Hello Everyone, well the dog days of summer are definitely in full effect here in Washington D.C. It’s been a while since I’ve been here in the middle of summer and I’m starting to remember why. With daytime temperatures nearing a hundred degrees and high humidity, it keeps me inside much of the day. I’m grateful to have an inside to be in during this pandemic, but I miss my outside life. I try and get up early and go for my morning walk and spend some time outside in the evening, but the heat of the day is pretty unbearable right now. But July is coming to a close and by this time next week August will be just over the horizon with fall hot on its heels. I’m looking forward to fall with its cooler temperatures and beautiful colors, and my camera and I are planning on taking full advantage of the foliage this year. But that’s getting ahead of myself and I’m still trying to make the most of the summer and my time here at home. Anyways, my internet was out from Thursday to Monday and then I was gone all day Tuesday, so the only thing I was able to finish this week here was this post, but I’ve got some cool stuff waiting in the wings. Meanwhile, I’ve been keeping up with my guitar and violin practice and they are bringing me joy and pleasure. I’ve been writing and actually making some progress on my book, although I’m still pushing through the first couple of weeks of the journey which were cold and painfully lonely, but also liberating and beautiful. And I’ve gotten out of the house this week despite the heat for a few good excursions.
This week I’ve had school reopening on my mind as the young man I’ve been tutoring this summer and his family are looking ahead at that issue. While the older I get, the more I realize I don’t know about many things, education is one of those things I’m still pretty comfortable discussing with some authority. While by no means an expert on the topic, I spent five years as a teacher, teaching in 12 different schools in 4 cities on 2 continents. I’ve taught 5 year olds and adults and I’ve taught in public, charter and private environments. As I look at school reopening, I wish it were being addressed everywhere in the old-school school-board setting (which thankfully it still is in many places). I think parents, teachers and community members all need their voices and concerns heard and their decisions respected. I’ve met very few teachers in my life who don’t want to teach and very few parents who didn’t want their kids in school or students who didn’t at least want to be at school. But these are extraordinary times with extraordinary consequences and as anyone who has ever seen how fast head-lice can spread in a school will tell you, things have a way of getting around in a school building pretty quick. I’ve seen some very well thought out plans, and the advice from the CDC on the topic is thorough and well-researched as well, but I also understand a host of reasons why you would want to keep your kids home until there is more known about this virus. I also sincerely hope that no school in the country will follow the model of so many towns reopening plans where people have just run out into the streets without distancing or masks under the delusion that none of this ever happened or was ever real to begin with. A school full of sick kids is a nightmare nobody wants. I will say here, and y’all know I don’t wade into politics here very much, but I truly wish the head of the Department of Education had any experience at all in public schools. I’m truly concerned for our nation’s children and I hope that each community will make these difficult decisions based on science, fact and input from those parties with the most at stake.
Also this week I enjoyed watching Chris Wallace interview the president. I’m not going to get into that interview, but I really like Chris Wallace, and knew him quite well many years ago. His son, Peter, was in my Boy Scout troop and was a friend of mine (and still is, though I haven’t seen him in years) so Mr. Wallace was around for many of our events and activities. Of course he was just a local newscaster back then, but he was well respected and seemed like a good guy. It makes me smile when I see him on national TV and I remember he always liked my peach cobbler when I made it on camping trips.
Anyways, enough of my rambling, I have done some cool things this week and am happy to share those with you here. Because we didn’t travel last Tuesday, we took a bit of a ramble on Thursday instead. We set off to explore the city a little bit and see the small handful of houses in Washington D.C. that were built around or before 1800. It was a fun jaunt around the city which took us to some cool neighborhoods we don’t get to a lot. I hope to publish the photos from that tour here this weekend. It was fun, and nice to drive around the city with a mission.
The next day we did our weekly Forget-About-It-Friday party in the basement, this time with a pirate theme. There were Dark and Stormy cocktails, sea shanties, pirate games and fish and chips. It was a good time, and I realized I have entirely too much pirate/island themed T-shirts, flags and memorabilia around. I miss the islands and need to get back there as soon as I can. I haven’t been scuba diving in over a year now, something which would have been unheard of a decade ago. I really need to nurture some of my hobbies a little better and not let them fall away.
Saturday, my extended family pod came over for a socially distanced visit under the shade of the magnolia out front. We enjoyed some of our freshly tapped homebrew cream ale, which came out pretty well, and talked about life before, during and after the pandemic. I brought down some of my Tonka trucks from the attic for 2 year old Mason to enjoy, and they were a big hit. Next time I’m bringing down the big ones. It was nice to have a sense of normalcy with some of my best friends, even for a couple of hours.
Sunday and Monday were pretty quiet, which was okay too. I talked to a few friends, we played some games and it even cooled down enough to eat dinner outside on Monday.
Yesterday, we finally made it down to Appomattox to wind up our current tour of the Civil War battlefields of the Eastern Theater. It’s not a short trip as it’s over 3 hours each way from DC, but we were glad to get out there and it would have been a shame to miss it. We enjoyed the latest episode of the History That Doesn’t Suck podcast, which discussed Appomattox, on our drive, and were happy to find some park buildings open, albeit with limited accessibility. We even got to visit the McLean House, where the surrender terms were negotiated, going inside masked and one family group at a time. It was 100 degrees out, and hotter in the sun, which really took it out of us, but we saw everything we came to see and the trip was definitely worth the drive. While we still have one more chapter to our Civil War tour which will follow the path John Wilkes Booth traveled from Ford’s Theater through Southern Maryland, that will be on hold for a bit. I want to go see a beach and a lighthouse this week, both of which will be on the Chesapeake Bay, and it will be good to take a break from war and see some natural beauty instead.
Today will also be fairly quiet. My tutoring sessions are on summer break for a while as I think my student is doing well and pretty caught up with where he needs to be for the moment. Tonight we are going to have our Dinner and a Movie Night watching Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with some traditional Gullah dishes I’ve been wanting to try. The Gullah traditions of Georgia and South Carolina were something I only dipped my toes in while I was there and hope to learn more about in the future but I’m looking forward to cooking the Gullah way this afternoon.
Tomorrow, my mom is going to help me get Shadow Catcher out to the shop to get some things fixed. The brake line is the major thing keeping me from driving her right now, but while it’s there, I hope to get a handful of things fixed and looked at. While I miss living in my van, it’s tough to get work done when it’s also your living space, so I’m taking advantage of the situation to get her back to good working order. I’ve found a shop in West Virginia with great reviews which I hope works out well. Once that work is done I can at least drive her around more and hopefully start making some plans for the fall to get out of here for long weekends at the very least. While many of the things I love to visit like museums and live music venues are closed (and should be), I can still go wander around towns and out into nature. It’s giving me something to look forward to.
This weekend we are celebrating Christmas in July because why not? We’ll cook and listen to carols and make a go of it. I want to keep reading, writing, playing music and working out too. Anyways, that’s about what’s happening here in D.C. I’m still trying to keep my chin up, keep myself busy, and keep in touch with my friends. Other than that, I’m just trying to stay cool and stay healthy and for now, that’s about all that I can ask for. Oh, and I’m super looking forward to baseball starting tomorrow – I’ll be listening in on the radio like the old-fashioned guy that I am. I’m very happy that Dr. Fauci will be throwing out the first pitch this season – a well-earned honor and few hours off if ever there was one. Have a wonderful week out there wherever you are, and I hope to see you back here, same time next week. Thanks for reading and have a Merry Christmas-In-July!
-Mike