Happy visit

I missed posting last weekend, but I know you all will forgive me. Rocket Boy has been here since May 22nd and we are having a nice, if a bit weird, time. Part of the weirdness is his job and part is just the desperate state of the country right now. I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed by the news.

RB told me ahead of time that he'd have to do some work while he was here, and it turns out that means he has to work at least 4 hours a day on weekdays, sometimes more. His co-workers know he's in Colorado, but everyone seems to need him desperately. He's had three or four conference calls and many many email exchanges while he works on a big programming project. At first this upset me, but I'm adjusting to it. After all, this job is what's supporting us now, and I'm very happy that he likes his work and his co-workers value and like him.

So my plans for us to work together on numerous projects, take family walks or hikes every day, and still have plenty of time to cook elaborate dinners, watch movies, play board games, and just talk -- have had to be scaled back a bit. It's OK. We're having a nice time. And after today we have exactly one week left of his visit, unless he decides to extend it, which he could. We'll see.

We have actually gotten a lot of small projects done -- he changed the lightbulbs that I couldn't manage, replaced the broken cords in two sets of curtains, put the screens in the front and back doors, mowed the back yard and weeded the side yard, and took our broken computers to his fix-it guy in Evergreen (verdict on mine: its useful life is over; verdict on Kid B's: needs a new hard drive but worth fixing). We're trying to find a new couch for the living room, but so far no luck. We've also taken a few walks to the park and cooked a few simple meals. He barbecued salmon for Memorial Day dinner and afterwards we roasted marshmallows.

The visit got off to an exciting start when Kid A decided to cook ramen in the microwave, Dad's first morning home. Rocket Boy and I were watching the previous night's PBS NewsHour in the office, because he'd moved the TV in there to try out his Roku stick. The boys came in, looking nervous, and told us there was smoke in the microwave. "Well, turn off the microwave," I said. It took a while for them to convey the seriousness of the problem.

It turned out that Kid A had forgotten to put water in the styrofoam ramen cup and the whole thing caught on fire, leaving the mess you can see in the photo. The house was full of smoke, so much so that I had a coughing fit and had to go outside. And now, seven days later, the house still stinks, particularly the microwave itself. (I think we need a new filter?) It reminded me of the first day of summer vacation -- after 1st grade? -- when Kid B had a bike accident, tore open his chin, and refused to get on a bike ever again. This was less dramatic, but it reinforced my sense that the "first day" of anything is potentially risky.

A few days ago, while we were outside weeding the side yard, I decided to prune the little tree by the driveway -- the one where I saw cedar waxwings a few months ago. "Don't prune too much," Rocket Boy said, making me want to prune even more. FORTUNATELY I saw it in time -- a hummingbird nest on a branch I was about to cut off.

I think it was the day of the microwave fire, when I was spending a lot of time outdoors, that I noticed that a hummingbird kept dive bombing me. I couldn't figure out what her problem was -- never even thought of a nest. Anyway, it was the same bird, and here was her nest. So darling! And such a connection with my mother, who once had an Anna's hummingbird nest in a tree fuchsia on her patio. Our hummer is almost certainly a broad-tailed, the usual species here.

The next day I asked Rocket Boy to go buy me some flowering plants that the hummingbird would like. Our local nursery, Sturtz & Copeland, is gingerly open (you have to wear a face mask, not too many people allowed inside at once) and I was a little nervous about going, so I sent him. He, of course, was also nervous about going, because he was sure he would come home with the wrong plants. I swore up and down that I would not criticize his choices, that my only requirement was that the flowers appeal to hummingbirds. "Ask the staff for suggestions! I'll love anything you get." And I have abided by that vow, but honestly, it wasn't hard, because he got perfect things.

The folks at S & C told him that most hummingbird plants are perennials, not annuals, so he got several of those. The few annuals he got are in the pot above -- marigolds, which are his favorite flower, and a deep pink impatiens that can handle the sun better than regular impatiens. I will probably still get some more annuals for the little pots that I keep close to the porch -- lobelia and things like that. But I'm particularly excited about the perennials he got, though I wonder whether we can keep them alive over the winter. We worked hard to clean out the front yard flower bed, which was full of weeds, and now we just have to decide where to put each plant. I can't remember what they all are, except that one is a penstemon and one is bee balm. But there are three others, too. It looks like a hummingbird smorgasbord! Of course I should also get a hummingbird feeder -- maybe next week.

Let's see, what else? I did manage to get the house pretty clean, sticking with my schedule, clean enough that Rocket Boy didn't scold me, and I've managed to keep it in reasonable shape over the past week, too. I feel inspired by this approach to cleaning, and plan to continue working with it. I'm thinking I could continue my "one-room-per-week" strategy, maybe change it to "two-rooms-per-week," but do surfaces on Monday, stuff on the floor Tuesday, sweeping/vacuuming Wednesday, get rid of trash for the whole house Thursday, and perhaps a special cleaning project in those rooms on Friday. Well, we'll see.

School is over, as of the 21st. I was much sadder about it ending than the twins were. Their band teacher hadn't been doing online sessions, but for the last day he did one, just to chat and say goodbye. During the call, the boys got the idea to set up their Chromebooks on either side of Chester, so that their class would see different aspects of the cat (instead of Kid A's and Kid B's faces). Then they got out the catnip, which we keep in an old green Parmesan cheese container, and sprinkled it around. "Is that cat eating Parmesan cheese?" their band teacher asked, to our great amusement.

Mr. Fluffypants has been very naughty recently, getting out into the yard and running away every chance he gets. When Rocket Boy works in the yard, he likes to leave doors open, which makes it easy for cats to go out. Pie Bear goes out too, but that's not a problem because he always comes back in (and is too old and decrepit to hunt birds). One night Chester got out and we simply couldn't find him, so we put the kids to bed and I continued to go outside every so often, searching in the dark. Finally, when I was on the sidewalk, looking down the street and wondering how far away he had gotten, I noticed what seemed to be a cat statue in our neighbor's flower bed, across the street. "Wait, they don't have a cat statue, do they?" I tried to remember. They do have a tortoise statue. Anyway, it was of course Chester, looking very regal, so I chased him home. The next day he ran away again, and also the next. Bad Mr. Fluffypants. But that third day he perhaps had an "incident" with a neighbor cat, because he raced home and then needed to rest for a long time. He's been better about staying inside since then.