Little Fixes Everywhere

A certain amount of maintenance work is required when you own stuff. It keeps you busy.

The grommet around the fuel line of the mower came loose. 

It took more time to find and watch a video on YouTube than it did to fix.

The garage door had been busted since February. We tried to fix it on our own during the break and realized it was a more complicated fix. We made a home warranty claim and it took a bit for the guy to come out.

"Yeah, the guy who installed this was a real dick," he said.

"Oh?" I asked.

"It was me!"

Jokes aside, it ended up being easier to simply pull off the end pieces and install new ones.

Jason and his buddy worked on our security camera project. Carrie had him install sockets, so that we could plug the cameras in.

If the units were hardwired for power we'd need an electrician to replace any that broke.

They put the cameras up for us around the house, too.

Carrie got the display up and running, but there have been some issues.

Some of the cameras stopped responding, so Carrie wanted to check the power supply in the attic.

It's a bit of a jump up from the ladder, so I went up. I wanted to look around anyway!

I had to walk across beams hidden under insulation to get to the electric socket.

I plugged in my cell phone charger to confirm they worked. The camera in question started to work again after it was unplugged and plugged in.

It was interesting seeing how everything looked. I can see what to do if there are any future repairs needed, but I'd just as soon go a couple of decades without.

The Subaru has had a slow leak we've been waiting to fix. It's been the task that somehow always gets pushed off. I had an appointment and was about to leave one day when Carrie asked me not to go.

I pulled the Subaru into the garage to work on concrete and pulled the jack out of the back. There was no jack lever! Acquiring one is another small errand to add to the list!

I had to use the jack from the Volvo. I was happy to see that the puncture was in the tread.

Or at least I was happy until Costco said it was too close to the sidewall to fix! They didn't have any tires that matched our other three, either! If the tires were worn, I could have replaced them, but the treads are closer to new than worn.

It was neat being in Costco again. I hadn't been inside since right before schools closed in March. Everyone wore face masks and there were plastic shields up at all the registers.

I may need to trim my mustache. My mask somehow provoked hairs to tickle my nose non-stop! That's a problem that needs to be fixed if I'm going to have to mask for next school year!

All these little errands seem to take more time than they should. I tend to like a certain amount of pressure/urgency to spur me on, but that's been in shorter supply since COVID 19 hit. 

I hope I'll be really well rested and out of errands by the time school starts again!

COVID 19 - The Coronavirus: The Prelude (Here)

After lacrosse practice Wednesday, I took Shane by Costco. We had to drive by Cville anyway, I needed gas, Shane was hungry, the pizza was cheap, and Carrie sent me a small list of groceries to get. Things like grapefruit, oranges, taquitos, paper towels, and toilet paper.

I'd seen some jokes/comments online about people hoarding toilet paper. I figured it'd be like "milk and bread" before snow days. I certainly didn't expect Costco to look like this.

There was no toilet paper. There were a few pallets of paper towels left with a sign saying "limit 2 per customer."

I don't buy two packs of toilet paper or paper towels from Costco at the same time. I probably only buy several all year round!

The warehouse wasn't picked clean, but there were definitely gaps I wasn't used to seeing. People hit the frozen pizza hard.

Not me. I paid $10 for a whole pizza for Shane and I to snack on as we went home. We weren't going to be back until after 8 PM and a busy days makes for hungry boys!

The coronavirus has been in the news. I read about it months ago when it was in China, but I've started to hear about it more at school the past couple of weeks. That's a good sign that it was being discussed more online and at homes. I even had my Freshman Seminar write a quick blurb about what they thought for a journal, because it had reached the point of the common consciousness (much like Y2K was a big deal when I was a senior).

While I've heard some talk, the empty shelves were the first sign I've seen of people taking action on their worry.

I'm not overly concerned with the virus itself at this point. It can be deadly, especially to certain portion of the population. Jama's independent living retirement community is already under a quarantine to protect the residents (smart). For most, it sounds akin to the flu.

The flu can be deadly, too. When Shane had it, a news article came out about how a teenager in Northern VA died from it to make me slightly paranoid (I didn't tell Carrie). The flu has been running through the school system this year and knocked many of my students out of their seats (I've had one poor girl get the flu three times this year!). I hope and pray that the coronavirus won't be anything worse than that.

However, "fear is the mindkiller." Also, "scared people do scary things." Neither of those are Biblical, but both have proven true in my experience. Italy is a mess right now. There are definitely people here taking precautionary steps. UVA cancelled classes on the 11th. If the public schools are going to close, they will do so slower because many students rely on the schools for food and other services.

I bought a few more groceries than I normally would have. I put an emphasis on buying non-perishable goods just in case. We're in a good spot on a farm with space around us rather than being in a crowded city. UVA has a research hospital, so some patients should make it this way regardless of whether there's an outbreak here or not. That should mean that there are people nearby who will know at least somewhat what they should be doing, but time will tell.

Times are interesting. Never forget what Gandalf said!

The End of Wrestling Season

The district wrestling tournament was Wednesday night. I picked up Shane and we drove out to Fluvanna High School to cheer our team on. I got in for free, but they charged me $8 for Shane (so I paid in change! It got rid of a lot of quarters we had accumulated).

The Charlottesville crew was there, so Shane and Jin goofed off together. Shane spent a long while on my phone. He was so into the electronic world, he didn't hear a wrestler named Nathan sneak up behind him for a scare.

The highlight of the night: One of the heavyweights of another team puked all over the side of the mat in front of his bench. We made sure to sneak in and sit on the other set of benches while our opponent was outside the gym having a mini-pep rally! We lost the match but won the olfactory challenge!

Sadly, none of our wrestlers qualified for regionals. Disha got her first win against another girl, but overall we went out with a whisper.

There was still practice Thursday and Friday just in case someone was called up as an alternate. No one was.

Instead of going to regionals near Lynchburg Saturday, the head coach took Disha and Nathan to a JV tournament at Woodberry Forest. One of the other coaches had been going to cover it, but backed out. 

I had planned on watching some wrestling, so Shane and I drove up! I'd never been to Woodberry Forest and we had a new audiobook (I highly recommend checking out audiobooks online).

Shane got my phone while I was on the mats. We only had two wrestlers close in weight, so there was a lot of downtime between rounds and we went outside to run around campus.

The weather was fantastic and there were plenty of scenic views.

I'm pretty sure the tuition is more than my annual salary. There was a golf course and houses for teachers.

Lots of walls and trees to climb on, too.

The wrestling gym was on the side of a hill, so we could actually step onto the roof from a parking lot.

Shane really wanted to crawl out and look through the skylights, but I was the buzzkill. He settled for exploring and putting berries in the gutters.

Maybe the shrubs are why it's call "Woodberry?"

We stayed through 3 of the 5 rounds before I deemed it "long enough." We stopped by Costco on the way home for food, gas, and groceries (Note to self: Avoid Costco on Saturdays).

Carrie let Loki greet us when we got home. He jumped into the car to make sure it was really us.

And then he jumped into a puddle while Shane was outside playing with him!

So I jumped his dirty butt into a bath!

I needed to look up "how to bathe Shelties" after the fact. Loki is like a sponge and his inner layer absorbs and locks in soap. Even after being submerged and scrubbing there were still bubbles. Then his outer layer dried while the inner stayed wet!

There's always something to do, but I enjoy life. I'm looking forward to having more free time now that wrestling is done.

Until next year!

A Hole in the Clouds

After days of rain, the sun came out! Shane helped Carrie curtail bamboo growth before church.

It was another, "entertain yourself" morning. Shane dumped out all my cards and played his own version of 5-Minute Dungeon.

We went to the later church service and then hit up Costco for groceries.

Shane got into a discussion with a woman about the tomato plants she was buying. You could tell she had children by how patient she was with him telling her everything she already knew!

We bumped into one of my wrestlers, Jin. He introduced Shane to his grandma as, "the kid who hangs on to my leg!"

Guess what Shane did? He latched on to Jin's leg. Neither Jin or Shane could get enough of it, but I didn't want them bumping anyone. It happened again a couple of times as we bumped into them shopping.

I had to excuse us to shop faster at one point, because Shane really wanted to poop.

Baseball practice was at four.

The coach was solo, but their weren't many kids.

I had an "Oh, duh!" moment. I finally realized that the Jordan from baseball was the same Jordan at TKD. I've recognized him and known his name was Jordan whenever I saw him at TKD, but somehow never put two and two together. I blame the work burnout.

Shane burned out on paying attention himself. Maybe it was the heat. He did a crap job of doing what the coach was asking.

Practice ended early (4 PM), but Ezra stayed to play. Shane and Ezra climbed and talked until 4:30 PM.

Soccer ended with a whimper yesterday, so baseball is our only seasonal activity left. Only three games left. Summer is edging closer and closer.

In Hunt of Food

From Tuesday continued:

I picked up Shane from school after surviving Teacher Appreciation Day.

Our first stop was Chipotle. There was a free burrito with my name on it.

A look in the door reminded me why I have never gone to the Chipotle in Charlottesville.

My time is worth more than a free burrito for teaching.

Luckily, we hit the jackpot at Harris Teeter. There were multiple "Buy 2, Get 3 Free" sales going on!

Carrie has enough flavored coffee to last her through summer. Shane and I will  hide the Cheez-Its from her and get to experience a wide variety of flavors for our troubles!

I was careful not to buy any cold items, because our next step was Costco. Shane and I had pizza for dinner before getting the rest of our groceries.

In case you are curious, Shane's colon called for it's typical Costco pit-stop. I had to re-instruct the boy on stall etiquette, as well. Shane was cackling and kicking the stall door open and shut from the porcelain throne when I went to check on him.