It’s weird, right?, to think about how much has happened in 2020. For some, it may be, how little has happened in your personal life, depending on where you live. But for me, I look back and think we have done an awful lot, in spite of the pandemic and everything else that followed! But anyway, let’s recap the weekend.

For starters, the kids had Friday off, as they also have today off. Somehow teachers now need two work days at the end of the quarter. Sure, some kids are doing digital but they have the same number of students so this makes no sense to me. But whatever. So Friday, we had them doing some light yard work to earn their Xbox time. No, we are not parents who let their kids play games for hours on end. We tried it; it doesn’t work. They turn into little ill-behaved monsters if this happens. Anyway, they started but were getting frustrated and we were about to go to lunch without them but ended up taking them to Texas Roadhouse anyway. This was a good thing; they were so happy about the meal that they finished their work after, got to play Xbox/watch TV, and then behaved all day. I rested/worked on a few things in the afternoon and then about 6, we went to our friend’s for pumpkin carving. A few different people, not in our normal circle, also came with their kids so it was a good time. We got home around 11 but we had early flag games!

We got to the fields by 8 and stayed until 11:30. Both boys played well; Elliot had some good flag pulls and had one long run that he swears he got in on but the ref marked him on the one. (And then Carter scored.) So good first game for his team! Isaac’s team is the kind of disorganized we assumed they would be, but actually played a slight bit better than anticipated. They still lost but Isaac caught a touchdown pass in the endzone. So our work here was done. 😉 We went to Sonny’s then rested. I thought I had a headache from a slight hangover but as it progressed, I was quickly realizing it was a migraine instead. For a minute I thought I might have the Rona but I never ran a fever, even though I kept having hot flashes. As I looked these symptoms up, it was clear: migraine. I don’t get them often anymore but something must have triggered it.

Despite the pain in my head, Halloween went well. My oldest went with his friend to another neighborhood, my middle did the same, and we took my daughter up the street to her friend’s and walked with her and her brother and dad. (We know them from Girl Scouts.) We were none too sure how Halloween would go; we aren’t a high risk area but everything kept saying to cancel the holiday; just do drive by trick or treating at your church! But we gave it a go anyway. LOTS of people decorated and a lot of people handed out candy. Those who did not in person, left pre-filled bags on little tables or in bowls. My kids have perhaps never collected this many sweets. A part of that may also be due to seeing less trick or treaters. I do think though that this was the invigoration the holiday needed. I feel like before Covid, there were a lot of kids wanting candy but fewer people passing it out. This year, fewer people out to collect it but many more passing out. Either way, we had a very good time. I came home and took two Excedrin and woke the next morning feeling much better!

In fact, I felt so good that I ran four miles, which is the longest I have gone in a while. The time change has messed me up in some ways but for that, it was good because I was done earlier than I thought. So the rest of the day was really just spent watching football and then some episodes of this show our new friends turned us onto, Ted Lasso. It’s good, if not a little cheesy.

***************

It’s a freebie week! I haven’t been into too much lately but I have been reading Rob Halford’s (of Judas Priest) new autobiography and so, have been listening to their music quite a bit more. Painkiller is on the Van Halen version of Guitar Hero, which I started playing again when Eddie died, and I had no idea that it was there, to be honest. I can play it pretty well on medium but hard is crazy! Glenn Tipton and KK Downing are the most ridic guitar players. No wonder Priest had such success!

You probably won’t like this song (if you’ve never heard it) but I love it and think this may be their best album. Oh, warning: flashy video.

For funsies, let’s play one from their earlier album, Point of Entry. It is often thought of as a lesser album than a lot of other but I am particularly fond of it. This song is great driving music

Funny what 9 years can do to change the look of the videos, eh? The first one was either in 90 or 91. The second, 1981.