News and Notes, WEEKS in Review Edition

So, before my last post it had been nearly two weeks since I posted.  It's been a blend of nothing notable and yet feeling rather busy.  Two nights a week of soccer and busy work days will do that, I guess.  When we're not at soccer we're doing late dinners after practice or I'm stuck with a grocery run and squeezing in a quick workout.  Jacob is slowly getting better but still taking it one day at a time to recover from a sore knee.  Carter's soccer season is now over but we're plotting his next steps.  Craig still has his college league and I'm still crazy busy at work with no end in sight.

Last Wednesday, on the heels of my dead car battery debacle, I ended up in car trouble again.  On the way to Carter's soccer game, I accidentally hit a rather large rock in the road.  I only saw it at the last second because it was road-colored, and I just couldn't quite avoid it.  I forgot to check my tire before we left the game, but as I started driving I could tell something wasn't right and I pulled off maybe a quarter mile up the road at the school that's home to Carter's favorite playground.  I called AAA, again, and luckily they were super fast and were able to get my spare up and running.  We were back on the road within about a half hour.  Thankfully, Carter and I were still able to do our post-game dinner date--first trip to the Tom Wahl's that took over our beloved Carmine's.  The best part (ha) was that I was already planning to get new tires the following day when my car was scheduled for an oil change.  So, the timing almost literally couldn't have been better.  Little things, folks.

Speaking of little things, my flowers and garden were once my haven for little joys during the pandemic.  This year has been...challenging.  Things are growing, I guess, but it's been one frustration after another.  My seeds wouldn't grow, and what little did got eaten.  New stuff has taken extra long.  Some of my flowers are thriving, but others are slow, getting eaten, aren't getting enough sun, or are getting too much water.  A couple things have randomly died off, other things continue to be deer snacks, and my garden has just started to produce a few things.  My first cuke happened to be growing around the fencing, and something ate off the end before I even knew it was there.  I saved my burning bushes from aphids only to have one being decimated by spider mites.  Some of it is lovely and I'm trying to enjoy what I have, but it's not quite the joy it was a few years ago when I had zinnias coming out my ears, and I'm starting to doubt my skills.  My hydrangea may have been a victim of the late frost, but it's still putting out beauties like this, so there's that.

Oh, and our pool has been sort of chilly for a good chunk of the year and every time we're in there the heated pool basketball games make me nuts.  Our rafts blow out almost every other day right now with the random thunderstorms we've had going on for a couple weeks.  But at least it's been mostly clear--or quick to clear when it's not.  I'll call that a win.

As I mentioned, Carter's soccer season is over.  It was a little crazy near the end because they played a couple games against the other Greece team that featured a couple of his teammates from last year, including one that was a total loose cannon.  That kid grew about six inches and just towers over almost everyone, and is pretty broad as well.  He used his size and it created a huge issue because our team felt beat up on and fought back with elbows of their own, and by the second game it got so bad that our smallest player got a yellow card and they called the game with at least a few minutes left.  But we think the team ended up around 6-4, which was better than last year.  Carter scored an awesome breakaway goal in the last game of the year, which his team won by a bunch, so it was nice to close out the season on a high note.  

Last night ice cream...yum!

Now we're pondering how we're going to proceed.  In my laziness/busyness/overwhelm, we missed most of the soccer camps this summer, but we did manage to schedule him for one this coming week.  Hopefully that gives him a chance to work on his skills and learn from someone new (hopefully someone who knows how to teach, more than his soccer dad coaches have).  Any further soccer will be at the 13U level, which is a little scary given the height differential around this age group.  We saw what we think was a 13U game last weekend, and some of the kids were a head taller, while some still looked so tiny.  He could play this fall to get a preview with a shorter schedule.  However, he also expressed interest in trying baseball.  But those two things would definitely overlap, so now we're considering an August baseball sandlot session.  It would only be about $60 and he might miss the last week when we go to Florida, but for the relatively small investment, quick duration, and the chance to see how he compares to other kids since he has zero playing experience, it might be worth doing just to find out if he could play next year, without ruining the chance to find out if 13U soccer will be a reasonable option next year.  Who knew Carter might be the busier kid for a change?

My work week this week was a bit weird because I had a full-day retreat on Wednesday and our annual baseball outing on Thursday.  The good news about Wednesday was that it was at the art gallery, so at least I got my periodic gallery visit in.  The new sculpture park addition opened last month and it was nice to get a little tour after our day of brainstorming meetings.  But before we took our tour, I noticed this little guy looking down from above the museum entrance.  He's just like the statues in other parts of the sculpture garden and like the ones we saw at the City Museum in St. Louis.  Not sure how I always missed this one, but he's cute!  For the record, they are done by a guy named Tom Otterness, which I learned from the colleague who gave us our tour.

The new rebar rainbow is so fun and colorful.  But it's sort of hard to photograph, so here are three attempts!

This one was interesting.  Of note is that there's only one spot where you can see through to the other side.

This one was bringing some diversity to the works in the park since it was pretty white-male dominated.  I know I saw a sculpture by the same artist somewhere else, but I can't remember where...but they are distinctive, for sure.  My favorite part is that the flame on the torch is shiny and reflective, unlike the rest of the sculpture.

The fanciest piece is this one, creating a built-in "audience" for the performing students at the School of the Arts next door.  

Hard to tell until you get up close, but it's all mosaic!

Around the back, they get torsos!

This piece was like ceramic pottery and is hollow but heavy.  It's so tall, too.

This was a random statue that's sort of trying to make light of a Rodin piece of John the Baptist.  We were talking about interacting with the art so I couldn't help but do this!

I did run into the gallery as well, but not much new to see.  There was an interesting, diverse exhibit of local art, some of which was cool but nothing that knocked my socks off.  Always good to check, though.  Now I'm counting down the days until mid-September when the amazing mirrored room arrives!  It's not the one from my childhood, but rather a different one that normally lives in Toronto, but I am so excited for it!  Carter is going to love it.

Thursday was my work outing to the Red Wings game.  It was supposed to be just Craig and me since the kids complain about everything--Carter gets impatient when adults talk, and Jacob just gets to the point of wanting to move on after a couple hours.  So I planned on not taking them since it's a work event and the expectation is to mingle with colleagues before going off to enjoy the game.  But with them both home they were a bit annoyed they couldn't go, so I had to claim some of the extra tickets and bring them along.  It turned out pretty okay, although they only hung out through lunch and then the three guys headed out into the stadium while I chatted.  Oh, well.  It was a nice day and a fun event.  And it was a super early game so we wrapped up the day with some time in the pool.  

Between those two days and my hybrid schedule having me in and out of the office on the other days, the rest of the week felt very disjointed.  The regular days I had were filled with reporting and analysis made more challenging with only so much motivation amidst the other busy days and a looming fun weekend.  Mentally it was a challenge, but I'm getting through things bit by bit.  And now there's more urgency (and even more distraction) since the vacation plans are emerging.  

Summer is seriously flying.  July is almost over.  The kids have been off a month already and only have about 6-1/2 weeks left of break.  I am panicking a little as I watch my yard and garden get to that hard-to-control stage, which I know is the beginning of the end.  It was like it took forever to get going, and then I blinked and it was out of control--probably because we actually started getting rain, but whatever.  With all of the Disney talk I'm already recalling how our travel week last year was awkward timing for properly wrapping up summer, particularly in the yard, mostly because it was super cold for a couple weeks once we got back.  I felt like I missed the final peak of the garden and flowers while we were gone, and then the cool, rainy weather made it hard to get out there for a few weeks once we were back or get one final push from the plants.  I'm already worrying a little about how I'm going to handle it all this year.  And I can't believe the trip is only about a month away already.  And then it's my birthday and then summer is over.  Ugh.  Not that we don't have a bunch to cram in over these six weeks, but still...it's all going way too fast.  It's been a weird summer, too, with both kids home and Jacob not being able to be as deep into his basketball stuff.  I think we're all probably a bit discombobulated, and having to get Carter off somewhere every morning this week will probably be a bigger challenge than we thought after all of this relative laziness.  

Anyway, like I said, we still have a lot to cram in, and at least Carter and I had a fun 24 hours this weekend that was strangely similar to the same weekend last year.  That post coming soon...