It is July. Somehow the whole month of June slipped by with two major birthdays, the end of the school year, and the start of summer - a summer without Camp - without a journal entry. As history will show in the decades to come, we squandered our opportunity to "flatten the curve" with politics, ignorance, arrogance, and a "me first" (to the detriment of others) attitude that has extended our quarantine and our ability to get back to normal.
The long summer is ahead of us and we celebrated the nation's independence over four long, fun days.
We started on Thursday with a trip to Wrightsville Beach with the whole family. The beach is an easy two hour drive from the house. We left early enough to get a parking spot and some seclusion on beach. With a couple of beach chairs and a cooler of sparkling water and juice boxes we played for a good three and half hours before heading home. With everything from museums to movie theaters still closed the beach is a fun alternative that takes the better part of the day.
TJ is mastering the boogie board and Grant is learning to swim the surf. If we had more time and if TJ was willing, I am certain he could surf. Grant is just happy to be in the big waves as long as someone is there to hold his hand. Samantha just lays in the sun watching her small screen and texting people - a waste if you ask me. She had fun in the surf for the ten minutes she put the phone down. Passing the football in the surf back and forth and watching TJ dive for it I realized that this was what a good time should look and feel like. The less time I spent sitting the more time it seemed like the kids were having fun.
Thursday evening we watched the first part of
"Gettysburg" right up to the end of the Second Day on Little Round Top.
We finished the movie on Friday, on the 157th anniversary of Pickett's
Charge. The boys and I walked through the tall grass over that hallowed
ground last year. Trying to explain it to them then made little sense
until they saw it on the screen.
Friday Grant took to the small pond in the back to fish. Fishing has become his new favorite past-time. He gets up early in the morning and grabs his pole, quiet and alone, but determined. He looks up what bait to use, tips, and techniques...and it has paid off with some nice sized catches. He still yells for me to help him unhook and release the fish - but it is a yell of triumph, "Dad, come here. I. Caught. A. Fish!!"
By midday Lisa and I made the most of our $80 pool, with margaritas and pool floaties. Thanks to Covid-19, the community pool has a guest limit and you have to sign up in advance. We have to bring our own chairs and pool toys are not allowed. In my opinion the pool has always been a toxic soup to begin with; too many young kids who are not potty trained. It seems that every years I get some kind of nasty cold in the first weeks that the pool is open. Without Camp for the boys and the need to get outside and cool off, our inflatable pool is great. You can even get a game of Marco Polo in!
On the Fourth of July we started the celebration of our national independence with a fun run in South Lakes that I put together, "Four on the Fourth," a four mile run through both South and North Lakes. We got our Red, White, and Blue on and met with about ten brave souls who were willing to forego sleeping in and brave the humidity - even at 7:00 am. This was the first anything I have organized - and quite at the last moment. Cris Plummer ran with a flag the whole time and his daughter Caroline, TJ's "twin sister," stayed ahead of just about everyone. TJ did not disappoint; he ran all four miles without stopping and finished just behind me. I think everyone had fun and we set the foundation for a bigger event next year.
On the Fourth of July we sat down and watched Hamilton on Disney+. It's a brilliant musical that throws convention in the air by using a racially diverse group of actors to rap about the life of Alexander Hamilton. Since our quarantine started we have watched a couple of Broadway musicals - or their movie adaptation. Clearly, the boys enjoy the spectacle and do not tune out because they continued to hum the songs - especially the one from King George III - after the show. It even made me look up some things about the Founding Fathers I did not know about.
Mitch arrived by midday to join us at a cook-out with our neighbors, Becky and James, and some others in South Lakes. They moved in over a year ago. They are young and cute and have a dog, Sierra, that Lucie loves to play with. There is a twenty year age difference between us. They are at the start of so many things; home ownership, careers, and they don't have any kids yet. We are half way through so much of that. I don't know if I envy them or not.
Everyone smoked ribs or pork or chicken and we delighted the taste buds with too much food and too much to drink. Our contribution was two racks of applewood smoked ribs and homemade blueberry and apple pies that Samantha made.
The night ended with everyone in the neighborhood lighting off fireworks. Since every town everywhere cancelled their fireworks displays it was up to individuals to fill the gaps. And we succeeded. It seemed like there were explosions everywhere, all the time. The boys took off on their bikes to race down to the big pond to watch. We finished with some sparklers, spent, sweaty, satiated, and satisfied.
This was not normal for us - or anyone - but it was a lot of fun.
