So begins another week. June is zipping along at a pretty fast clip. I’d rather see it move along at a more leisurely pace, but I’m sure that won’t happen. I’d have to discover a miracle of physics, and sometimes I have a problem locating my keys.
During the summer I have to add a task to my morning routine. During the school year, the boys almost always buy their lunch at Elm Lawn, but the summer program they are enrolled in at Sauk Trail doesn’t provide a hot lunch option, so I need to make them one. For Eddie, it’s peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a small container of applesauce, a can of Fresca, cookies, and depending upon what’s available, goldfish or baby carrots. Andy eats a turkey and cheese sandwich with mayo, a fruit cup, and then the same as what I pack for Eddie. JoAnna created a list of household chores for othe boys to do in order to earn their allowance: make their beds, tidy up their rooms, put their clothes away, wash the dishes, take out the garbage. For Andy’s I should add “make your own lunch”.
Friday evening, JoAnna attended the state Democratic convention at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Monona Terrace in Madison. Neither of the boys had a baseball game scheduled. Andy preferred to stay at home instead of going out to eat, so we ordered a pizza for delivery and watched game 5 of the Bulls-Jazz series. I was pleased to see the Jazz win. Andy, of course, wanted the Bulls’ celebration to begin.
Saturday afternoon, we participated in a “deck-raising”. Ron and Julie, friends of ours who live in the east side of Madison, were putting a deck off their back porch. They are part of the group that we occasionally play cards with. JoAnna and I thought the boys wouldn’t be interested, but Andy wanted to go and that, of course, left Eddie with no choice. He wanted to stay home. Andy asked if Meaghan could come along with us, and I didn’t see a problem with that, as the boys usually accompany us to our card parties anyway. We arrived at 12:30, in time for a hamburger cookout. JoAnna didn’t show up until nearly 2:00 as she was at the Dem convention again. Ron’s parents and one of his brothers were there as well as a half dozen of Ron and Julie’s friends. Most of the people in attendance observed the work being done. For about an hour or so, I used a power drill to insert screws into the wood beams. The kids behaved very well, keeping out of the way most of the time. Andy and Meaghan brought their baseball gloves along and were able to play catch. On the drive back to Middleton, we stopped at Best Buy so Andy could buy a CD by Chumbawamba, a group that had a #1 hit earlier this year with their song “Tubthumper”. Not a group or song I’m familiar with. Later, giving into his persistent requests, I took Eddie to Target so he could buy a Beast War toy. The particularly character he wanted wasn’t in stock. We searched the toy section thoroughly. Eddie seemed more perplexed than disappointed. On the way home, we stopped at our neighborhood Walgreen’s, as I wasn’t in the mood to drive an additional three miles to Toys R Us. Fortunately, and against all odds I had figured, he found what he wanted there.
JoAnna and I pretty much vegged out Saturday night. The boys went swimming t the outdoor pool. During the morning, I had worked on another portion of the front lawn, reseeding a particularly bare area, so I had my sense of accomplishment for the day. (The project continues to be a success.) We ended up watching a movie, Romancing the Stone, a romantic comedy/thriller with Michael Dougals and Kathleen Turner. I saw it when it was first released in 1984, the spring before I met JoAnna. She had never seen it.
Since JoAnna had a meeting to attend at 1:00 Sunday afternoon, we weren’t able to plan any family activity. Meaghan spent most of the day at our house. I kept hearing Andy complain about their being nothing to do. When he asked if I’d take them miniature golfing, I declined. Meaghan’s dad ended up providing taxi service. I watered my grass seed and then finished the challenging task of “pruning” a 8-inch-diameter limb from the silver maple in the back yard. I wasn’t using the most effective tool, although I did get the thing down after 30 minutes of dogged persistence. Then it took me another hour to but the limb into manageable pieces and transport them to the curb. The branch had been interfering with the straight growth of the three evergreens.
JoAnna fixed a pasta salad and we grilled out hamburgers for supper. Afterwards Andy and I rode our bikes to a nearby ball field and he practiced his pitching and batting. Andy’s team has played two games so far this season and won both of them, 12-3 last Monday and 6-0 on Wednesday. Andy has pitched two innings in each game, giving up only 2 hits, 0 runs, 1 walked, and notching 8 strikeouts. He looks good on the mount, at ease and confident, with a very economical pitching motion.
I’ve been reading the articles about Warren Public Library in the Times-Observer (Which reminds me. I need to renew my subscription.) The library certainly generates a lot of publicity but, unfortunately, most of it is bad. Speaking of bad news, the closing of Carnahan’s certainly isn’t good news for downtown. The mall never did turn downtown Warren into a ghost town, although a lot of former retail space is now used for offices. I think the idea of developing the riverfront is a long overdue good idea and maybe that will help to reinvigorate the downtown area.
I’ve enclosed some pictures of Boxer (and family).
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