame, but at some point it got scooped. 

And Carrie was on the move.

I might have stopped to notice my phone was gone, but Carrie asked me to open the door. She said the big bundle was awkward and made her injured wrist hurt. I offered to Carrie it, but she insisted I get the door. 

At that point, I could've slowed things down. However, the laundry was getting done and if I'm going to disagree with something it won't be over someone doing a chore!

Which led to my phone going for a swim. I opened and closed the bedroom door and the washroom doors for Carrie. I even saw her throw the bundle in before I went back to the bedroom. I realized my phone wasn't in my pocket and started to look around. When I didn't find it, I started to realize what might have happened. 

I came out of the bedroom and asked, "Did you check the laundry load before turning it on?"

Awkward eye contact ensued. "Whhhyyy?"

"I can't find my phone."

I asked Carrie to call it, but we still couldn't locate it. 

At that point, we rushed to the laundry room and turned off the wash.

Yup. There it was. Still on and everything! Thank God, it still works! 

What We've Been Reading

Shane read the first book from the Wings of Fire. We picked it up the day he came back from SC. I read the prologue and first chapter out loud, but Shane took over and read the rest of the book on his own. 

He really liked it. I told him that I'd be happy to buy the 2nd book once he finished the first, but he found it at his school library!

Shane seems to have stalled out on reading Book 2, though. I was hoping he'd keep powering through, so I could dangle Book 3 as motivation to keep reading. 

He's been more apt to flip through a random assortment of other books. I took him by a used book store and despite my offers to buy whatever he wanted he had "trouble finding anything interesting." He wanted some Minecraft books and then I forced him to pick up Artemis Fowl (Not that he's opened it).

Shane's much more likely to flip through a comic. He keeps some Calvin and Hobbes and Far Sides up in his bed to read at night. He likes to use Epic on the computer, as well. He's a big fan of......SMURFS!?!?

I was surprised when Shane started asking me questions about the smurfs and Gargamel. I knew they were a comic series from when I was kid, but since the TV series ended in the 80's I didn't think they were a thing anymore.  

Well, Shane's a big fan! He discovered Peanuts on Epic, too. They apparently have a selection of classic comics and that's Shane's jam. Shane can only view a book a day at home on the free account, but he has multiple accounts due to having a school one and then the one I set up.

I've been trying to read more myself.

I got nostalgic and started grabbing a bunch of books I used to own when we were at the used book store. I put a bunch back, but ended up with enough to keep me busy for a while. I've finished two. 

I picked up an audiobook version of The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie, as well. It turned out to be a radio adaptation and only an hour and a half long. I listened to that to and from work some days. Shane and I listened to most of My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George before the loan ran out. I signed up for a free Audible trial to get Shane a Hank the Cowdog book to listen to on the road to Busch Gardens, as well. We haven't finished it, but I'm thinking about keeping the subscription. I started listening to a History of Comedy podcast by Keegan Michael-Key and there are some other free books included I may start listening to on my commute.

Meanwhile, Carrie's favorite thing to read has been her cellphone. She find books and manga annoying with her injured wrist...and she prefers reviews and articles to books.

She read a bunch of histories about Fire Emblem Three Houses, so it's not like she's anti-fiction! She's far more amenable to e-readers while I'm old fashioned.

Horse Vet Day

School was cancelled due to rain Wednesday!

Only it didn't really rain where we were. There were severe thunderstorms and flooding forecast, but if it hit it was elsewhere.

Plenty of parents will call the schools wimps for closing, but I was thrilled for a day off. Wednesdays are my roughest days (being A days and lunch duty). 

I suspect the transportation shortages weighed heavily into the decision to close. There's a shortage of drivers and many kids have hour+ bus rides. The walking zones to schools were extended and parents were asked to consider driving their students in if they were able to allow families who could not to use the buses. 

Plus, a day out of school was one less day for the County to worry about COVID spreading.

So I found myself at home unexpectedly (and in fantastic spirits!). I used a chunk of the time to catch up on my writing and grading, but that's not all: It was a vet day.

The vet and assistant pulled up in their SUVs chock full of equipment. I'm normally not home for check-ups, so I went out to take some pictures and see if Carrie needed help.
 

Vet tools aren't dainty. That power drill was for equine dentistry.

We'd pulled all the horses up at breakfast and left them in to be ready for the vet. One, it was easier than collecting them all twice, and two, it gave time for everyone to poop for a fecal exam.

Lane was first in line for a dental checkup. Large animal vets can't be afraid to stick their hands (and arms) in all sorts of places.

Carly actually had her whole hand in the mouth before I took the picture. However, she said "AH!" and pulled it out when one of Lane's back teeth nearly cut her.

Horse teeth get sharp and the sharp bits need to be filed or ground down (or "floated"). Lane was drugged, because no horse will allow much less stand nicely as someone puts a power drill in their mouth!

I had Carrie send me the picture she took of inside Lane's mouth. I planned to put it on the projector in class!

Then Carly got to work.

I went up to the house to check on Shane and get writing while the dental work carried on.

The vet was gone the next time I went out. I took some pictures of Carrie working on Eowyn's front feet.

As stated prior, Eowyn's a brat when it comes to farrier work. Carrie bought herself a set of farrier chaps (for ~75% off!) to help grip and hold tools.

Thankfully, no Carrie's were injured this time. You can see she's still wearing a brace from when she last worked on Eowyn's hind feet.

So not only did I get a day off from school, I got some cool horse pictures and material for a post. What a gift of a day!

Mannequin Man

Monday was rough. My A days students are an overflowing two hands full. I had to make my first phone call home for the year: One girl refused to wear her mask right and said, "You can't make me and my dad will agree."

And it probably won't be the only phone call for the year.

But each day is a new day. 

There's a CPR dummy/mannequin that sits next door in the teacher workroom and stares at whoever enters. 

Tuesday, I invited him to class.

The setup was perfect. I don't always wear a hat to school, but today I did. The kids from my 2B came in, saw me in it, I took a attendance, and then they left for lunch. While they were gone, I carried my new friend into the room and gave him my spare hat.

He had no ears, so I used a pen to help him wear one of my spare masks. 

I set him up all relaxed at my desk and then relocated myself to watch reactions as kids came back!

And there were reactions! After a few startles and befuddled glances, there were laughs.

That would have been enough for a fun moment, but there's more to the story, though. One of the girls came up to me before class to tell me she had a falling out with the girl she sat next to. She wanted to know if she could switch seats. I told her to sit in her usual seat for now, but I'd think about it during lunch.

I asked the class if they wanted to let our "new student" sit near the door to greet people who walked by. 

Of course the answer was, "Yes." There was a perfectly placed student ready to give up her seat, too!

It was a little awkward when the new student's pants fell down as I carried him over. He got dubbed a low rider, but someone gave him a Fanta and someone else gave him a pencil to do his work with.

We named him John as in John Deere. A student made the name tag.

Another student (on the medical studies route), made the connection that John Deere was a John Doe and the name fit even better!

John had a great time, but I was worried there may have been a little bullying going on by the end of class.

John hung out for the rest of the day. My 4B was equally pleased to meet him! 

It made for a fun day. It was the perfect counter-balance for the rough start to the week. I wish I could be as playful with my A Day students, but I would have feared for my sanity, John's life, and the Biology teachers getting mad if he was damaged!

Anyway, a mannequin student was a unique moment in my decade and a half teaching. Maybe John will visit again some day!

Busch Gardens Mega Post

Way back in 2020, I told Shane I wanted to take him to an amusement park that summer.

COVID hit and it didn't happen.

I thought about taking Shane this summer. Kings Dominion is nearby (and where I went as a kid). Carrie is NOT a KD fan, though. She vastly prefers Busch Gardens (We went there in 2011!).

We talked, but it never happened.....until this weekend.

Patrick and Shelby had a baby shower this weekend. Unfortunately, it was a 3 hour drive one way on Saturday when we have no barn chore coverage. It put the idea of traveling into my mind, and we decided to visit BG Sunday (Gen and Chris coming along was bonus!).

Shane woke up looking fresh, ready, and green.

We piled into the car and left early. Loki had to ride in the back.

We stopped by Wawa on the way out of town for breakfast and supplies. I made the mistake of letting Shane use the water bottle. He backwashed heavily (Chris had been kind enough to share some jerky...).

Loki got off at Grandma and Grandpa's. They're on the way and agreed to watch him, so he wouldn't be human-less for too long!

We arrived to the park just as it opened. Carrie splurged for the good parking.

Everyone was looking forward to making fun memories!

This time of year is Hallow-Scream. The park turns haunted at 6 PM. There are some rides/attractions that shut down because of it, so we figured the park would be less crowded first thing in the morning.

We were interested in rollercoasters...and Shane's tall enough to go on them all now!

For hours, the most crowded part of the park was the entrance (England).

We were able to walk and look at things without being crowded, at all.

The animals weren't particularly active, but they weren't our main focus either.

The first roller coaster of the day was a classic: The Loch Ness Monster.

We were ready. Hairs were dyed, buddies assigned, and the motion sick people had started their day with Dramamine.

But where was everyone else?

Not that we were complaining! We got to walk right up to the coaster sans line.

There were a few people lined up for the front cars, but Carrie wanted to ride at the back anyway.

The only wait time we had was for the previous people to get off!

Shane loved it. He was screaming, hooting, and hollering even on the slow parts. I snapped a post-run selfie.

I snapped a quick pick of us from the screens on the way out. Shane hadn't realized there was a camera. Now that he was conscious of it, he tried to make faces the rest of the day! Chris does this thing where he always keeps his hands up when he rides a rollercoaster.

With no wait, we immediately cycled back through for Round 2!

After that, we were off to Ireland.

There's still time before October, but, like I said, Hallow-Scream.

I pointed out a story for Shane to read. He had no interest in seeing any spooky shows!

Part of Ireland had been converted into a haunted house. It wouldn't open until 6 PM and we didn't plan to stay until then, so we walked on.

The aviary was closed, but was set to open up later. We walked past a theater for animal shows, etc, etc. The park felt like it was still partly asleep.

Which was perfect for our purposes. 

The Griffon was the next coaster on our route. 

And again, there was no real line. We started making jokes that Shane was going to have unreasonable expectations when it came to theme parks!

The first row of the Griffon is the scariest when they leave you leaning forward and suspended a couple hundred feet in the air, so we rode further back (Plus, the front usually had a line!).

Shane loved it at the end, but Carrie said he dug his fingernails in during the ride!

Carrie, Shane, and I immediately hopped back on for a second ride! No wait!

Then we waved to people going down the big drop.

Shane said the Griffon was his favorite of the day!

Our next stop was the Invader, a wooden coaster.

Only it was temporarily closed. We'd have to wait, and who wanted to do that!? That was for normal people at a normally crowded theme park!

We walked on. We had to pass through more spooky decorations to get to the next coaster. I think Shane was glad we didn't come at night (he's not a big fan of scary stuff).

Alpengeist was next. I was so amazed at the lack of lines I made sure to take photographic proof of each.

Alpengeist is a hanging coaster. There was a wait for the front and back rows, so we hopped in the middle. 

However, the view is so restricted I thought it would be worth waiting one or two cycles to get front row seats.

So we did.

It was that easy. 

Gen and Chris watched from below. Gen's stomach was only good for one ride on each coaster, but they didn't have to wait long before we were ready to move on!

I highly recommend visiting uncrowded theme parks. Anyone who paid for a quick queue pass or the like wasted their money!

What's that? Why aren't their action shots from the coasters? 

Reasons.

I probably could have gotten some, but I didn't feel like risking it. If we'd been required to wait in hour lines I might have to squeeze more material and memories out each ride, but we didn't.

Verbolten was next. Gen and Chris opted to sit out and I realized why after running through it.

There was a cool drop after the coaster came to a stop, but before that we went through a dark indoor section with lights. It actually made me feel disoriented (and if it did that to me, guess how Carrie felt. We didn't ride twice!).

As we exited, Shane pointed out the drop tower was opening. Shane, Chris, and I hopped on the inaugural drop for the day. Unfortunately, the ladies didn't think to take pictures.

By that time, Shane was hungry. We'd been in the park for about two hours and ridden 4 different roller coasters a total of 7 times and dropped from over 200 ft!

The Festhaus was nearby, so we masked up and went to look for Carrie's favorite Busch Garden's cake.

It wasn't there.

It felt like prices were up, too. It was $50 for two meals and two drinks (We paid $45 after Gen used her pass to get us 10% off).

I thought Shane would like the music show, but he said it was too loud. All the adults agreed, but it was a little surprising from Shane.

It was about that time I started to pay more attention to how many people wore masks. I didn't expect people would wear masks outdoors (we didn't), and they had to come off to eat (obviously). But I noticed the vast majority didn't seem to wear masks at all.

We're all vaccinated (save Shane), so I'm not COVID-frightful. However, I know vaccines aren't a perfect guarantee, either. The lack of masks started to make me think more on the topic than I wanted. I do what I can to minimize potential risks, because I don't want to get quarantined and miss time to help my students or risk passing it on. 

Thankfully, we were back outside soon enough. The crowds were happily sparse for an amusement park!

And the weather was fantastic. Not too hot or cold.

And the lines! The lines were the best! We went on Apollo's chariot twice.

On a whim, I turned on Runkeeper and told it I was about to take a bike ride.

The next roller coaster, Tempesto, was just around the corner. It was a unique one.

The was only one set of cars, because it would go forward AND backwards.

One ride was plenty for Carrie! Shane got two rides, because I was still in line when the first ride ended. He stayed seated and went with me.

At that point, we'd ridden everything....almost. We still needed to go back and try Invader. 

To save some footsteps (and for fun), we rode the gondola.

Something we noticed walking around the park was that most of the Busch Gardens employees were from Virginia (It says on their nametags). In the past, they were from all over! The people who helped us get off the gondola were the first non-VA nametags I remember (They were both from California). 

Just another example of the pandemic.

We took a rest and hydration break outside a paint-your-own-pottery store.

After being scared by the prices, we continued on to the Invader!

Shane's turned out to be a big fan of rollercoasters. I wasn't surprised! He was really brave and got on everything. He'd point stuff out stuff like "So, we'll die if this comes up, right?" and make Carrie worry! Not that it stopped her from riding anything. She started a competition where she wanted to keep her hands or her legs up the whole time depending on the ride (which was too much effort for me!).

I took a quick picture of the photos at the end. The employee said, "No photos," so I put my cell away. I get that they want to make some money ($20!), but my cell phone picture is piss poor quality with all the watermarks anyway. If I wanted a quality photo, I'd pay. I don't. I just wanted proof we rode.  If there's an app out there that removes the watermark, I don't have the interest in looking it up.  

Carrie almost wanted to order a photo at one point, but decided against (which I approved!).

At that point, I was ready to go home. Carrie, too. Not Shane. He wanted more! We had friends with us, too, so we wanted to stay as long as they wanted with a hard cut off at 6 PM to make it home for horse chores. It turned out Chris and Gen were getting tired, too, so we all agreed to let Shane ride a little more.

Shane wanted to go back to the Griffon!

At that point, lines were forming. They were nowhere near what I'd consider real amusement park lines (Maybe 5-10 minutes?).

It was more people and more closely packed without masks than I liked. I was starting to hit my own limit for crowd contact.

Shane got his rides in, though! We weren't going to waste the day!

Everyone wanted ice cream, but the ice cream shop was closed. I'd recommended waiting until after to get Blizzards at Dairy Queen. My proposal was accepted on the second try.

We walked through the gift shops of Ireland. The AC was fantastic. Chris and Gen bought Shane a stuffed animal as a memento of the trip. 

We told Shane he could go on one more roller coaster on our way out: The Loch Ness Monster. You can see Carrie was tired since I caught her yawning.

She's going to be annoyed if she sees I posted it, so don't rat me out. It's perfect for the narrative.

I decided to wear my mask in line this time and even on the roller coaster. There had been some people who wore masks while riding and I was curious what it felt like.

It felt like wearing a mask. Some of the wind made it through, but less than if I hadn't.

The last ride was, of course, the longest wait to get on and off the ride. There were lots of issues with people too short hopping on, the crew was slow, etc. 

We sat outside for a while before we rolled in and rolled out of Busch Gardens. It was a quarter past 4 PM.

We got a text from Grandma that Loki was "enjoying walking Grandpa," as we left.

He's such a good boy!

Loki got one last chance to pee as we said our goodbyes. 

We would have picked Loki up a little earlier, but we did stop for ice cream (oh boy!). 

And that was out Busch Gardens trip! Shane finally got the chance to go! He made everything exciting by being so excited. Sure, there were times that he acted like a water bottle was the best thing ever, but most of it was genuine.

I'm just glad to have finished the post! Lots of happening and lots of pictures means lots of typing! I'm not caught up on the backlog yet, but I'm getting there!