Labor Day is over, which means political season is kicking into high gear, which means that for the next eight weeks or so, I'll be busy busy busy at work. Which obviously makes it the perfect time to plan a vacation. I'm only half joking with that. Fall break is coming up, and political season be damned, we're getting out of this house. We bought those plane tickets to Vegas, but we still can't see ourselves using them (too risky!) so instead we're going to drive somewhere. Not to worry, we won't be out a single cent for the plane tickets since we bought them with Southwest credits. They'll just go back into our account, and we'll have to use them by sometime next year.
Anyway! Let's catch up. Max got his cast removed, Liam continues to play in tennis matches (though he has a notably lackluster doubles partner this year, which puts a real drag on the proceedings), and Henry is very excited about something something Fortnite (this is a video game about which I now have extensive knowledge because Henry never stops talking about it; however, I won't inflict all that vastly important knowledge on you — just know that next time you see Henry, he'll tell you ALL about it if you ask. or even if you don't).
We're fresh off a long weekend of work, work, and some other work. I wrapped up a couple of side projects (well, mostly wrapped up, just a few odds and ends left and then I can bill for them) on Saturday and Sunday. Mike did all his usual weekend things, getting the groceries, mowing the yard, etc. And then yesterday, Mike and Henry decided to cross a huge thing off our project list: they dismantled the hot tub!
Friends, I tried, I really did, but it turns out that once a hot tub outlives its functional life (which this one did sometime around a decade ago), nobody will take it off your hands. You can't even pay someone to come and get it for scrap. Believe me, I made all the phone calls inquiring. And then I turned to the boys' favorite resource: youtube. What a wondrous and helpful place the internet can be sometimes! I found videos showing how to cut your old hot tub up for disposal, along with instructions for the tools you would need. Luckily, I happen to have a connection to one of the world's preeminent tool collectors, so I hit my dad up for the appropriate tool (a sawzall, kind of like a VERY MANLY version of an electric knife you would use for carving a turkey) and then hit Amazon up for a three-pack of the special blades that cut through all hot tub materials, and we were in business. Ummmmm ... Mike was in business.
It took him the whole damned day, but eventually Mike won the Battle of the Hot Tub in spectacular fashion. Take a look at these before, during, and after shots. And now we have all this extra space out on the patio. No idea what we'll do with it, if anything. Definitely clean it first thing.
Now we just have to spend the next 100 weeks (give or take) getting rid of it piece by piece in our trash bin every week.
In national news, the president wants to pretend that coronavirus is over and everything's back to normal, even though it very clearly is not. He's got other problems on his hands now too because at least five major news outlets have independently verified and reported on his comments about our military. You will be shocked (SHOCKED!) to learn that Trump thinks people who serve in the military are "suckers," and people who die for their country are "losers." It's revolting. He's revolting. How do people twist up their logic to believe in this guy?
Meanwhile, Sen. Kamala Harris busted out her Chuck Taylors and jeans and flew to Kenosha to speak in person to the family of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot in the back seven times by police for ... I don't even know what. They were already holding him by the shirt, so shooting him in the back was just egregious. Protests against this kind of police brutality have continued for more than 100 days now, all across the country. And guess how the police reacted? If you guessed WITH MORE VIOLENCE, you're right! Everything is such a mess. Will we ever go back to normal?
I'm dealing with this pandemic in a perfectly normal way: working ridiculous hours, then surfacing to pester Mike with projects I dream of doing. Can we build shelves in the laundry room? What about the pantry? Can we replace some floors? Can I take a hammer to the ugly backsplash in the kitchen? Can I paint the kitchen countertops? No? Then what about putting new laminate on top of the old laminate? Will we ever finish the basement?
Honestly, I'm pretty sure he decided to finally tackle the hot tub project just to not have to hear me offer one more excellent-but-probably-more-expensive-than-we-think idea.
Anyway, I'd love to write more, but I've got a new proposal to discuss with Mike. Stay tuned!
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