I was home alone this week – husband at work and kids at camp – and somehow I still find myself behind on work. I don’t know if it’s just that I am out of the habit if making myself buckle down when alone (as I did all Fall semester and half of Spring) or just the fact that before, I had to still go to campus on some days so knowing I had less time made me work harder in short bursts. I have literally all day (ok, from 9-3) and I am still slacking.

I will say, though Monday and Tuesday I allowed myself to sit around lazily, I was BUSY yesterday. Took kids to camp then went to the grocery store. I got a lot of grading done then Ash asked me to have lunch with him. Once I got back from Mexican, I swept and washed floors, vacuumed my living room, made pudding and a batch of kombucha, and cleaned the kids’ bathroom. Once I got them from camp, I mowed the front lawn then made spaghetti for them and tacos for me (I don’t eat spaghetti; gross.) I was in some kind of mood though in the evening. Not in the mood for anyone’s crap and generally disgusted with social media. I am amazed at how many people I know or knew (the magic of Facebook is that you can not come in contact with people for years but still witness their lives) are just awful people. I literally know a person who wrote on their page: “I know I’m a bad person but I want anti-mask people to get sick.” I mean, look, we cannot make people do things or think things and to think you can is unreasonable and selfish. I get that them not wearing one makes you nervous but so long as you take care of you, then we’re good, right?

I think that is what I miss about the old days: people mostly minded their own business unless there was a situation where they needed to intervene. (i.e. see a neighbor with car trouble? Pull over.) For the most part, people worried about themselves. We’ve entered into a time where to take care of yourself is not enough; we now expect everyone else to do things for us too. The mask thing is a perfect example of tyranny. You have the ability to make a choice to protect yourself by wearing a mask. You cannot have the luxury of double coverage by forcing someone else to make that choice.  But that is the world we live in now. And I am absolutely sick of it.

As an aside, I do wear a mask. Maybe not every time but when asked by a business or if I run into the store during old folks hours. I’m not avoiding it to piss people off but I am making a choice for me. Anyway, ranting about this has now upset me so let’s turn back to happier things:

• Though it has been hot, our mornings have been very cool. It’s really nice for running, though I haven’t taken advantage of that nearly enough. I was stressed Tuesday evening so I took a run and though it was humid, I was feeling amazing.
• I have been enjoying the new Canada Dry bold ginger ale. Something about the way it punches you in the face is satisfying. I’m not normally a soda drinker but this has been bringing me joy.
• We met with a tree company and have marked two trees and a bunch of branches to take out. This is really awesome because it will a. make the house safer during hurricane season and b. give the pool more sunlight. The price was reasonable too. Sad part is that they can’t do it until August.
• After the boys went fishing, I took what little they got (four ok sized fish only got enough to give all of us maybe on or two little pieces) and cooked it piccata style, but without capers. It was really good!
• I am looking forward to Ash being back to work at home next week because in the 3 months we were all here, we got way more done then. I mean, he goes to the office and gets home feeling exhausted. I remember what that was like when I took worked out of the home. it really makes you feel like you don’t want to do much else in your evenings.
• I just made pickled IPA jalapenos. We will see how they turn out but it sounds great to me!