Weekly Review June 19 '20

I thought I didn't have much to write about last week, but I think this week has been even more uneventful, so this'll be short.

Frank: I said this week would be crazy for him, and it was. He had overnight installs on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. The two earlier this week were here in Frederick, but last night's install was in Cumberland, Maryland which is about 2 hours from here. Since he had to work overnight on Wednesday also and that is a long drive to make when you're sleepy, he got a hotel room so that when he was done working he could go somewhere to sleep for several hours before having to drive back home. (The company paid for the hotel room.) He was done by about 1:00 am and slept until 8:00 am and then drove back home. I'm glad he got some sleep, but I think he's still pretty tired since he had such a busy week.

Seth: He's enjoying being done with school and doing pretty well at keeping busy during the (many) hours that he doesn't have screen time. Last night for Deacon's activity they had planned to do some service for a lady in our ward but it was outdoor painting and since it rained a ton on Wednesday and was supposed to rain more last night / today, she decided they should do it another time. Instead, they had a presidency meeting (online) and planned their activities for July. Earlier this week he and I decided to watch a movie and when we were choosing something to watch, I realized he's never seen Pirates of the Caribbean, so we watched that. As I expected, he loved it and since then he's watched the next two movies in that series (I didn't watch with him because I was doing other things.)

Me: I've come to the conclusion that I am basically lazy. I'm mostly doing the same things as always but I planned to do some deep cleaning of the house this week--didn't do it. Well, I did clean all the windows (and they were really dirty) but other than that, I didn't do anything. I was partly hampered by the fact that I was trying to be quiet during the day on a lot of days so that Frank could get some sleep, but I can't use that as a full excuse! I would just rather read or do word puzzles than clean house...go figure! I didn't start on any new projects, either, but I will soon. I've been reading a few books for fun, and a couple of other books which are at least somewhat educational (although topics I'm interested in, so that's also fun).

Fireflies: The fireflies finally started appearing this week. They're one of the things I love the most about summer in Maryland! (I don't love the humidity.) The last several years there haven't been as many fireflies, sadly, as there used to be but there are still a few. Seth and I went for a walk last night over to a nearby park where there were more fireflies than we see behind our house (but still not a lot). He enjoyed trying to catch fireflies and I enjoyed just watching them (and getting out of the cold air conditioned house for a while).

Air conditioner: Speaking of air conditioning, we had our air conditioner serviced yesterday and the guy who looked at it said that he's getting a lower frion reading than normal (something like that) which indicates that the system is starting to wear out. Not a huge surprise, since it's 27 years old. He says it could last another year or two or it could go out tomorrow. So we are going to get a quote on what it will cost to get it replaced, but I'm not sure if we'll decide to replace it now or take a chance that it's going to last a while longer. Honestly, I'm more willing to wait since the heat doesn't bother me as much (I actually get too cold with A/C...I'm wearing socks and a hoodie right now because I was too cold) but Frank really does suffer from the heat so I think he's really worried about the A/C going out in the middle of a heat wave. We'll get the quote and go from there.

Haircuts: The most exciting news of the week is that Seth and I both got haircuts!! So funny that something like a haircut can be exciting, but it is. One of the many things we've been taking for granted all these years that we now appreciate better. Actually, Seth wasn't very excited to get a haircut--he doesn't care if his hair is long and he hates getting haircuts--but I think he looks so much better with short hair. (He is actually getting really difficult about haircuts. He must have some sensitivity issues or something because he freaks out over the clippers and even struggles with scissors touching the back of his neck. He's never liked haircuts, but he's actually getting worse as he gets older instead of better.) I got a cut and got the color done too and I'm sooooo happy to have pretty hair again. I mean, overall, my hair has not looked as bad as I would have expected after over 3 months without a cut or the color done, but it still didn't look great. It's so much easier to style when it's shorter, too.

I was super disappointed this week when they announced that the DC Temple Open House and Re-Dedication has been postponed "indefinitely". I mean, I wasn't too surprised--I've kind of been expecting it--but I'm still sad about it. This will push the reopening beyond 3 years since the temple closed--feels like we're never going to get our temple back! I miss going to the temple, and now I can't even hope that I'll get to go to the temple when we visit Utah since it's not too likely the temples will be open up for all ordinances again by then. But we'll see, I guess. The announcement said that the DC open house will happen when "gathering in large crowds is deemed safe", which doesn't seem likely to happen for a long, long time yet. I'm really glad I got to go to the temple when we were Arizona...I had no idea then that it would be so long until I could go again.

That's literally everything I can think of to tell you about this week...not much!! I'm going to try to be a bit less lazy this next week, and maybe I'll have more to talk about. (Plus we're going on a short trip, so that will be more interesting.) I really have appreciated having a lot more down time these last 3 months--it's been a much needed rest!! Yes, it's come at a price and I sometimes wonder if we'll ever get back to normal life (seems a long way off still) but I'm trying to enjoy the good things.