Update August 28, 2020

Hi all! Hope you had a good week.

Sunday was fun. Aaron and I (mostly Aaron) completed digging the trench for the wall. I worked for 2 hours trying to decode a massive root puzzle before my frustration got the better of me and I went inside to hang out with my friend Liz, who was babysitting. Aaron stayed out a couple hours more. He managed to get up the last portion of the root that I think I’d mostly dug out before giving up. I went to bed at 8:30 exhausted…

and woke Monday morning missing my glasses (where did I put them in my zombie state), and with a cough. Aaron eventually found the glasses but the cough didn’t subside. At 10, I gave in and canceled my plans for the day and scheduled a doctor appointment.  When I explained to the doctor that I was flying out Saturday, he agreed that I should be tested for COVID that day, because sometimes the tests take 5 days.

Problem is that I get anxiety coughs, and felt it was more likely an anxiety cough than COVID. My throat tightens when I’m stressed, and my asthma acts up. So it seemed like overkill to get a COVID test. In the end, the cough hung in for a few days, though, accompanied by fatigue.

Tuesday was boring, as I had to cancel my plans because I was quarantined till my COVID test results came back. I tried a new app called “MeetMe” which was, in theory, an app for talking to strangers. But they all had an agenda or were creepy. One of the people was (I’m pretty sure) a pedofile who was trying to get pictures of my kids. “She” was talking about her own 13yo daughter fondling her own DD-sized breasts and how they bounced. I blocked “her.” I should have reported her, too. Didn’t think of it. I was too creeped out. I also brainstormed ways to deal with extracurricular activities.

M-8 has dropped out of Code Ninjas and from soccer. He hated the outside exercise of the first soccer practice and refused to move after the first few laps. As for Code Ninjas, he’s sometimes interested and sometimes not, depending on his mood. Its monthly fee is too expensive for that kind of apathy. We’re not gonna force him to do something we’re struggling to pay for.

Plus, if I’m going to use some of his spare time, he needs exercise! He’s been depressed lately, and exercise is good for mental health. At least I can take him to the park for now. He doesn’t like the park, but he tolerates it. I’ll have them do a lot of sledding in the winter. He sometimes tolerates that. Sometimes, he blatantly refuses to get out of the car. *sigh I often feel like he doesn’t get much enjoyment out of life. 😥 He mostly wants to be on his tablet, but when you ask him about it, he sounds like it’s just a way to stave off boredom. Every once in a while he’s excited by it. (That apathy may be more recent – now that he’s depressed again.)

D-10 has dropped swim lessons for fall because she’s afraid of the locker rooms. The district makes them go in alone, and they’re not well-lit. We’re thinking of signing her up for swim team at the YMCA. It seems a better fit for her than the swim team with the district (which isn’t even meeting this Fall, anyway) because the district focuses on competition and the Y focuses on self improvement.

Wednesday Loki’s new blankie and pillow arrived from Amazon. So much for Snuffie. Now he carries around his blankie and pillow.

Thursday I got my COVID test back, and it was negative. Just in time to run some pre-trip errands. Afterwards, I had a lovely conversation with M-8 about race and gender and why some people were treated differently than others. Mostly it was him making very perceptive statements, and me agreeing, but at one point he asked why white people were treated better than other races historically. It reminded me of “Why do white men have more cargo” from Guns, Germs, and Steel. So I started explaining the premise of that book (mainly that because of the location that white people lived, they were uniquely situated to have guns, germs, and steel. I only got so far as the guns part with M-8, who has ADHD. But we’d already discussed the germs part while discussing how aliens from outer space would die if they came here because they were unaccustomed to the germs (his idea, which I told him was the premise of a well-known book which I will not provide spoilers to on my blog). We also discussed how white people gave diseased blankets to the Native Americans in order to reduce their numbers.

Overall, it was a good week, though I accomplished less than I had hoped due to the quarantine.

I didn’t complete anything this week, but I watched some Supernatural Season 10 with Aaron, read some of Sorcerer of the North, and listed to a little Golem and the Jinni.