The rest of summer

OK! So now comes the rest of summer. The twins go back to school in five weeks and four days (Thursday, August 17th). Their last day of school was Thursday, May 25th, which was six weeks and three days ago. So we've passed the midway point -- it was actually last Thursday, the day after my birthday. 

Rocket Boy left yesterday around noon and made it to Russell, Kansas, where he usually spends the night (380 miles). He stayed at the Fossil Creek Hotel -- we stayed there with him last year. I got a text from him around 10 pm saying he'd swum in the hotel pool and now was watching an episode of "Odd Squad" (PBS Kids -- our family's favorite show). That means he has to drive 493 miles today, but that's do-able if he gets an earlier start. We did it, last year, with complaining twins.

We all miss him already. The mood around the house is subdued. It's fine -- we're used to him being gone. But it was so much nicer when he could be here the whole month, every other month. Now we won't see him again until September, and that'll probably just be for a few days. I wish he could find a job in this area -- or retire.

This past week was good, I guess. Fourth of July was pretty much rained out, but we did barbecue a piece of salmon on the patio (very expensive salmon -- Skuna Bay farmed salmon from Canada, which is supposed to be very good, and it was). We ate it with two kinds of potato salad from Sprouts, garlic bread, and honeydew melon (and hot dogs, for those who either don't like salmon or who like salmon AND hot dogs). Unfortunately there weren't enough coals left for roasting marshmallows. Teen B and I tried to do it over a candle, but weren't very successful (my marshmallow kept catching on fire and his just turned black without softening). 

My birthday was fine, though it got off to a bad start. I got up early and was just having a cup of tea, thinking about how nice it was that I don't get all upset about my birthday anymore, when Teen A came out and demanded that I wash his sheets because they smelled funny. I had so many choices for how to respond -- why did I have to snarl at him to wash his own sheets, it's my birthday? Despite his tough exterior, he doesn't like being snarled at -- as who does? So then he didn't speak to me for the rest of the day.

Sigh. When will I learn? Of course, it would have been nice if Teen A had not said what he said, but he's the teenager and I'm the 63-year-old adult, and I know better. Oh well.

Oh, and I did end up washing his sheets, as penance. He still wouldn't speak to me. Once you go down that road, it's hard to turn around and come back (hard for a teenager, that is).

Anyway, that was the only bad thing that happened, so the day was mostly OK. I got nice cards and presents (including three new Barbie dolls), I found a garish pink cake at Safeway, and we went out to dinner at the Gondolier, which everyone likes. Rocket Boy's present to me was to have my almost-17-year-old car "detailed" which meant we had to drop it off at the detailing place in east Boulder that day. I did not particularly want my car detailed -- it was filthy inside, but I'm used to the filth. But the twins, who are now learning how to drive it, have been complaining about the dirt, so this was more of a present for them.

I'd say the detailing shop did a pretty good job -- the car is vastly cleaner than it was. The only problem is that it stinks. Maybe it's on purpose, maybe it's supposed to be the "new car smell," but it's horrible. I've read that some people get their cars detailed in order to remove bad odors, but my car didn't smell bad before. No one's ever smoked in it, and I don't drive any wet dogs around. But it sure smells terrible now. We're driving around with all the windows open and the fan on high, and right now the car is sitting on the driveway with the windows down. I guess the next step would be a container of baking soda. I don't know what else to try.

Rocket Boy worked on some other projects while he was here, too. My laptop has been acting really sluggish, so he took it to his computer guru in Evergreen and the guy reloaded Windows. The problem is that I lost all my programs in the process and I'm having some trouble reinstalling them. Office just refused to download -- I think my copy was too old -- so I've switched to LibreOffice for now. The next problem is my camera, which is no longer supported by Canon. I downloaded a driver for it, at least I think I did, but I don't know if it's going to work -- my camera battery is charging right now, so I'll be able to test it out soon. 

Tech companies REALLY don't like you to use old stuff. "No longer supported" means "Spend more money on us, you cheapskate!" 

OK, the download worked and the software downloaded ALL 1370 photos currently on my camera and organized them nicely (the old software wouldn't organize them, for some reason). So that's nice, especially since I haven't been able to find my pictures on my computer since the Windows reload. I think they're there somewhere, which means now most of them are on there twice, but oh well. My laptop has an enormous hard drive, room for thousands more photos, so it's OK.

Rocket Boy also worked on the bathroom sink, which has been draining slowly, but although he took it apart and replaced some of the pieces, it still drains slowly. It may be tree roots again, I don't know. I'll watch it (and all our other drains) closely this week. The thing is, the tree root problem has never shown up first in the bathroom sink before. Well, we'll see.

So, what's on the calendar for this week? Teen A has a 3-hour driving lesson on Tuesday and Teen B has a 3-hour driving lesson on Wednesday, so those are the big things. Teen A has started a tennis class on Saturday mornings and Teen B will have to continue with his online PE class, which I help with.

Rocket Boy's brother's 71st birthday is next Friday, so I'll probably make a trip out to Longmont to bring him a cake and a present. We usually give him a King Soopers gift card. I should have gotten him a birthday card and had Rocket Boy sign it before he left, but I didn't think of it. It's OK. His brother is actually very laid-back about that kind of thing.

The cats are happy that Rocket Boy has gone back to St. Louis because now they can sleep on the bed again. We had some problems with that while RB was here -- cats insisting on sleeping on the bed even though there was NO ROOM. To help with the problem, I put the old cat blanket/cat bed on the floor next to my side of the bed, and Sillers slept there at night, pretty happily. She likes to be close to her mom, and apparently that was close enough. But as soon as RB left, I put the cat blanket back up on the top of his dresser -- and Sillers jumped up there to sleep. She had never slept up there before, but she apparently decided that if the cat blanket was there, she would be there too. Baby Kitty did not like that, however, so even though he hasn't wanted to sleep up there in several weeks, he's decided it's the place to be once more. So now it's become a very quiet cat fight: whenever one of them jumps down to use a litter box or check out the house for burglars/spiders, the other cat jumps up and claims the space.

I must ask the kids how they want to spend what's left of their summer -- just playing video games and practicing driving, or do they have other ideas? I don't think we're going to visit the cabin this summer, unless Rocket Boy wants to go in September. I guess I could drive there with the twins if I had to, but I don't want to. Maybe we could see a movie? Explore ice cream shops in the Denver metro area? I'll ask them.

As for me, I don't think I have any big summer plans. I'll keep doing yardwork, with or without Teen A, keep trying to take care of the house with the FlyLady's help. Maybe I'll try some new summer recipes. Working on my novel is pretty much on hold until the kids go back to school. I'm doing a lot of reading -- at the moment I'm reading three books at once. I read a chapter of one, move it to the bottom of the pile, read a chapter of the next, and so on. 

I feel a little bit guilty about my lack of ambition -- am I frittering away my one wild and precious life? Or am I reveling in it, spending time with my "little" boys, enjoying my favorite activity (reading), and watching the days go by? It would be perfect if Rocket Boy could be here too, but nothing's ever perfect.