News & Notes, Two Playgrounds and a Side of Stress Edition

Before I get into the "stress" part of this, first let me get through a little photo catch-up from the last week or so.  Last Wednesday I went out for a long bike ride.  It was good to get out and go to an area I hadn't ridden in since we lived at our old house.  I knew what was waiting for me when I got home, though--Carter had just gotten a pack of squirt guns, and I told him he couldn't squirt me until I got home.  And boy, did he ever.  I ended up pretty wet after he was done with me--but thankfully it was a warm night and he was getting warm water from a bucket in the yard, so all was well!

 
The following day was when Craig left for California, and Jacob had a long day at basketball camp.  We had been planning on hitting up a playground during Jacob's training in the evening, but he was just too worn out from camp so training was canceled and we left him at home to rest while I made good on the playground promise.  We ended up at one that we've passed by a bunch but never knew was there.  It's at a school next door to where he played soccer, and while the front playground looked okay, little did we know there was a giant playground in the back that was even better!  A friend of ours posted pictures when he took his kid, and I decided it looked right up Carter's alley!

We tried the front playground first.  It had a lot of money bars and other climbing things, including something that looked like a slide but had parallel bars where the slide would be.  There were a couple spinning things but they needed lubricating.  We did a couple rounds there but quickly made our way around to the back.  It was a pretty great playgound!

In particular I liked the "infinite" monkey bars that went in a full circle!

There was also this cool spider web looking thing!

Carter got caught!

Captured this as we both got to the top!

As I said, it was huge!  There was one bigger area for big kids, and one that was a little better for littler kids.  The little kid one had a cool "hourglass" feature where you could spin something embedded in a wall and tiny metallic balls ran from one of three compartments into other compartments.  Carter liked using it to time himself on his "obstacle course" run. 

It was such a nice night and I couldn't resist taking a selfie in the middle of our playing!

There were a couple fun spinning things on the playground - one that Carter got really good at and another that...well, he just couldn't get a grip on.  I had fun on the one he struggled with, although spinning is SO hard for me now.  I think I need to take Dramamine before we go to Darien Lake next week!

Anyway, we had a lot of fun and he's been talking about it ever since!  So much so we went to another one this week!  But first...

Last week when we dropped Jacob off at basketball camp, Carter said something about seeing a pig on the UR campus.  I had no idea what he was talking about, so the next time we drove by, he made me slow down in a certain area, and sure enough, there it was!  It was a tank creatively painted to look like a pig!  I have driven by that spot both in cars and on golf carts a ton of times and have never noticed it.  I have no idea how long it's been there, but how fun!  Next time I get go-kart duty for reunion weekend, I will definitely be pointing that out!

We definitely missed Craig while he was gone for four days.  He was in California for the college box lacrosse championship, which included one of the teams from the league he helped put together this summer.  It was rather nervewracking having him travel just as COVID was starting to spike everywhere again, but he masked for the vast majority of it, so hopefully all's well.  His team lost the championship in OT, which was a bummer, but it was a great first year and it was nice of that league's existence to help ensure he stayed employed over the last 6-9 months once it was clear the Knighthawks wouldn't be able to play.  The boys and I didn't do much while he was gone, and while they drove me nuts and I was thankful for the reinforcement when he came home (a few hours early, even) , I suppose it could have been worse.  We functioned.  But I'm in no rush for lacrosse season to start and his regular travel to resume--as much as I want normalcy back in general and desperately hope there's a season.

So, as I said, last night Carter and I went to another playground.  This time we went to one that used to be one of his favorites--the playground at his old soccer field.  This is the main part of it.  The tall tower is admittedly pretty cool.  It's higher than it looks here.

Of course, now things are a bit different because a brand new section just opened!  Like literally, the day we went!  I had seen a while back they were building a new accessible playground there, and while we planned to go this week, I didn't realize until the third potential day to go that the ribbon cutting was just that morning!  Unfortunately, the new playground replaced a really popular skate park.  I loved watching the skaters when Carter used to go to the playground.  It seems like taking away from one group that is underserved (teens need a place like that to go) to serve another underserved group--as important as differently abled kids are--is less of a win.  But what they did do was really pretty cool.  

The first piece of equipment was a wall with something that could be spun, a funky mirrored section, and a panel with a hexagon full of marbles that spin in their spots.  I loved them!

There is a swing that's made for kids in wheelchairs, along with friends or caregivers.  There's a bench on the far side, and the wheelchair goes up a ramp and wheels into the near side, and there are bars that fold down in front of both.  You need to get in a good rhythm of pushing and pulling those bars to make the swing move.  It was a little tough, but eventually we got a pretty good hang of it.

The centerpiece of the new space is like a merry-go-round.  Wheelchairs can wheel in, and others can sit on benches.  There's a wheel in the center to help spin it (much like teacups at an amusement park), but it was easier to run around and spin it.

Here's Carter trying to spin it while I'm sitting on it.  Spinning is really rough for me but I did what I could!

Next up was a fun disc swing!

We rode together for a bit, and then Carter swung me.  It felt deceivingly high, but Carter didn't believe me until he got on the swing and I pushed him!

Another section had some instruments--bongos, vertical bells, and a xylophone.  We had fun with those, but I can't help but wonder how long the little mallets will last on their cords.

We played for a little while on the old playground and even walked down the nearby bike path to see what equipment was on the adjacent workout trail there.  We played on a set of parallel bars for a couple minutes but decided we were too low on upper body strength.  It was also a really warm evening, meaning once I wore myself out spinning the merry-go-round I was less excited to try to play tag or hide-and-seek (which I don't play anyway when I am the only one responsible for him and don't want to lose sight of him).  It was about time to head home for dinner anyway, but it was fun to get a chance to enjoy the new playground while it was all shiny and new!

So...as for the stress...as COVID numbers continue to get worse and people continue to deny there's a problem, I just feel like the walls are closing in a bit.  We have a busy few weeks ahead--my brother's family being in town, a wedding, picnic, day at Darien Lake, a baptism, lots of basketball training, Craig's draft for work, and eventually a potential family vacation, followed almost immediately by the beginning of school.  Between working through work projects (not to mention meetings I had to move because weather impacted our Darien Lake plans), being behind on getting school supplies (Carter needs a backpack and lunch bag this year), Jacob's uniforms (which are frustrating because he may only need the new stuff for one year), and being worried about COVID for the family events and how it might impact traveling in a couple more weeks as cases rise like crazy, I feel like I'm cracking a little bit.  How do we plan anything when for all we know it will be completely unsafe or even locked down by then?  I'm watching all of these families travel right now, making amazing memories, and I just feel lost.  On one hand I would never want to be taking those risks, and on the other I'm like, if they can do that, surely we can do the simple, mostly outdoor car trip we're trying to plan.  Literally in the last week or two, I've had multiple friends at Disney, multiples along the Atlantic Coast from Massachusetts to New Jersey to Maryland, and singles in Northern California, Italy, and going cross-country.  I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but it's just exhausting knowing there's a whole world out there, and now I'm feeling uncomfortable just trying to stay in one smallish corner of it.  At the same time, medical personnel are losing their minds again all across the country, and tons of people just continue to insist things are fine and masks and vaccines are unnecessary, despite so many deaths and long COVID cases among younger people.  

I realized I think I forgot to mention the other day that I feel like we are literally living in two parallel universes--one where the science and numbers are clear, hospitals are overwhelmed, and we have ways to attempt to deal with problems that we need to use, and one where masks do not work, numbers have been overblown, COVID doesn't even have a real test so therefore it can't exist, where big pharma, media and liberal government are manipulating everything, and kids can somehow go to school and not catch or pass the virus.  There are some people that are just so convinced that they're fully denying what's happening now.  And to some degree, I guess I'm the same on the other end of the spectrum.  There are just certain truths that I can't get past:

• Medical professionals being overwhelmed.  They are exhausted, overworked, and seeing things we can't even fathom.
• I can see numbers rising and know it's only going to get worse because this is so much more transmissible than the original strain.  The astronomical rise in cases is proof of that--what we have been doing is no longer working.
• Schools will have trouble staying open even with masks.  
• Young, healthy people are dying without pre-existing conditions at abnormal rates.
• I know of at least three people my age with long COVID issues that lasted months, and my friend's parents are barely independent anymore from theirs.  
• Studies show that up to 30% of adults and 20% of kids could have long COVID symptoms, and the vaccine isn't stopping that even though many have mild cases.  
• I don't want to have any of us suffer or even be stuck at home, so we need to take precautions where we can.  
• The vast majority of doctors--even little peon ones with no connection to any powers that be who would be paying them off--believe the vaccines are important and masks work.
• Vaccines are still important to keep people out of hospitals, but they are clearly not enough to stop spread, so universal masking is needed.  Especially if people want businesses to stay open, we have to try something.  

I saw a video of a nurse trying to remind people that this whole thing isn't about them.  It's not about their freedoms or what is comfortable for them.  Even if they don't care about other people, there are other people who care about those other people and it shouldn't be such a burden to care about the wellbeing of others with a couple simple steps.  Again, I understand people who are hesitant about the vaccine--although by now I feel like there would be a lot more obvious issues--but if that's your issue, then find another way to protect others, by masking or staying home or limiting gatherings.  People who are so resistant to everything just strike me as so selfish.  But again, they literally can't see that perspective and feel it's their God-given right to look out for their own good and live free.  That idea would be fine if their freedoms didn't inherently put others at risk.  But again, when they believe masks don't work and this isn't a big deal--no one they know got it bad--they just don't see what they're doing as a risk.  As I mentioned before, it kills me that politics have impacted things so badly here (it didn't have to be this way) and it's mind-boggling how two people can look at the same data and see it completely differently.  It's just incredibly frustrating on all counts right now--both from my personal perspective and when looking at the bigger picture.  

But all this COVID stuff along with all these little details of trip planning, work, school prep, doctor appointments (Jacob got his first shot today--yay!), how to pack for an amusement park day, writing up a wedding card, making sure we have groceries or remember to eat the fruit in the fridge, watering my plants, replacing the toilet paper, and on and on and on...it's just a lot when moving off my chair to turn on the TV and clear off a DVR show is too much bother right now.  I don't even know why.  And truly, we still have it good, so why is it so hard?