Since our last post
(And since we've been quarantining under the same roof)
What do you write about when your blog is focused on long distance families, but your family has been under the same roof for 8 months? (269 days to be exact, but who’s counting? Certainly not I.)
I joke about how long it’s been that we’ve been forced into all this togetherness. But honestly, we still feel super fortunate considering the situations of so many others. For example, our kids already attended a hybrid virtual school and they’re old enough to work on their own. We missed having to home school them… score!
Since Jack is a Senior in high school, he’ll be off at college next year. Another benefit is that we get to spend a lot of time with him before he leaves the nest. This is especially good for Dennis who, otherwise, would be in DC getting to spend very little in-person time with our 12th grader.
No Longer a Long Distance Family. For now!
The biggest benefit was Dennis getting to stay home in Colorado. In fact, he’s been told to give up the DC apartment because his department is switching to mostly virtual. Technically, we’re no longer a long distance family!
There are only two downsides to this year. The biggest being Jack’s sparring career. His training and competition schedule had already been planned for the entire year. 2020 was supposed to be his transition from juniors to adults. While he’s been able to train a little, all competitions were cancelled from March until further notice. Which will actually save us a ton of money, so at least there’s that! While he brought home the bronze medal from the US Open in February, that actually turned out to be his last tournament for the foreseeable future.
The other downside to Coronavirus is that we don’t know when Dennis will be able to travel to India again. Since he has already been twice, he racked up enough miles for me to join him on the next trip. Now, we don’t know if there will ever be a next trip!
How we've been spending our time
I wish I could tell you that we’ve all taken this time to master a new skill, read several books, or complete some home projects. But unless you count binge-watching crime shows followed up with a deep dive into the respective crime rabbit hole, we’ve not accomplished very much.
To be fair, Dennis is always listening to an audio book. He’s currently listening to Stephen King’s The Stand. He’s also been reading up on programming hoping to add Tinkerpop and Gremlin to his resume.
Jack has been learning to drive. He got his permit a bit late. In Colorado, you must have 50 practice hours and must have your permit for one year before getting your license, and he didn’t get his permit until he was about 16 and a half. If he had gotten it sooner, he could have easily racked up the required driving hours. But that was back when we were driving to Taekwondo and school several times a week. This year, we don’t go anywhere! He was going to Taekwondo a few times a week and to a physics lab at school once a week until one person at each of those places came down with Covid.
Now, Ben’s in the same boat. At 15, he should already have his permit but he hasn’t shown much interest even though we offer to take him to the DMV about once a week.
However, Ben is still learning guitar and drums and is getting really great at both. To my disappointment, he hasn’t created any new stop motion videos in a while. I loved them so much! But as anyone with a teen, or was ever a teen themselves, knows, if you make too big of a deal out of something, that’s the end of it.
Then there’s me. I’ve been spending my time teaching English to Chinese kids (who have returned to school and activities as per pre-Covid) and helping our Taekwondo school with their website, marketing and whatever else I can.
Other than that, when I mentioned binge-watching true crime shows and then jumping down rabbit holes of any information I can get my hands on? Yeah, I was 100% referring to myself.
I have taken up art, though. Okay, it’s paint-by-numbers, but it’s still art! Plus, it’s super therapeutic and is something to work on while all the computers and laptops are in use for school and work. I can also paint while watching true crime shows. Who knew paint-by-numbers was still a thing? I’m so glad it is and that there are so many to choose from. And naturally, I’ve found supportive internet forums with tons of ideas and problem-solving help.
We have explored more of Colorado this year, which has been fun. Our favorite so far is still Telluride, but the Sand Dunes are pretty darn cool!
Still Trippin' - Both literally and figuratively
We have still managed to take a couple of trips this year, outside of exploring Colorado.
Knowing that, during this time of social distancing, trips aren’t exactly the best idea, we handled these as safely as possible. We and the family we visited remained Covid-free
Missouri Road Trip
Knowing we could work from anywhere, this summer we decided to take a couple of weeks to visit family.
We loaded up the car with lots of hand sanitizer and enough food and drinks so that we wouldn’t have to eat at restaurants or even drive-thru. The first stop was in St. Louis where we spent one night with Dennis’s parents. From there, we drove to Tennessee to stay with my parents for a week.
Then we drove to my sister’s house in Southern Missouri where we were able to continue our annual tradition of joining them at their lake house.
Our social circles remained small, we avoided hotels and restaurants, wore masks and used copious amounts of sanitizer.
We all returned to our routines virus-free and with healthier mental attitudes. Everyone except Georgie, that is. Due to this year’s diabetes diagnosis, he has gone completely blind. The unfamiliar environment of the trip was extremely stressful for him. But for the rest of us, it was just what we didn’t know we needed.
a lonely apartment & Car
The other trip was a bit more essential. Dennis needed to bring home his car and start clearing out the apartment in DC. Since we’d be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary this year, we decided to make a trip out of it. The trip included something we’ve always wanted to do: Take a fall leaf viewing drive through New England.
Through the drive-through at Walgreens, we were tested for Corona. We completed the required forms for each of the states we’d be stopping in, joking about how we were at risk for being stopped at a Covid checkpoint at the states’ borders.
Using our airline miles from the India trips, the four of us flew to DC. We wore our masks, and Jack and I even wore face shields. Even though we were able to put them on over our glasses and then forgot they were on, Dennis and Ben weren’t interested in wearing them.
The airports did everything they could do distance passengers. On the plane, non-family members were separated by empty seats. Sanitizing wipes were given handed out like beads at Mardi Gras.
Fall Colors & Seafood
Colorado has some beautiful fall colors, but I’ve still always wanted to go leaf peeping through New England. It did not disappoint. Colorado may have mountains full of golden aspens, but New England has fresh seafood! And man, did we eat a lot of it.
We ate mostly take-out, but we did eat at our first indoor restaurant since March: Chick and Ruth’s Delly in Annapolis, our favorite breakfast place in the world!
Jack and I were returning to Colorado via Southwest Airlines so that Jack wouldn’t miss his only in-person class: Physics. Southwest allows a carry-on plus two checked bags per person and we took advantage of it. We loaded our bags full with Dennis’s clothes from the apartment, while Dennis and Ben filled every inch of the car they could manage.
We still have to make one more trip to completely clear out the apartment before the lease is up in January. Visits to the office should be few and far between, at least until there’s a reliable vaccine. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
We’re so glad you posted a new blog. So much fun to here about your trips and updates on the grandsons. The Eiffel Tower painting is really good. It deserves to be displayed. Still can’t believe it has bee 20 years.
So you’re no longer a long-distance fam, so what! I say be a rebel, be so bold as to go ahead and keep callin’ yourself New Nuclear and keep bloggin’! What can they do to you? Lock you in your house and make you wear masks?! Congrats on 20 years! 🙂
I’m glad to hear you say that, because the next post is already written! #rebel And thanks for the anniversary wishes!
Loved reading your update! Poor Georgie! I didn’t know he had diabetes! Sounds like you all are making the best of the crappy situation! Miss you guys!!
Georgie was diagnosed with diabetes earlier this year. He was skin and bones and drinking water like crazy so we knew exactly what was wrong. But now he gets two insulin shots a day and other than not being able to see, you wouldn’t know anything was wrong with him! Miss you, too!!
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