COVID 19 - The Coronavirus: Friday Blahs

My energy level took a hit Friday. We've been active, but I didn't feel much urgency and it ended up being a real quiet day.

I made Shane help with morning horse chores (he scooped a couple of poop piles), but home school was only half completed for the day.

It was a good day for a movie. Onward was released on Disney+. Carrie had wanted to see it in theaters, but a home theater was what we had!

We all really enjoyed it! We watched Ratatouille later in the day.

Shane got a lot of electronics. 

Like I said, it was a bit of a blah day for me. I didn't blog. Now I'm catching up with the backlog. I updated my work page, but I didn't send my weekly email out until Saturday. I tried to start an exercise routine the first couple of weeks of our "Corona Break," but the routine didn't stick. I should get that going again.

I did finish reading The Great Hunt. I don't think we're going to get to meet in person for book club this weekend due to the "stay at home."

It wasn't a terrible day, but it was one of "those" kind of days that normally don't get posted on social media or talked about.

And that's why I decided to talk about. These things happen. 

My cousin Kacy was in the Peace Corps in Morocco. She sent out a newsletter before they were evacuated with tons of awesome pictures and stories about a wedding, traveling, and the highlights of what she was up to. At the very end, she put the caveat about "Peace Corps service is a roller coaster." There were bad days, blah days, and great days. I like to read about all the big stories, but little notes to keep things real add hues to the highlights make them much richer.

And now, some random photos.

Carrie's been trying to teach Loki to sneeze on command. 

I've discovered his hair mats underneath his ears. I've been picking/combing it out, but I gave up and trimmed one side. My research said it's a problem for some Shelties.

He and Happy look happy in this picture, but there was a whine like Loki was dying the other day. He must have been too insistent on trying to lick Happy's butt and her rebuttal's aim was true.

Often when Happy does take a swing, it gets lost in his fur barrier. He's not great at reading subtle hints!

There's a run in built in "Maddie's lot." I'll post some pictures of the construction later.

I wanted to point out the cheese puff. Did the wind blow it in? From where? Or was that a snack from one of the two builders?

I thought it was ADHD funny.

Kinda like when I noticed the sun was heating up the clock in the bedroom.

It got a lot warmer outside, but not in the 90s! We had some 70 degree days at the end of the week after a cold and wet start!

I noticed my selfie camera mirrored images early this school year. My old counselor sent a picture of a kid who missed me and I sent a picture back holding a sign....that was mirrored. Was there a system update that switched the settings? Or had the camera always done that and I never noticed?

It's bugged me ever since I noticed. I normally manually flip the images....which I ADHD noticed makes for some odd combinations in the camera roll! 

Anyway, the Corona-life coverage will continue. Stay tuned.

How much can you fit in a day?

We went for a record amount of activity today.

First, there was horse chores. Second, there was TKD.

After TKD, I visited a wrestling friend who coaches lacrosse. He had some gear for Shane to borrow.

Shane really liked the gear. He was so excited about 'armoring up' for lacrosse he wore the helmet to the recycling center (our next stop!).

I told Shane we were going by 5th Street Station next. He kept asking about food the whole way and I said, "Maybe we'll get something there."

What he didn't know was that Carrie was waiting for him! They went to a SPCA fundraiser at the Alamo Drafthouse. They had lunch and watched a ton of funny cat videos together!

Meanwhile, I slid over to Panera for lunch. Then I drove north to attend Prezcon.

Prezcon is a board game convention. I've known about it for years and been curious, but never attended. This year, I decided I'd take a look.

It's funny how going to something brand new can make you a little nervous. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but adventure called!

There were lots of tournaments for popular board games with scheduled heats. If I were to go again, I would be interested in those. However, today was a scouting mission. I paid $30 for open gaming and then wandered around. There was a game library and tables downstairs.

There weren't a lot of tables open. Most people were already involved in games. Maybe my timing was off, but it's probably easier when you come with a group or meet people in the scheduled games.

There was a sign for someone play-testing a game they designed. I took the plunge and said I was in.

It was a hidden movement game with one vs all. A team of people were people and one person controlled the dinosaurs trying to eat the people.

Naturally, I played the dinosaurs!

It was a fun time! However, it wasn't Carrie's style of game and she's my 'game group,' so it won't hit my wish list any time soon. I wish the guy the best, though! I understand that desire to create something and it takes a brave person to put themselves out there for criticism. 

I found a silent auction and used games for sale area afterward, but it was already highly picked over. There were some things I was curious about, but they turned out to be expansions or parts of systems I didn't own. That meant I saved my money and walked away.

There was an auction underway, as well. If there was something I wanted, I didn't stick around to find out.

I probably could have stayed longer, but there were things that needed to be done. I stopped by Lowe's with a bunch of old batteries to recycle and was told "rechargeable only, please."

Then I dropped by Play it Again Sports. Shane's going to try lacrosse this spring (if you didn't already figure that out), so I needed to pick up gear. He wasn't with me, so I had to guess at sizes.

Gas and Costco were next! It was an eclectic shopping list today. Carrie wanted corn oil to help put more meat on Kitty's bones and I got enough Irish cream for a year's worth of Irish coffees and cooking.

And milk. We were low on milk.

I made it home in time for some cleaning and horse chores. 

I slept well.

Another Day Trip!?

Here's to hoping the cars can handle the miles! We were in Charlottesville again today.

It started out with Toy Story 4!

Shane was running up and down the halls with excitement afterward.

We headed into Scottsville afterward. We needed to pick up a mailbox and house numbers for the home to meet county code.

Would you believe the store was out of 5s? We needed 4+ inch numbers and unless we wanted to change styles amongst digits we couldn't get our full address. We got a basic mailbox to hammer in, but didn't have a screwdriver. We'll have to install it later.

One of our big reasons for driving out was to give the barn construction crew a check to cover some materials. Only problem was, they weren't there. Carrie was so upset she handed me the phone while she went inside. They're way behind. Somehow they haven't been out whenever I've visited.

Carrie was upset when she went in the house and saw a giant pole in our living room. She'd purposely asked them not to install it in the planning phase.

Someone messed up installing the vents in the kitchen, too. The builders had to cut into the back of the wall through Shane's closet to make everything fit.

Carrie still stressed about everything coming together, but there is definite progress. The front porch went in and now no one should fall through the front door.

We were still waiting to hear back from the barn builder 'liaison,' Scott, so we went out for food in town. Shane was a little frazzled with waiting, Carrie was frazzled with construction, and the heat was killer. We talked to the builder and hid the check in his work trailer before we headed out.

We dropped by a Tractor Supply in Rockville, VA on the way home. Carrie wanted to look at gates. Shane wanted to look at giant chicken sculptures.

We are not getting a giant chicken sculpture. It has not come to that.

Movie Night: Live Action Aladdin

Carrie wanted to see the new Aladdin as a family. I almost didn't go. 

I didn't have a good excuse. Swim lessons are done. I was just tired and uninterested. 

I'm glad I did. It was fun. 

Will Smith wasn't Robin Williams, but he did a great job. The CG for "Friend Like Me" was beyond what I thought was possible.  

I wonder if Carrie is going to want to go to the movies more now that Shane can watch a wider variety of movies. She's already signed up for the first round of cheap 'Summer Camp' movies the second week of June!

Another Successful Saturday

I agreed to coach Shane's soccer game on Saturday, but Paul beat me there and had already started. He knows more than me about soccer, so I was happy to fall into the role of assistant. 

It was a solid game with a final score of 4-4. There were good plays on both sides of the field.

Shane got to play goalie for a little bit. A long kick bounced in front of them and then over his head and out of reach for a score. He jumped and tried, but he's a little man protecting a large net. I'm surprised being a goalie has stuck, but he's owned it. I want to make him do something this summer to give him a little training if he's going to continue, but I don't know what that is.

Carrie requested we visit Samwise with her. There were dogs at the barn in Powhatan and one really liked to lick.

Who's Samwise you ask? Carrie's new horse, of course. His name was originally Hudson, but she's renamed the younger, half-draft cross gelding she's acquired to be Nibs' future barn mate.

Shane made friends while Carrie treated Samwise's ear and prepped him for a ride.

Shane showed some interest and got to pet Samwise.

Carrie hopped on Samwise for a quick ride.

It was raining, but there was a covered arena.

Shane showed an awful lot of interest in the electric fence. I could hear it humming.

If he really wanted to check the charge, he would have been in for a shock.

I wouldn't have stopped him either. I warned him up front I thought it was live.

Shane touched it with a blade of grass and said he felt a tingle, but never truly tested it.

He did try some jumps of his own.

Here is where we got in trouble with Carrie. There was  a trampoline near the arena and some horses in a field. We'd been there for a little while and Shane was trying to stay entertained. The trampoline was near horses and everything, so I figured "Must be okay."

It wasn't. Carrie saw us and said, "Make him stop."

I asked if she was sure and then started to tell Shane to knock it off. He complied fairly quickly, but not instantly. I thought Carrie might be being overcautious, but figured horses were her world.

Carrie was right.

It may not have been the bouncing, but Samwise visibly flinched as Shane climbed out. Carrie and Samwise were over 50 ft away and I saw it. He seemed skittish to my untrained eye.

Carrie certainly felt it and dismounted. She walked Samwise over to the trampoline to try and introduce it to him, but he recoiled a little when they got near. She got him to examine for a moment before walking him back to the barn.

Carrie was not happy with us.

Lesson learned.

We returned home via Scottsville to check out the construction of our new homestead.

Progress had been made since the last time I was there.

Carrie took Shane in for a walk-around.

Everything was wet from all the rain. Roofs help with that, but ours wasn't up yet!

The ground behind the house had been leveled to prepare for the barn and arena.

It was highly muddy. My feet felt like they weighed an extra couple of pounds after a few minutes.

We ended a packed day with going to the movies.

Originally, Carrie bought tickets for a matinee showing. She'd done this weeks before. At the time, I'd said I wasn't sure I wanted to see the movie. We never really discussed it further and I ended up volunteering to coach (See the top of this post!). 

We went back and forth when we realized the conflict. I was going to coach regardless of Shane went to the game or the movie, but Carrie managed to change the tickets to an evening showing.

Shane loved it.

It wasn't terrible either. I wouldn't have ever gone to see it on my own, but Shane's joy and some good lines made it a fun time ("I'm great at being alone at night!" "Have you ever talked to a woman before?").