It's June 8th, and Rocket Boy was supposed to fly back to St. Louis yesterday, but he decided to extend his visit by two weeks, so we're happily continuing to live as a family (note that that's slightly different from "continuing to live happily..." but probably not enough to matter). He's now planning to leave on Father's Day, so we'll have a little over four weeks together in all. This means that he really does have to work every day -- and he does, for several hours. I've gotten used to that, but today the twins started complaining about it. "Why do you always have to work, why don't you ever play games with us?"
So he let his computer rest for a bit and took Kid A on a bike ride to Dairy Queen -- a nice father & son activity on a summer's day. And later Kid B and I, and Rocket Boy again, went for a walk to the park. So we all got out today. Storm clouds are gathering and we're supposed to have some serious rain and thunderstorms tonight.We haven't participated in the George Floyd protests, although they've gone on in Denver for days and days, and there were even some in Boulder this past weekend. Fear of the virus, not wanting to deal with parking, feeling old and unable to keep up with the other marchers... stuff like that. But I'm so caught up in the whole thing from watching the news. I think my time to do something will come. Definitely voting, maybe something else. It sounds like a lot of money is coming in to help the movement right now. Maybe there will be a time later when they'll need more money. Or there will be a young person that I can help. I will wait and see.
It is very exciting watching the protests. Terribly upsetting at first, and then as they've continued, more and more amazing. Sometimes I cry. At first I kept thinking, this is great, but nothing will come of it. But they keep marching, despite or because of Trump's idiotic comments and actions. I was impressed that the NFL commissioner decided to speak out in favor of Black Lives Matter, although it feels like too little too late. Why didn't the NFL do something when Trump came down hard on Colin Kaepernick's very mild protests back in 2017? Trump has criticized the NFL for this latest statement too, but in a much milder way, because Trump's pretending to be concerned about George Floyd's death. He must be one mixed-up president right now. A nice thought.I started "home school summer school" for the kids last week, sort of. As usual, I have a theme for each week. Last week was Tree Week. But I just couldn't get it together to make things happen. I would start the morning watching the PBS Newshour from the night before (with Rocket Boy here, we often have too much going on to watch it in the evening). Then I would cry and feel overwhelmed, and somehow that wasn't the right mood for summer school. The basic schedule is this:
- Monday & Wednesday: read & write for half an hour each day
- Tuesday & Thursday: field trip related to the theme
- Friday, Saturday, Sunday: long weekend
Not too challenging, right? I wanted Kid A to work with this program he has access to through school, Lexia. But he had forgotten his user name. We emailed his teacher but got no response, since she's on summer vacation like us. Since we still can't go to the library and browse for tree books, I downloaded a book about trees onto our Kindle for Kid B to read, but he threw a fit. I ended up reading the preface of the book aloud to them. It was terrible. So much for reading. I had thought to make them write birthday thank-you notes too, but we didn't get to that.
We took one field trip, I forget which day. Could have been Tuesday, or maybe Wednesday. It was supposed to be a tree identification walk around the neighborhood. I brought our little golden book of North American trees -- rather old-fashioned, but it was all I had. I see now that there is a Sibley guide to trees -- that might have been a good substitute. But actually, the little golden book was helpful. It was just incomplete. We successfully identified our own front yard trees (male honey locust and birch), our own backyard trees (maple, oak, Siberian elm), our next-door neighbors' trees (female honey locust to the east, oak to the west), and one of the trees across the street (the cottonwood in the photo above). But we got stuck on the other tree across the street (in photo below). I got the idea that it might be a hackberry, but I couldn't make the ID stick.
We walked further down 32nd Street to a very interesting tree that I've always wondered about. I couldn't find it in the book, though later, with the help of the internet, I realized that it's a catalpa (and is in the book, I just didn't spot it on our walk). Continuing on, we found a tree that wasn't in the book. After we stared at it for a long time, the lady of the house opened her front door and stared at us. We said hello and explained what we were doing. She told us the tree was a Jonathan apple tree, and she knew because they had planted it, long ago. "But there are no apples this year," she said sadly. "That late frost, you know." The same frost that killed all the lilac blooms. It's a wonder anything makes it through the Colorado winter/spring.
The twins were so bored on the tree walk they almost collapsed from lack of enthusiasm. It would have been comical if it hadn't been so annoying. They got in a huge fight over nothing on the way home and Rocket Boy had to console Kid B.So that was Tree Week. Other activities included eating out at a restaurant -- IHOP -- we were the only customers and we ate outside; going to a store other than the grocery or pet store -- me -- it was Barnes & Noble and I got the book for the book group; and actually going to the library for the first time in almost three months to pick up some books that I had put on hold. I had to make an appointment (mine was for 1:30 pm Saturday). They had my books in a plastic bag, already checked out to me, on a table in the atrium. So I didn't get to go inside the library proper and I didn't see another living soul. We still can't return our books. Supposedly on June 15th I'll be able to make an appointment to return the books we've had since March.
As the protesters march on, this week is Bird Week. Today I read to the twins another chapter of the tree book I'd downloaded, but it's really so badly written that I decided it's not worth continuing. So I tried to download That Quail, Robert, but then discovered that we'd never actually paid for the bad tree book, because Rocket Boy's credit card didn't work (his was compromised and he had to get a new one, but didn't tell Amazon). I can't figure out how to use my Amazon account to buy a book for the Kindle, so we are stuck there for now. I don't know why I have to buy a bird book. I own probably 40 different books about birds. But they're mostly all sort of technical. I also don't know why I don't have a copy of That Quail, Robert, since it was practically my mother's favorite book and she gave it to everybody. I probably had it once and lost it.
Tomorrow is field trip day. Maybe we'll just look at the hummingbird. She is still sitting on her eggs. I wonder when/if they will hatch.
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