Wednesday, July 6 2022

Dear Journal,

Hey everyone. Good morning. How does your Wednesday feel so far? Over here it's dark, cool, damp, and at the moment pretty cozy. Continuing this theme, for today's banner image I grabbed a picture of Minnie snuggling with her new favorite toy. It's a baby raptor. Before Minnie claimed this raptor, she chewed one of the eye's out. Why would she do that? Marissa suggested it was to keep her "humble". It probably only makes sense to Minnie.

All this talk of coziness and snuggling leaves me in danger of nodding off right here at the dining room computer. To stay awake and write, I need the help of a hot drink laced with chemicals.

Sip. I got a late start to writing. First, thinking I had a late jump on garbage day, I threw on my robe and made the long trek down my steep driveway, dragging my cans behind me. But nobody else had their cans on the curb, and this made me suspicious. I turned to the Village of Schaumburg's twitter account, and I found that garbage collection days have all been pushed forward one day to account for the holiday. So I crossed the driveway again to pull my cans back to the side of the house.

I guess that makes sense. Somehow, back in Madison, our Tuesday morning garbage collection never fell on a holiday. How many holidays fall on Tuesday - maybe Christmas every seven years? But on the Tuesdays following labor day and memorial day, I thought about those poor garbage people needing to make up the extra day somewhere in the week on the heels of a holiday. Here in Schaumburg, it seems they solve the problem by offsetting everybody's collection day for the rest of the week, and that makes a lot of sense to me.

We've got a good rapport going with the garbage people, but at the same time we're sitting on a growing pile of waste, thanks to all the late projects in the yard. We've got things bagged and neatly sorted around the corner from our garage where it won't get in anyone's way. Bricks, wood beams, bags of balled up old tarp, and long rusty spikes that held in the wood edging around the pool - most of them still have little blocks of wood attached to them. Marissa and I either need to find a dump to drop all this off, or we might call one of those "1-800-get-my-junk" guys we see on billboards.

I've been rambling about our garbage for just a little too long, haven't I? Truth is, there's not a lot going on in the middle of this week. Our family is somewhere between recovering from this past weekend and preparing for Rodney's birthday this weekend. Marissa folded the seats down in our car and brought home his "big ticket" item yesterday. Rodney thinks he caught a glimpse of the box from the side door. His first guess was absolutely correct, so we had no choice but to just gaslight him and hope he forgets what it is by this weekend.

"It's just a big box of little things. Dad's taking you to see Dude Perfect on Thursday," explained Marissa. "That's your big gift."

All good lies are built on a foundation of some truth. On Thursday night, Rodney and I are seeing the Dude Perfect live show at the United Center. In preparation, he re-watched their live tour movie on YouTube. He wore his Dude Perfect shirt, even knowing we'd have to re-wash it before the show on Thursday.

A lot of good things have been happening for Rodney lately. Yesterday Marissa signed him up for some summer sports. She let Rodney make the final decision, but we all knew where he would end up.

"It's either basketball or ninja gymnastics," sad Marissa.

We all know what Rodney chose. This summer once a week at the Elk Grove pavilion, Rodney will learn the ways of the ninja. At the end of the class, will there be a ceremony or a final ninja warrior challenge? Will he have to fight his teacher? Does he get his own sword? We're all eager to learn firsthand about the exciting new sport of ninja gymnastics.

Lots of good things happening. Hope your week is going well too. See you all tomorrow.