Monday, April 6, 2020

The Dads Must Be Crazy CoronaBlog Days 19-21

Day 19 (Friday)

Bobby: 
So here it is. 1542hrs on a Friday and I’m sipping a glass of Irish Whiskey. Top of the afternoon to y’all . Normally I would have this on my gazebo, but I feel the urge to write a bit. It has been a couple of days since my last entry and I feel like I have abandoned my fellow Dads who I call my friends and whom I miss greatly.

Over the last couple of days, I have been pretty busy. I have raked the leaves in the backyard flower gardens, sprayed moss killer on my garage, prepared the box gardens for this year’s crop, turned the compost pile, raked leaves in the front yard flower gardens, and ventured out to get some groceries. MY BACK HURTS! Hence the whiskey 😊. It has been nice to get outside and do this work with my family. My children have all rotated outside and helped while completing schoolwork, which has been good for their mental health and mine. I like to see my family in good spirits in the middle of this quarantine.

So, one thing that this has taught me is that I should “can” more than I do. One of the things I am going to start making is homemade spaghetti sauce. The thing that I find funny is that most of the spaghetti sauce was/has been sold out for a bit. I know the grocery store has some, but my wife has to be on a low sodium diet. She can’t have the regular sauce and it was annoying that all of the low sodium has been sold out for a while. I guess people saw what was going on in Italy and assumed that all pasta and sauce comes from there and decided to make a run on the Italian section of the grocery store.  πŸ€”

I have also purchased a meat grinder. I have made sausage a bunch in the past and really do enjoy the time I spend perfecting the seasonings and grind. I still have some breakfast sausage I made last year, and it is still delicious. More jam will be made as well. My children love the homemade strawberry and plum jams. Next jam to make is blackberry. I will also have to find some base recipes to make my own bbq sauce as well.

Anyway, the garden is well on its way. My Serrano peppers are starting to grow. I will finally be able to make proper Pico de Gallo. I have been using Jalapenos which are an alternative, but I prefer to use Serrano peppers. That reminds me. I will also be making homemade restaurant style salsa as well. I just have to get a 14c food processor. πŸ‘ I love to cook and make things. This has really become a favorite hobby of mine after karate. After I punch people I have food for nourishment! πŸ˜‚

Anyway, I have rambled long enough. The weekend is upon us and I have some time set aside this evening with my friends to play some online games.

Until next time, stay safe, and be careful y’all. 

Update: It’s 1700hrs and I just bought a food processor. It was 57% off! Oh happy day!

Craig:
Man, Friday again? These days are starting to add up. Nineteen days in and we finally broke down and ordered take out for dinner. It was kind of a treat for everyone. We had pizza, and then we watched “The Rise of Skywalker” after dinner. For snacks, we had chips and dip. Thank goodness Bison is considered essential. It was essential for the evening. It’s not something we have a lot. We generally save that for a special treat. Friday night was our treat.

Day 20 (Saturday)
Craig:
I almost took an unexpected trip to the hospital today. I was helping with the dishes when it happened. I was putting away the clean dishes and leaned down to put some pans in the lower cupboard. When I stood up, I stood up right into the open, upper cupboard door. Knocked me off my feet. I saw a flash of green, and then instant loopiness and headache. Wendy had me put ice on it and sit down for a bit. I was foggy for the rest of the day. 

Wendy and the girls have been making masks since Friday. They’ve made about forty of them. They’re not perfect, but every little bit helps, in my opinion. We had someone from Youngstown drive out to pick up a couple, and one of Wendy’s school friends picked up some, too. She left a gift for the girls that was way beyond generous. It was a box full of costume jewelry. Really nice costume jewelry. Of course, it was like piranhas in the water when the chum is thrown. They eventually calmed down and made their selections, saving the majority to be used as gifts at a later date for friends.

The picking and bickering is definitely picking up. The kids, too. Thankfully, the weather has been much better and everyone has had the chance to get outside a bit. That relieves some of the pressure on the old house. Six people roaming basically the same four rooms has not been kind to anyone, including the house.

Day 21 (Sunday)
Craig:
If there ever was a complete waste of a day, today was it. We remembered that it was Palm Sunday which means Easter is only next week. In an isolation, how does one celebrate Easter? Wendy and I spent far too long trying to figure out Easter for the girls. And we spent way too much money taking care of that. And now Josephine wants to make sure we get the baskets out of the attic. You simply cannot disappoint a ten year old.

As for the rest of the day, I spent probably six hours playing Minecraft. First I played with Josephine on our family world. Then we were kind of chided by Wendy for not doing anything. So we quit. Later, I turned it back on and played with IdaLena on that same world. She jumped out, Jo came back, quit, and then Corliss played for a little while. IdaLena came back and finished off the evening. We got a lot accomplished. They are still amazed at how much I get into the game and explore and build. I love it. However, there’s no way I can play again on Monday. It’s time for a break.

Playing Minecraft with the girls does give me some one on one time with the girls. In the world we’ve created, we have to work together to survive. All the girls have to when we all play. They can’t fight. They have to work together. After a weekend of fighting, this is quite a relief. And playing that game takes my mind off the rest of the bad news in the world. Since I’ve been obsessed with the news websites, this is a very welcome break. 

In the meantime, we march on towards a return to normalcy. Hopefully May will bring flowers and freedom.

Howie:
My weekend was spent cleaning and doing the first grocery shopping I’ve done in about 2 weeks. I went to the store with a scarf on my face, as per my wife’s request. I also wore a pair of cloth gloves. Better than nothing, right?

On Saturday, my daughters and my wife and I (my son is still chilling at my inlaws) made it a movie night as we streamed Onward on Disney+. What an excellent movie! I’ll definitely be watching it again at some point to pay more attention to the background animation. Pixar is excellent at dropping in Easter eggs in the backgrounds of its movies. This film looked to be no different. Honestly, though, I got a bit distracted between bites of popcorn and cookies. But, it was quality family time.

As seen on this site, I also finished a rather lengthy book and wrote about it over the past couple days. Craig has both Bobby and I beat in terms of the pace at which he reads, but I love to contribute with my own takes when I can. Sometimes I can get on a roll, and I’m happy to report my next review of a book I’m soon to finish (much faster than the previous one) will be up likely later this week. 

Sunday was also fun because our inaugural bracket vote entered into its championship as Yahtzee is taking on Uno. I think with that in mind, I’ll break one of those two games out - again - to play against my daughters a few nights this week. I’ll consider it a way of teaching math.

Here’s hoping you’re all staying safe wherever you are, and that the end of this time period arrives sooner rather than later.