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A Swell Day
Monday was just another day of school for the kids, and some more preparation for Kira’s big RS luncheon set to take place the following day. I had a few last things to do for classes the next day, so got those out of the way and then I was in charge of Merritt while Kira did some appointments and other preparation.
Tuesday was my first day back for the semester, so of course I didn’t sleep much the night before with my mind on catching my alarm and train, and then making sure the day went well. I was quite tired all day, but got through classes and then three meetings that afternoon. Kira said that her luncheon went quite well, and that ten people came: a decent turnout. Hannah took good care of Apollo, keeping him occupied most of the time elsewhere. It’s nice to have that behind us, at least.
I got Wednesday started with getting some more school work out of the way, and then I tried to spend some of the afternoon doing yardwork while it was cool and dry. I got the back yard mowed, and then after cutting two rows of the front lawn, the mower felt like it was slowing and then the blades just slowly stopped. Upon further inspection, I discovered that the belt that causes the blades to rotate had become shredded up a bit. That was exciting. I got the unit apart and then ordered a new belt from our local store. I picked it up Friday morning with some trepidation, as I had never done this type of repair, but it came together pretty nicely.
Thursday was back to campus for me, when I got into the course material, which is the most enjoyable part for me. It was also the first meeting of the afternoon course, which was very long, but ok. I’m sure it’ll be easier once I get deeper into the semester.
Friday was mostly preparation for Isaac’s arrival. I finished up the lawn mowing after getting the mower put back together, and Kira worked to get the interior up to her standards. I kept wrestling with the best way to get him. Traffic is notoriously awful in the Chicago area, especially around the time Isaac’s flight was scheduled to arrive, so I thought we should try the train. However, his flight was to arrive at an awkward time where I was not sure we could make the train to get back home at a decent hour, so instead Hannah and I drove to get him. Naturally, his flight arrived about 30 minutes early, and so he had to wait for us while we were in traffic delays. “Live and learn,” I suppose.
Isaac treated Hannah and me to a quick meal on the way home and then we sat down at home to watch a comedian Hannah and I like before bed.
We were a bit nervous to see how Apollo would treat Isaac, and it was about as we expected. Apollo has been pretty slow to warm to him. He doesn’t quite trust him, yet, but he still fell asleep on Isaac’s lap yesterday night as Isaac petted him.
We hoped to introduce Isaac to our wonderful beach on Saturday, but were a little sad that it was going to be so mild. It was in the mid 70s the whole day, so the water was a little too cool to make it a truly great beach day. We went anyway and got the experience, but not without paying for it.
We brought Apollo along with us, because he seems to really enjoy sniffing around and getting some fresh air. While out sniffing around, however, he happened upon a wasp or hornet’s nest, and really upset them. Hannah said that she saw maybe five on him at once, so dashed him over to the water to try and get them off, but unfortunately, the damage had been done.
The picture doesn’t really do it justice. He first limped around, lifting his right paw, and so we laid him down so Hannah could get a closer look at him. She didn’t find any stingers, but he threw up, and then just lay down, apparently traumatized and hurt. Hannah carefully monitored his breathing to make sure he didn’t have any life-threatening reaction. Over the next several minutes, his lips and eyes swelled up a lot so that we could hardly recognize him. After a good break, he seemed to be acting pretty normal, but just looked awful. We wrapped things up after a little longer and got him home.
Fortunately, we had some old medicine in our stash that did the trick. The swelling came down pretty quickly, and he’s acting and looking just fine now, but hopefully also wiser about where he goes sticking his nose.
While Kira and I worked on getting the kids fed and de-sanded, Isaac and Hannah went on a few errands, checking out a food festival thing going on downtown. We enjoyed pizza for dinner and some muddy buddies I’d just made, and then once the boys were in bed, we watched more stand-up together.
Isaac’s threatening to leave tomorrow, but we’re still trying hard to convince him to quit his job, shirk all responsibilities, and join us. I suppose you’ll see if it works next week.
The kids are excited to have tomorrow off of school, and we’re still working on ideas for how to best spend the day.