Busy, busy

Well, it was a busy week, as I expected it would be. Our big achievement was Teen B retaking his driving test and PASSING! Oh, thank goodness. The examiners score the tests, and you can't get more than 20 points. On his first test, Teen B got 22 points. This time he got 20 -- but that's still a pass. It's like getting a D in Language Arts, but that was still a pass. Such a relief. 

Unfortunately, because he had to take the test twice, there was some special fee I needed to pay for him to get his license, and I couldn't figure out how to do that online, so we had to make a physical appointment to go in and get the license, and it's not until June 18th. So he can't drive alone until then. 

The day after his test, he got invited to a graduation party, and if he'd had his license, he could have driven himself, but... The party started at 7 pm, and around 8:15 he finally decided to go, so I drove him out there. We got there about 8:45, and sat in the parking lot for a while before he finally texted the girl who had invited him and she came out and got him (the party was held in a locked building, some industrial thing). I went home, and around 11 pm, when I was thinking of going to bed, I texted him and suggested that he might like to get a ride home with someone else... but he texted back and said the party just ended. So I went and got him, getting us both home about 11:45. It was a "game show party," with prizes, and he came home with a stack of stuff, candy and soda and miscellany.

I suggested that the girl who invited him maybe "likes" him. He said no. I suggested that maybe he'll see these people at other parties during the summer. He said no. It's OK. I'm glad he got to go to one party, even if that's the only social life he has all summer.

Teen A's social life has been complicated by his girlfriend's father moving to Berthoud. We're gradually learning more about this -- mostly from her, since Teen A never tells us anything. Apparently her father was only renting the place in Boulder, and the landlord kept raising the rent, thus the move. They are now living with the father's girlfriend, in a smaller house, and the father's girlfriend disapproves of Teen A spending the night. So for now the two teenage sweethearts have no place to be together, except the couch in our living room. I expect we will be waking up to the two of them on the couch a lot this summer. It makes Teen B angry -- he doesn't like having an extra person in the house -- but it doesn't bother me (the girlfriend is quite pleasant). In the fall, of course, Teen B will go off to live in a dorm at CSU, making the twins' bedroom available, but Teen A's girlfriend is also going off to live in a dorm at CSU, so... Life is hard for teenagers in love. I remember it well.

Let's see, what else happened this week? Monday was the Prius V's oil change, which turned out to be more complicated than expected. I followed Teen A out to the repair shop (about 5 miles from here), where he dropped off the car. As we drove away, I asked him if he'd reminded them about the car's other problem, the fact that the driver's side door won't reliably lock. No, he'd forgotten. So we went to Jamba Juice, and from there I called the shop and reminded them. Sure, they'd look at it. We got Jamba Juice and went home, and an hour or so later they texted me that the car was ready. We drove the five miles to pick it up and after paying $119, I asked about the door lock. Oh yeah, I think the mechanic said something about that, do you want me to check? Yes, obviously. She checked and it turned out that the car needed some part I'd never heard of -- an actuator? I said, OK, should we make another appointment to have that replaced? Oh no, she said, we can do it today. (Then why didn't you, I thought but did not say.) It would be about $300. Fine, fine. Teen A and I drove the five miles home again. An hour or so later another text: it's ready. So we drove the five miles back to get the car. This time it really was ready. But there was an issue with paying. The bill was $152. Wow, I said, that's a lot less than you said it would be. Puzzled, the girl looked at the bill. Oh, no, it's actually $452. Wow, I said, that's a lot more than you said it would be. More study of the bill. Oh, actually you already paid $152, so it's only $300. OK, sure, but I didn't already pay $152, I paid $119. Oh. Hmm. Oh, actually the original bill was really $152, so we just charged your credit card the extra $33 after you left. Ohhhkay. "Clear as mud," said the mechanic sitting next to her. Anyway, the Prius V is fixed now and the driver's side door locks and everybody's happy.

My referral to orthopedics went through and they actually called me, I think it was Monday. So I have an appointment to see my new orthopedist on Wednesday, June 17th. I said to my doctor (over email) that I didn't think there was much they could do for an old person who tears her meniscus, but she replied cheerily that there were many options and not to worry. So we shall see. Rocket Boy has been having a lot of trouble with his OTHER shoulder (the supposedly good one) that he fell on in a hotel room on our spring break trip back in March, and his physical therapist encouraged him to have that seen to. So he's seeing HIS orthopedist (different from mine) on Monday. It would be pretty funny if it turned out that shoulder was torn too and he had to have a regular rotator cuff repair of it. Hilarious.

The kids keep asking if we're going on vacation to California in July, and I keep saying, it depends on whether Dad and/or I have to have surgery, and when. Hopefully we'll have some answers quickly.

I had less success getting an appointment for poor Sillers and her peeing problem. At our vet's recommendation I had called the specialist vet for an appointment, but couldn't get through on their busy phone. So I filled out a form online and this week they called me (I think Tuesday?). But it was someone from the cat nephrology department and as I explained, we probably need to see a cat neurologist. She agreed and said she would pass the information on to them. But no one ever called back. So I guess my next step is to fill out another form online, since their phone is too busy. Poor weird Sillers. She doesn't want to go to a specialist vet, or any vet. Meanwhile, Rocket Boy and I sleep with a big towel laid over our fitted sheet (because she sleeps between us) and I keep washing cat blankets.

Teen B and I spent some time working on his college stuff, and I got him to schedule an appointment with a counselor to choose classes for the fall. But before he could have the appointment, he had to do some "assessments," including a long math test that he didn't want to take. I said, "Don't worry about it, if you do badly, they'll just put you in an easier class, and it would be great to have an easy math class your first semester of college," but he ignored me. Finally he took the test. He asked me for help with one of the algebra problems and I was just baffled by it, didn't know where to start. I guess a lot of the test was like that. Anyway, he didn't do very well, so he'll get to take an easy class. Win-win, in my book.

And yesterday I finally got him to write thank-you notes for all the graduation presents he received. At the last minute I remembered that we had actual graduation stationery, so we used that. I addressed the envelopes (six of them! including my sister who told Teen B he didn't have to write her a thank-you note because he'd thanked her in person, because COME ON) because my handwriting is better, but he wrote all the notes himself. Now I just have to get Teen A to do his.  

(Update: Teen A did his! Now I can go mail all 12 of them at the post office!) 

We had an odd thing happen in the garden this week, not sure which day. So last fall I planted six tulip bulbs in a row in our front-yard flower bed, and they came up all in a heap, as though they had somehow gravitated toward each other over the winter. Only one bloomed, but I enjoyed that. I'd been looking at the leaves ever since, wondering if I should cut them back the way I do the iris. Then suddenly this week they were gone, all of them, just gone, no trace of the leaves or anything. We still have no idea what happened. Did a squirrel dig them all up? Would a squirrel do that? I just don't know. Fortunately, today a neighbor dug up some of his own tulips and offered them to anyone who wanted some, so I went by and got about a dozen. I'll save them to plant in the fall (hopefully won't forget about them).

It's been very hot here the last few days, and today is supposed to be another scorcher. But then it is going to cool down a little, with only Tuesday being really bad. A few days ago they were predicting that the whole coming week would be hot, but they keep changing the forecast. Now it looks like a mix of high 80s and low 90s, which is better than all high 90s. Yesterday, because of the heat, I wore my new sundress that I paid a lot of money for at April Cornell. I like it a lot, but NO ONE said anything about it. No one said, "What are you wearing?" or "Pretty dress," or anything, positive or negative. I decided not to ask for comments, in case it looked terrible and my family was being polite (but they're never polite -- probably just didn't notice). I was very comfortable in the dress and am thinking about ordering another. Why not -- we have the money...

My computer doesn't like the heat and keeps overheating and grinding to a halt. Yesterday I worked on genealogy in the morning, overheated the computer, and turned it off for a few hours. But when I turned it back on, it was still sluggish. So I set up our big box fan to blow right onto the back of the computer and wow, what a difference. Suddenly it was fast again. So today Rocket Boy dug out a little fan from a drawer and set it up so it's aimed right at my computer. So far so good. I really need a new computer, but that's such a hassle. 

I haven't been writing recently, because it's hard to concentrate when there are so many people in the house. Instead, I've been obsessed with genealogy, using Ancestry.com to explore. I have over 1700 people in my tree now. I've always known a lot about my family history, but it turns out there are so many more avenues to explore. For example, a distant relative did a lot of work on my mother's father's line, the Morrisons. But here's the wife of my mother's father's father's father: Malina Miller, who was born in Illinois in 1826. The genealogy simply says, "Parents unknown at this writing." Well, obviously that needed work. I had already found out more about her parents and grandparents, but this week, I've been looking at her many siblings and tracing their descendants. I get a kick out of following lines forward instead of back, looking for third, fourth, and fifth cousins. I haven't found a sixth cousin yet, but I know I will. Sometimes Ancestry pops up with a note: "Would you like to contact XXX Cousin?" meaning that the fourth cousin I've just found is also on Ancestry. I always say no. Maybe at some point I'll say yes. Maybe someday I'll do the genetic testing. But for now, I'm just having fun.

Most of these distant cousins live in the midwest: Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, places like that. I found a really nice-sounding fourth cousin who'd retired from the photo department at Walgreen's (in northern Minnesota). You just wonder if she'd been living somewhere else, would she have had a better job. Occasionally a branch of the family will make the move to California or Washington, and then suddenly the distant cousins have better jobs. I found a fourth cousin this week who was a teacher in California before she died rather young of Alzheimer's and another last night who's a professor (also in California). 

And then there are the tragedies, the sad family stories. One distant cousin was out hunting pheasants with a friend in the late 1800s and the friend accidentally shot the top of the cousin's head off (the boys were about 16). Yesterday I found another distant cousin who accidentally shot himself while hunting rabbits in Missouri and "died within the hour." He was 23. Sometimes a whole family dies within a few years: baby, mom, toddler, dad. Yesterday I found a family that had two daughters born in 1900 and 1901. Mom died in 1908, dad died in 1913. Just like that, two young girls left alone. They both grew up and got married, so someone must have taken care of them.

I've always been a snoop, fascinated by other people's stories. Doing genealogy is the ultimate pleasure for a snoop.

So anyway, not writing right now, though I plan to return to my mystery children's book series in the fall. Not that the world cares. In the May 25th issue of the New Yorker there is a comic piece titled "Realistic High-School-Yearbook Inscriptions" by Jason Roeder and Mike Sacks, and one "inscription" reads 

You're such an AMAZING WRITER! I'M SO JEALOUS! I can't wait to read that one book you'll self-publish years from now, a children's book about a talking stapler with a huge heart. -- Mary P. 

That could easily have been written in one of my high school yearbooks, with the part about the talking stapler implied. In fact I think it was. Hmm, I'll check. Not in my senior yearbook, where mostly people praised my manual dexterity (because I didn't break anything in AP Chemistry). In my sophomore yearbook I found one comment like that, but it actually said,

Keep on writing those stories? and maybe you'll become a professional scuba diver or something.

which actually is pretty insightful, I think. Anyway, if someone -- even someone who was predicted to do great things -- is enjoying writing about a talking stapler, maybe that's OK too.

The week ahead looks very busy.

• Monday, Rocket Boy sees his orthopedist, so we'll hear what he has to say. I expect there will be another MRI scheduled too. 
• Tuesday, Teen A supposedly has some kind of orientation thing at Metro from 12 to 5. I tried to get him to prepare for it, figure out what he has to do, but there's some app that he has to use that won't work for him. He tried to use it on his computer and his computer blew up. So we ordered a part for the computer, but meanwhile I don't know what he has to do for Tuesday, and the app won't work on his phone either. Fortunately, Metro is a forgiving school. I think this will all work out. Stay tuned.
• Wednesday, Teen B has his advising appointment (over Zoom). Parents are NOT allowed to attend (this is CSU's attempt to deal with helicopter parents, obviously). But of course, Teen B is nervous about his appointment and WANTS me to attend. I suggested that I could stay out of range of the camera and signal to him when he has questions. We'll see.
• Thursday, both Teen B and I have eye appointments. He wants to get new glasses whether or not his vision has changed, so we'll work on that too.

And somewhere in there I'll hopefully make contact with the specialist vet about Sillers, and maybe my dentist will call to make the appointment to get my fake tooth put in. Another busy week, and the week after that looks even worse. Worse, no, none of this is bad. I just keep thinking about how quiet things are going to seem in the fall, when the kids are at college. Maybe. We shall see.