Surviving the week and a visit from the in-laws.
Well, we made it through the week which wasn’t necessarily a given toward the middle of the week. My wife and I did the Vera swap-a-doo for a few days while she was mending from her ear infection, but she made it back to school Thursday after the antibiotics kicked in. At least until her school called at 8:45 AM Friday to say she had Hand, Foot, and Mouth and I ran over to pick her up.
Since I wasn’t expecting to have Vera, I didn’t have her diaper bag, or toys, or food. Challenges are opportunities right? Well, I took the opportunity to score one of the greatest parenting wins of my nearly seven-year dad career. Determined to actually get work done rather than just go home with her, I built a small pallet under my desk with a couple of jackets I had in my office then took her out to a long hallway to run her around until she was good and tired. It worked, and with a little trial and error, I managed to get her to sleep on the pallet under my desk.
My in-laws were in town this weekend and while I love my in-laws (I really do) I could do without their turning the thermostat to 185 degrees as soon as they walk in the house. On one trip my wife set a passcode on the thermostat, but I made her take it off because I was sure I’d be blamed. I’m a bit of a gadget nerd and our house has a fairly high degree of automation and nontraditional controls. It makes living here full time easier, but can occasionally wreak havoc on overnight guests. Especially overnight guests who have a habit of walking around the house turning every possible light switch off.
I’ve been getting my in-laws accustomed to our setup over the last few years. I bought them an Amazon Echo a year or so back so they’ve gotten comfortable with Alexa, and I bought a small switch that sits on the table beside the chair my father-in-law likes to read in so he can control that lamp and the other living room lights from that chair. They’ve even learned how to operate the Apple TV and various streaming services.
I imagine it makes them feel a little less like strangers in a strange land, and it is nice for me not to have to turn lights back in that should be automatic for days after they leave. There are some downsides though. For instance when my father-in-law wakes up at 5:00 AM I get to hear him yelling various commands at Alexa outside our bedroom door, or when I step outside to check on the grill and come back inside to Karen Carpenter playing in the living room.
Overall we had a great weekend. Franklin got to smash a cinder block wall and help with demo over at the new Druid City Brewing location, we found the tunnel under Ol’ Colony Road, and I got some work done on some new projects I’m working on. Franklin earned some spare money when a neighbor challenged him to clean the Sweetgum Bals off his lawn. I even monogrammed a buffalo chicken dip because I’m learning to be fancy.
We’ll see what this week holds (besides more rain), It’s thrown me a curveball early. While getting ready this morning I used the last of a stick of deodorant under my left arm, we had a replacement, but after applying the fresh stick to my right underarm I noticed they were two different scents. Having independently scented underarms bothers me more than it probably should, but I didn’t gave time to take another shower so ill just have to start the week with ignoring this bad omen. I’m sure midway through Franklin’s 6:45 PM baseball practice I will have forgotten all about it.
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