Week 34

Welcome back and happy Tuesday!  Last week was super busy and very eventful both good and bad.  It's been awhile since we've had such a full week.  Thankfully some of that time was spent getting back to nature which always helps clear the mind and sooth the soul. Unfortunately some of that time was spent dealing with volatile natural situations that were no good for anyone.  It's all about balance, right? Also so many pictures this week so please forgive the over share.  I made a bunch of collages to help fit them in.

Here's a look at how last week went down:

Day 230- Monday, 8/17/20

It's time to move Justin back to Humboldt State for his second year.  Today was a travel day (6 hrs on the road) and we'll stay overnight since he has an early morning appointment for move in tomorrow.  We arrived just in time for a late lunch in downtown Arcata--outdoor dining of course.  The temps are in the mid 60's and such a relief for us coming from a string of days in triple digits. We had time to kill before checking into the hotel so we went more north an usual and found Agate Beach.  You access it by taking a trail through the dripping redwoods and down a steep ravine which was an adventure in and of itself.  Excellent find! The beach is also know as a great place to collect moonstones so we did and had the best time.

Day 231- Tuesday, 8/18/20

Justin will be living on campus in a dorm room all to himself and sharing a bathroom with just one other student. Move in this year came complete with a COVID test upon arrival and of course masks are required and were handed out with some other swag by the school.  Once he was settled we hit up "A Slice of Humboldt Pie" for lunch and then said goodbye. See you in a few months kiddo!

Day 232- Wednesday, 8/19/20

Ugh!  This is what I came home to.  I went from enjoying beautiful green terrain, endless fresh air, and bright blue skies to 500+ fires surrounding us and a valley that resembles an ash tray. 😢  We had a couple nights of dry lightening that started all these fires and the LNU lightening complex of fires is the one most concerning to us and the closest.  We know many who had to evacuate in the Winters area up here and also in the Santa Cruz area more south. That table in the second pictures is right outside one of my work buildings in Davis covered in ash and my car after work did not look much better.  In other news today is Brandon's first day of 11th grade doing the virtual learning at home which will be way more interactive than it was at the end of the school year in May.  Such crazy times!

Day 233- Thursday, 8/20/20

Our masks are pulling double duty these days helping protect us from COVID and also from the poor air quality due to the fires.  I took the dog on a pretty short walk just to the park and back quickly because it's not safe to be outside too long right now.  You can feel it in your eyes, throat, and nose.  It smells like a camp fire everywhere and it's darker than it should be with the smoke hiding the sun but still hot!

Day 234- Friday, 8/21/20

This morning at work I saw them setting up these outside class rooms for vet students.  It would be a great idea without the extreme heat and poor air quality but right now not really a healthier option than social distancing indoors.  After work John and I were able to escape and take a break from the smoke by heading to Tahoe for an anniversary trip. There is still smoke in Tahoe but not nearly as bad as in the Sacramento valley so we'll take it!  It for sure looks and feel refreshing here.

Day 235- Saturday, 8/22/20

Happy 28th wedding anniversary to us! Were staying at this hotel near the Heavenly ski resort which is walking distance to the lake, shops and places to eat.  We took the gondola up the mountain to check out the views and do a little hiking--so nice to see pretty blue skies again and breathe some fresh mountain air.  The elevation up top is 9150 ft and you can stand on the state line between Calif and Nevada.  It was a great way to spend the day.  Later we celebrated with a nice steak dinner on the patio at restaurant in the new Hard Rock casino down the street. 

Day 236- Sunday, 8/23/20

We're back home in the smoke and hoping the fires are under better containment soon and that we have no more dry lightening to make matters worse.  Also look what we found in the mailbox! Tyler's diploma finally arrived and he immediately put it in a the frame we ordered for him as a graduation gift.  It's really official now and looks amazing in that frame.  Up in Humboldt Justin is enjoying his last few days before classes start tomorrow.  It's great to see some pictures from him back in his home away from home.

OK--wow!  That's it!!  What a week and only one more before we start a new month.  August really flew by and hopefully moving forward things will start to get better or at least more back to what normal used to be.  Do we even remember what that was like anymore?

Week 33

Welcome back and happy Thursday!  I'm a couple days late because I was traveling with Justin Monday and Tuesday to get him settled in at school.  We are in the middle of a long heatwave with triple digits lasting through the end of this week and maybe into next.  It's brutal and there have been thunderstorms with lightening strikes causing fires and really poor air-quality.  So much despair this year.  I'm not sure how much more we can all take but we must help each other out and get through this s we can move on to better times. 

Now for last week's pictures:

Day 223- Monday, 8/10/20

Time to kick off this work week and get some things done.  I usually get my lab work out of the way first thing starting with tissue culture followed by some serology testing and then the rest of my in-lab days have been devoted to purging old supplies, chemicals, equipment and excess paper files to create more room for a new faculty member and his team joining our lab space in September.  It's been weeks of hard work but we've made great progress and I like the feeling of working with less clutter.

Day 224- Tuesday, 8/11/20

Brandon had his 2nd official driving lesson (in and brand new car) this time heading to the freeway for practice.  It was canceled once already for a couple weeks but now it's done so we wait on a DMV appointment before scheduling his final lesson to get the license.   Later today John continued to work on ironing this pile of dress shirts.  He's usually on it but got a bit behind and is playing catch up.  Better him than me.

Day 225- Wednesday, 8/12/20

Brandon had an appointment at the high school today so he could pick up the books he'll need to start distance learning next week.  He has US History, English 11, Spanish 3, and Intro to Film for his semester. 

Day 226- Thursday, 8/13/20

After a much needed couple week break I was able to come back with a fresh eyes to tackle this puzzle again.  It worked! I was no longer stuck and made great progress. 

Day 227- Friday, 8/14/20

Justin is working on finalizing his fall semester schedule before returning to HSU in a few days.  He'll be taking biology, botany, trigonometry, wildlife policy/welfare, plus film comedy as a GE.  He was wait listed for the biology class and stressing a bit because he HAS to take it this semester in order to progress.  Thankfully they opened a new section and he got a seat just today!

Day 228- Saturday, 8/15/20

I guess dragonflies like the hot heat because I have seen so many lately and found this beauty today or rather it found me.  I saw it circling above and then land on a bush right next to me. I love it's colors and it's headpiece. We can't stay outside to enjoy them too long because it's way too hot.  Yep 109 in our forecast for days!  Blah!!!

Day 229- Sunday, 8/16/20

Last night it didn't cool much and then around 4 am there was a huge wind storm followed by lightening. In the morning we woke to this beautiful rainbow in our backyard.  Sadly it was more humid all day which made the heat feel even worse.  We usually only have dry heat so we are not used to humidity but we turned up the a/c and powered through getting Justin packed and ready to head back to school.  He and I will leave early tomorrow before the rest are up so this is the last day the brothers 3 will be together for awhile.  It's been fun having them all home for the summer but it is best with school starting to have them in there own space where they can optimize learning and get the most out of better internet connections.  Also Tyler got an EMT job.  Yay!  It starts in about a week so they are all truly done with summer break and ready to move on to the next best thing.

That's it!  See you next week I'm sure while we continue to try and survive the heat and pray for no more fires and/or power outages.

Week 32

Welcome back and happy Tuesday!  Last week was fun.  It started kind of slow but then we had a great weekend with some good family time so I'm thankful for that.  It's been super hot here again which means our AC is working overtime. The past couple weeks weren't bad with that delta breeze blowing through but now not so much.  I'm hoping we can get back to lower temps soon and leave this hot dry heat behind otherwise we'll need to retreat to cooler places.  The trip to Humboldt next week will be refreshing for sure. Time to prep for back to school.

Until then here are last week's pictures:

Day 216- Monday, 8/3/20

Justin is cooking Jambalaya with sausage and shrimp added in tonight.  None of my kids have ever had this before so it was fun for them to try something new.

Day 217- Tuesday, 8/4/20

Out in the park these beautiful purple flowers are in full bloom right now and branching out with their vines all over the place.  We tried to stay in the shade on our walk but there are a few spots where that wasn't possible.  Poor black pup is panting already so we'll have to make this one a short walk because of the triple digit heat.

Day 218- Wednesday, 8/5/20

It's just after 1pm and I just got home from work to find Brandon still in his PJs slowly starting the day by saying hi to Bella who has been up for hours.  This is his new normal since the pandemic started but that will be changing very soon as school picks back up.  It will be virtual for at least the first semester, but he'll need to check in to each of his classes start at 8:30 am and not ending until after 2 pm.  I told him he better start conditioning himself to phase back into an earlier start and reset his internal clock.  He was at least productive today once he got up and made us a beef stroganoff dinner which is also a new one for our kids that quickly disappeared.  I guess they liked it!

Day 219- Thursday, 8/6/20

He was up by 11 am today so that's a start to being up earlier, and he worked through a Lego set he got for his birthday.  I'm thinking a haircut may be the next order of business before back to school zoom meetings start.

Day 220- Friday, 8/7/20

Summer bucket list item--homemade ice cream.  Justin and I started making that ice cream today.  We have 3 batches in the works and that will take us 3 days since the bucket needs to re-freeze overnight between each batch.  Then not long after I found this guy holding down a corner of this rug.  The corners are his favorite spot on all our area rugs.  Tomorrow is international cat day so I took a few pictures of him today to post on social media tomorrow since we have other plans then.  He will have the house to himself though which is a purrfect treat for him on his special day. 😽

Day 221- Saturday, 8/8/20

Time for another summer bucket list item since we are running out of time before school starts.  We can't go real camping so we decided to go backyard camping and it was super fun.  We pitched tents, cooked and ate dinner outside, played in the pool, made a campfire and enjoyed s'mores under the stars before sleeping outside.  The highlight especially for the boys was having the dog join us.  We usually don't have room in our car for her to go on regular camping trips so this was a big deal for them and her.  She loved it just as much as they did.  You'll also see we tried a new version of S'mores along with the classic kind by using thin peanut butter cups instead or chocolate bars suggested by my blogger friend Jen, and I think they will be a new must since that were that good.

Day 222- Sunday, 8/9/20

Here we are the next morning waking up outside. It was nice still having our house for bathroom breaks and a warm spot to enjoy coffee.  After a nice slow start John did make us a yummy big breakfast that we enjoyed outside just before breaking down camp. Later that evening we sampled all 3 types of ice cream made this week.  It was the perfect end to a perfect family weekend.

That's it! See you next week although I'll probably be a day or two late since Monday and Tuesday I'll be driving to Humboldt and back to get Justin settle at school.