Best Day Ever

(Any Spongebob fans singing that title to themselves? *virtual high five* -- It's the only safe way to do it, anyway, coughy.)

There was a span of a few weeks where Mal's constant refrain was, "I want to meet up with someone!" I hadn't really thought about it much, but if that had continued, it might have been very trying to keep him home and away from people for the weeks and likely months that we're going to have to do this.

But it didn't prevail. In fact, Malcolm has said, more than he's ever said in his life, "This is the best day ever!" It started the day we had to hole up in his room, then a couple of times after that. Tonight, he was sitting in front of the window waiting for his dad to get back from the gas station with dummies and remarked, "I love my life!"

That kid (feral as he is) is thriving under social distancing. He LOVES to be home (read the previous entry on our bluebonnets road trip). He LOVES that he has a near-constant audience with either James or me, as James is home taking breaks during the day and not commuting at night. (I actually love that, too!)

He's playing with his Mario toys, and his Sonic toys. He's running all over the front yard. He's making up games. He's playing his Switch and watching videos. This morning, the Sonic movie came out and he watched that before he even got out of bed. (Yay, an extra hour of sleep for me... except that he kept turning on the Prime X-Ray to ask me to read the names of actors.) He's mostly wearing just underwear, and I might forget to brush his hair every other day.

In the words of Sonic the Hedgehog, he's "living [his] best life on Earth."

And today he flew a kite himself for the first time!

Here are some pictures of Mal's play during social distancing. He's not complaining.

Social Distancing, Day 14

It was just two short weeks ago that James took Mal to burn off some steam at the mall play area, and here we are now... seventy-three years later. It was another time, friends. Do you remember it?

Mal is basically feral. I am doing laundry a lot these days, but typically none of it is his. He might change underwear every day or two, but not shirts and no shorts. He's just a half-naked wild child living his best life traveling everywhere within Mario Odyssey with zero true idea that the whole world is shut down. This is an advantage to having a relatively small life, I suppose. You just don't know what you're missing out on.

But, really, are we missing out on much?

We decided to follow Jimmy Kimmel's wife's idea and do Formal Friday two nights ago. Who knew that all it took was a global pandemic to give me the time to actually fix my hair again?

On my way to get our dinner! Dig my favorite earrings!

James and Mal both dressed up: James dressed way up for Austin, and Mal played dress-up. We're very fancy.

We got food from Longhorn Steakhouse and enjoyed our nightly dinner on the front patio. Afterward, James got to hang out for a while with his mom's side of the family (he's currently writing a blog post about that) online.

Yesterday, we decided to take a road trip to nowhere, since that's the only place we're supposed to go. We wanted to see the wildflowers before the grass overtakes them (which will likely happen later this week). The entire road between here and Marble Falls was an absolute dream. 

Mal and I had driven to Round Rock to meet my sister Friday morning, and 1431 was absolutely stunning. I'm convinced that nowhere is more beautiful than the Hill Country of Texas during the very early spring (which started in late February this year). I mean, Glacier National Park, probably. But, man, the wildflowers here are something else.

We didn't stop much on our drive, because it's a two-lane highway with no shoulder in most places. But we got to see so much beauty. Here are a few pictures from places we got out of the car...

We got lunch at Chick-fil-A, as did half the population of Marble Falls. We took it to a tiny air strip/museum in Burnet, and, keeping things honest, as we do, Mal was not happy. I took this picture of James that looks so peaceful.

  

But I took it from afar because Mal cried THE WHOLE TIME we were there, wanting to come home and eat a cake I'd made for him. I was trying to get him away from James, so at least James could enjoy his spicy chicken sandwich.

This was Mal's basic attitude whole time.

Maybe he was just in a foul mood because he had on the clothes of a human child? We still enjoyed the drive home. Once he was in the car and not having to walk, thus tiring out his knees (this child's knees hurt way too much for a little kid... then again, he could just be complaining; it's his favorite hobby), he was fine. 

And don't worry! Malcolm got his cake. 

Not my best work, but still a tasty cake. It's my new go-to cake recipe for sure!

Today, we've mostly hung out around the house. For dinner, I made Caribbean beans with not-rice. It was supposed to be brown rice, but I thought freekeh sounded better. It was DELICIOUS, even though my dried beans hadn't softened quite enough (also, in the recipe I have, it said to add 1 Tablespoon of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the rice, which I recommend). We ate on the front porch, then went to Andy's Frozen Custard for dessert.

Mal really wanted to eat outside on their patio, but there are signs at places like that and Sonic asking people not to sit to eat on-site. So we drove across to Walmart, where there's a weird sunken island in the parking lot. I'm assuming it's for drainage. 

There are three picnic tables there, and no signs telling us not to sit there, so we still had our custard picnic... until it started raining.

Now it's 64 degrees and I can still hear water dripping from the trees. We have our windows open, and Mal and James are playing "find the bad guy."

It's easy to forget that the world is a mess right now. At least for a few minutes.

No, he's not napping. He's pretending to nap. Sigh.

Some Observations from Social Distancing

Yeah, I know. We're all doing it. So let's compare notes, shall we? (Plus, when people view this blog in 20 years, it will all be very quaint and interesting to them, I'm sure.)

THINGS WE'RE DOING MORE OF

Laundry

Dishes

Losing money in the stock market

Talking to each other

Talking on the actual phone

Paying active attention to Mal*

Trying to find places to buy things we need

Staying up and sleeping later

Trying to find things for James to eat for breakfast/lunch

Going on walks

Eating on the front patio

Seeing neighbors walking by, driving by on golf carts, or and sitting or piddling in their front yards

THINGS WE'RE DOING LESS OF

Showering/bathing

Paying tolls

Travel planning

Much of ANY planning more than a couple of days into the future, actually

Spending money on leisure activities

Checking the stock market

Make-up (but only me; James is using the same amount of make-up as before)

THINGS THAT HAVEN'T REALLY CHANGED

Homeschooling

Cooking/baking

News consumption

Internet use/movie- and television-watching

Taking pictures

Also, everything kind of has a weird-feeling overlay, and the other day I used spray deodorant on my hair instead of dry shampoo. Could be worse.

I'm also doing some more intensive baking projects than I'm usually wont to do, like making homemade Oreos and gnocchi. That's been fun. There's nowhere we have to go in the middle of those things to interrupt the rhythm of the process.

As I've written this, I've seen three families walk by at 10:00 AM on a Wednesday. That's not "normal," but I really do like it! Hopefully this will lead to more families walking around the neighborhood and saying, "Hi."

*James pointed out that Mal is being a lot more affectionate with him since he's working from home.

Social Distancing, Day 8? I think?

It's been an interesting week, maybe the first in dozens... or even hundreds? Yikes. Let's take this one day at a time.

First of all, my family is largely introverted, and this social distancing thing isn't as horrible as it could be. Also, we mostly all like each other mostly all of the time, so that's definitely making things easier. Furthermore, we're not as stressed about finances as I know many people are (even though we've lost A LOT of our 401(k) equity) because James is able to work from home. 

Next up: We had an unpleasant surprise last week when I realized that the brand-spanking-new heat pump we had installed a month or so ago was leaking. I ascertained that from looking at the spreading rust-colored stain and dent in my kitchen ceiling. The company who installed it was so responsive. He came out and brought a bunch of fans and a dehumidifier (which pulled about 2 gallons of water from our ambiance every 24 hours) and is having a contractor replace the sheetrock.

Mal has, as you may know, has a weird hearing thing where certain sounds are "too loud" for him, even if they're not objectively LOUD. Like, he wants his headphones at Urban Air because of the fan that keeps one of the inflatable areas full. The fan isn't actually loud, and Mal can handle much louder noises if it's something like driving down the road with the window open, or blasting a song he likes. 

Anyway, he thought the fan and dehumidifier that were in the kitchen were "too loud," so we spent Friday shut into his room. He vacillated between watching TV, playing Sonic the Hedgehog and/or Lego Minecraft (like with toys), and playing Mario Odyssey on his Switch. Saturday, I shut down the fans to give us a little break. I love hanging out with Mal, but his kid-sized table and chairs weren't doing my back any favors, and I wanted to do some stuff in the common area of the house.

I left the trundle out but down, and Mal enjoyed the seat. We were eating breakfast at his mini-table.

Saturday afternoon, Mal asked, "Can we turn the fans back on? I want to go into my room and have another best day ever."

He is basically thriving right now. I don't have to change things up on him, and transitions are often hard. He doesn't want to leave the house, then once we go, he doesn't want to come back, etc. So this is probably very calming for him.

The fans are gone now, and today it was nice out for the first time in a couple of days. Mal and I are going on walks almost every day (we didn't Saturday or Sunday because of cold drizzle) and today saw three different neighbors we've never seen before. Two were out just sitting on their porches, watching the world go by. I'm sure it's because they're bored out of their skulls, but it was nice to meet them, anyway. The other was planting wild sunflowers in her yard, and she gave us three to plant for ourselves.

We also saw Mal's friend's grandma, and chatted with her from a healthy distance (minimum 6 feet), and Darrell, the neighbor who gave us our irises.

This is the second time he's walked as Mario. Whatever gets him out and moving, right?

We have decided to eat out on the front porch whenever the weather is amicable (and until the mosquitoes put the kibosh on our al fresco dining). Mal got to run around and we had a nice meal, so everybody wins!

#turquoisetable

D's banjo lessons are being held online, and so far that's not something D is comfortable with. I hope we can make it work since we don't know how long it will be before they can do in-person classes again.

We've been able to find almost everything we need at the stores, but that's only because we've taken probably 4 trips to the stores in the past 10 days, and because we have a subscription from Charmin Forever Roll. We haven't been able to find flour, but have about a pound left. A neighbor has offered us a 5 pound bag, so hopefully I can go get that from him soon.

The mayor announced, along with many other "urban" Texas mayors, a "shelter-in-place" order that goes into effect tomorrow. We've been mostly doing what it mandates, except maybe walking down to the lake. I think, as long as we kept moving, it could fall under the "outdoors exercise" category, but probably playing on the playground would be a no-no. Again, *so far* this is not being a huge issue for Mal. let's hope that trend holds fast.

Nothing very interesting is going on in our little neck of the woods, otherwise. So far, the family is thriving from this mandated down time. Hoping everyone else stays healthy and safe out there.

Social Distancing, Day 1

Yestereve, my husband did take our younger child to the shopping emporium where he might indulge in playtime activities with other youths. It would appear that this should be the last time in at least a fortnight that the youngster should have such an opportunity, as the leaders of our municipalities, yay, even our country itself, have mandated that the populace should go into quarantine to slow the further spread of this novel coronavirus, SARS CoV-2, or Covid-19.

We shall therefore attempt to remain isolated, an effort aided by the fact that places of hospitality and respite have altered operations to provide sustenance for their clientele, but insist that it be consumed off-premises. Additionally, many amusements have been temporarily shuttered. It is my firm belief that all public pastimes, including the cinema, which has been greatly reduced in capacity, shall soon be entirely off-limits as we wait for this plague to run its course.

This day has been spent in domestic pursuits, including baking pastries for the morrow's St. Patrick's holiday; electronic gaming; fresh air disport; board games; and familial joviality. What will the spring bring? How long will this lack of social interaction endure? I shall, of course, update you as the situation progresses. I remain,

Ever Yours

Small-Town Excitement

In the wee hours of Saturday morning, I was up writing a blog post.

I got distracted by a helicopter flying around outside.

It circled for a long time. It was loud enough that I'm amazed (but pleased, because she needs all the sleep she can get) that it didn't wake Laura up.

Eventually, I got out and filmed about 10 minutes worth of video. It turned out almost all black, though there are places you can make out some sorts of bright spots (from something that looked like either an ambulance or fire truck).. But you can hear the chopper.

I speculated a bit about what it might have been. It circled around for far too long to be a Flight For Life. I didn't see anything like search lights. We live pretty close to a tiny airstrip that houses a lot of personal and experimental flying vehicles, but it was way too late to be someone random just joy-riding.

 As I'm writing this (in the wee hours of Sunday morning), it's back.

I don't have any idea what's going on out there now.

Somehow or other, Laura found out about it after the fact. She took Mal somewhere on Saturday morning. (Sidenote: I think that one of home-schooling's other benefits is that it makes you immune to viruses). Maybe people there were talking about it. She mentioned seeing posts asking about it on nextdoor.com, so maybe that's where she picked it up.

However she ran across the information, she eventually tracked down the basic story:

For some reason, police chased someone down 1431. Whoever it was took a left at our wide spot in the road. They wound up at our lakeside park. They spun around to try to get back out, but cops had already blocked both exits.

So whoever it was made the only possible rational decision: they drove the car into the lake, then swam across.

The helicopter was the cops continuing the pursuit.

Apparently, whoever it was got away clean. But they did pull the vehicle out of the lake this afternoon. So maybe they'll get some clues there.

Maybe whoever it was did something really and truly awful. Until I find out why the chase started in the first place, I'm rooting for the escapee.

Soooo.... #Covid19

Dear Diary,

I am not good at waiting.

Scratch that: I'm okay at waiting. As long as I know what is coming. And I'm in control of it.

I am very sad about the people who have gotten ill from the novel coronavirus that started making the rounds at the end of last year. I hope Tom Hanks and Katie Couric and all of the basketball players will get better, but I hope everyone will get better. I'm sure the effect in China is like 9/11 was here, only in slow motion: If you weren't affected, you know someone who was affected; it touches everyone.

Here in our house, we're mostly social distancing. James is working from home, which is his preference, anyway. D is typically home, except for banjo lessons. And this is spring break, so Monday would be a stay day, anyway. Our church has gone online for the time being. I'm still taking Mal to the park, and to Urban Air and the movies and other outings... but we're never around too many people.

Except for two weeks ago today, when we went to a birthday party and then to a community park and restaurant in Belton and THEN to the Round Rock Outlet Mall, where I'm guessing there were 7000 people... but the incubation period for that is over with, and we all seem a-ok.

I'm not worried or even concerned that we'll get Covid-19. I'm not worried about my family. I'm hopeful that the medical systems won't be overwhelmed and that the ill can get the help that they need. I understand why people are slowing down and backing out. I get it.

I don't get why people are hoarding toilet paper, but, let's face it. People are weird. And so far, there haven't been any documented cases in Travis/Williamson counties. Then again, there haven't been any tests available, so it's possible we ALL have it.

But here's the deal: We were supposed to go on vacation in a couple of weeks. I know, boo hoo. A lot of people have had vacation disruptions. Heck... I hadn't told anyone about this except my travel agent, but I'd booked us a Disney Merrytime Bahamain cruise for Christmas (oh, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to get that pun), leaving from Galveston and stopping at the ACTUAL Happiest Place on Earth: Castaway Cay. But we've lost more than the price of the cruise in the stock market in the past two weeks, so I canceled that. It's entirely possible we could rebound a rebook, but it doesn't make sense at the moment.

LIES. ALL LIES.

No, the hard part is the not knowing. Two of the places we'd planned to go on our immediately-upcoming vacation are closed through the end of the month. It seems unlikely they'll be open at the beginning of April, or even during the week we're to be in California. But will they refund us our money? I've reached out via email, but I'm trying to be patient since I know there are people already there who are scrambling to get out before the doors lock.

And even if THEY refund us what we've spent, will AA refund our airfare? Not allow us to rebook with no charge, but refund the tickets with no $200 per ticket fee? If they won't, there is somewhere we can go that will be great... assuming that places to eat are open. But who can tell what to expect so many yet so few weeks from now?

I'm trying to pretend that my brain is smoking pot and chilling out. But I need answers.

I realize this is a grade-A pain-in-the-ass problem. Like, people are dying. I'm a jerk. I get that. I wish I were different. I'm working on it.

In other news, 365 by Whole Foods was cleaned out when I went today. I did not panic buy anything, and we're not hoarding. It's funny that I subscribed to Charmin's Never-Ending Roll a few months ago. It's really been easy and mindless and great! Toilet paper is on the way! WHY ARE PEOPLE HOARDING IT?!

Anyway, my refusal to panic-buy meant that today, when I realized we were low on eggs and almost out of lactose-free milk for D, that there was none to be found. We bought about $100 worth of snack stuff to supplement our eMeals (I have ingredients for 3 or 4 more meals on our menu). But then I used the last of the eggs on lunch. So...

I decided to check out H-Mart. It's a bit of a drive, and I thought I'd hit the gas station first. I mean, their eggs might taste like cigarettes, but if they have them, they have them, right? THEN I thought of Dollar General. Guess what?

YAY!

So we're set on cereal, milk, eggs, and toilet paper has been shipped from the giant TP factory in the sky.

And NOW, at about 9:00 PM, we're getting ready to have our Papa Murphy's Pi Day special pizza for dinner. Our days just get later and later. But that's cool, man. Real cool. (See? I'm trying to be chill.)