Monday, March 7 2022

Dear Journal,

Good morning, everyone. Do you feel like another Monday? Spring is in the air. It's time to get out of bed and catch up on things. Just look at how beautiful it is outside.

Dang it. Four more inches of snow. In that case, let's just go back to bed and wait it out. These early spring head fakes we get in the Midwest are kind of like Rodney's knock-knock jokes. They may have been funny the first time, but definitely not the hundredth time.

Knock knock. Who's there? Snow. Snow who? Snow fart. Good one, Rodney.

Let's just hope we're seeing the final throws of winter. Maybe it will be the kind of snow that will all melt by the afternoon.

Sip. The weather has been all over the place this weekend. With snow piling up on the ground, it's hard to believe that only a day ago we were napping with the windows open. The whole house smelled like humid spring rain.

On Friday we took the boys to the Brass Ring. Most of the restaurants and bars in the area were packed for the Bulls Bucks game. We had to park in the garage across the street, then run against the win across East Washington. At first the extra commute time annoyed me, but the crisp walk outside actually felt pretty electrifying.

Content with a private viewing of Blue's Clues, Rodney and Miles let us stay out past bedtime. But by the time we left the restaurant, the temperature dropped. We'd have to make the same treacherous walk against an even colder wind. Marissa lent Rodney her windbreaker. Miles wore a spare hoodie. Before we left, we enjoyed the surreal site of our two boys wandering around the restaurant in giant clothes. Like two silly, giggling ghosts.

I like to snack on the weekends. To help curb the temptation to binge on chips and sweets, I've been coming home from the grocery store with new exotic fruits to try. This weekend, I set aside a dragon fruit.

Have you ever had a dragon fruit? It surprised me at each stage of the preparation. As if the floppy spikes and pink hue weren't strange enough, I peeled open the skin to find a bright pink rhine, coconut white flesh, and tiny black seeds.

I cut the flesh into cubes. Since I was going to bring the bowl down for Marissa, I draped a slice of lemon over the top to make it appear less ghostly.

For all the intriguing colors of this outer space fruit, this dragon fruit was actually kind of bland. It had the seedy consistency of a kiwi, but it tasted like water. I secretly hoped for a more an intriguing, challenging experience, but the dragon fruit was the biggest disappointment of the weekend.

In other news, we're in full blown house selling mode. We have two more weekends before we take pictures of the inside, and that leads right into open house weekend. We've finished most of the big things. Now Marissa is just flying around the house, tackling a long list of little things. Paint touch-ups, patching holes, fixing door knobs. Much like the sudden downfall of snow, I barely even noticed the transition from chaos to cozy. The clean windows and the fresh paint make our house look so bright and homey.

After heading upstairs last night, Marissa and I sat at the desk to finish our drinks. I gestured at the glass enclosure beside my laptop. "That's a beautiful spider. Orange and black pattern, very prominent and impressive..."

"You hope to see it some day?" said Marissa, finishing my joke. We love to poke fun at how infrequently we get to see the spiders.

"Let's check on them," I sighed. I grabbed a paint brush off the wall and probed into Tio's lair. Brushing dirt aside, I saw his bright orange tiger striped butt pushed against the back wall.

"I gotta poke 'em," I sighed. "He could be dead for all I know."

Tio charged the brush, slapping it with his front legs. I saw the light of my phone's flashlight reflect off his shiny fangs. "OK, he's annoyed with us now. See you in a few months, Tio."

Out of the eight spiders, only Glassy is active at the moment. I fed him a roach, and he proudly danced on top of his coconut hide for twenty minutes.

Another busy week ahead of us. Rodney's ice skating class resumes today, except it's on the other side of town. We have house stuff to do. We're picking up another week of gregxercises. And by the looks of it, we're going to have to find time to shovel all this silly March snow.

That's what I got today. As always, thanks for dropping by and being a reader. I hope you have a great rest of your Monday.