Little Rick Steves

I picked the oldest up from the last leg of a quick tour of DC and NYC. He did incredibly. I'm so proud.

Things Never Get Easier

They don't get easier, but we do gain wisdom through experience to apply to said things.

Yesterday, we had to put our family Cat down. Bizkit was a stray, and we had her for about the last year of her life. She succumbed to lymphoma on June 1.

This was my kids' first taste of this kind of grief, and that is the greatest gift from all of this. Losing a pet is kind of like getting an immunization against losing a family member. You'll still get the grief, but you have a little experience, you've grown a little. It doesn't get easier, but you get more tools every time.

Productivity

In the past 24 hours, I've fixed my dishwasher, swamp cooler, and dryer. Today, I'm reaping the benefits of that work, and getting caught up on laundry, and using the time saved on dishes to get other things down around the house. I managed to rake up the entire back yard and balance the checkbook, which hasn't been done in three days. Work in progress, I suppose. Just keep moving forward.

Childhood

Today, i went with my daughter and her second grade class on their field trip... to a park. We learned about all sorts of cool things, though. How beavers live, how many fish are not native to Colorado, how to float in the river... it was a good day 

Colorado Spring

This time last week, i was roasting, antsy to hook up and run the swamp cooler. Saturday, we had a foot of snow. Today, it's all rainy and cool. I love Colorado.

State of Local Weather, 06:17, May 21

It's hovering right at 42 degrees, and there's a few inches of snow burying everything in sight. It was 90° days ago? And it'll be 75° again in four days. I'm preparing for flooding. Cross my fingers.

2022 Is For Chumps

I'm sitting awake. The kids are asleep. The checking account is positive. The house is quiet. Time to find another job.