Friday, August 28, 2020

7 Quick Takes about Camping in Paradise, an Unexpected Visitor, and Why There's Nothing Worse than a Bad New England Accent

It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?

1


We went camping over the weekend. It was pretty glorious.

Not only was it the first time in 5 months that we've been out of the house for more than a few hours, it was gorgeous there.


This view alone was worth having to crouch over a pit toilet all weekend.

2


We also got new (to us) couches! We found a good deal on Facebook Marketplace on two truly massive couches that will fit all 8 of us comfortably for family movie nights in the basement.

It was a lot of driving, because the guy lived half an hour away and we had to make two trips to ferry both couches home, but that's okay. It's not like we have anything better to do. 

The guy unexpectedly shook my hand before we left, which felt SUPER WEIRD. For 5 months I've been going out of my way to avoid even walking on the same side of the road as other people, much less touching them.

I honestly think I would've been less surprised if he'd reached out and goosed me.

3


Before we can move the new couches in to the basement, we have to get rid of our old couch. So while we're working on that, we put the new couches in the garage.

It's funny because there's also a fridge in there, waiting for Phillip to take it apart and (hopefully) fix it.

So basically, we're starting a new house in the garage. I think I'll start referring to it as "our second home" from now on. It sounds classy.

4


The other night, I was just about to go downstairs and clear some space in the basement for the couches. I hadn't gone more than four steps when my son yelled, "Mom! There's a dog!"

I was confused, because we don't own a dog. There's a stray cat that roams a circuit around our yard every few days (the kids named it 'Sir Sandpooper' because I'm always muttering about how it's going to use our sandbox as a giant litterbox.)

I went back upstairs to see a very happy black dog with its nose about an inch from our sliding door on the deck, wagging its tail at me.

Oh, hello.

5


The dog had obviously been someone's pet, but the phone number on the tag didn't work and the dog was pretty skinny and dirty, so I think she'd been lost for a while.

We tied her up in the yard and called animal control, and for the next half-hour the kids had the time of their lives playing with her in the yard. They were frolicking around in the dusk playing fetch with a tennis ball, and it was so Normal Rockwell-like I could hardly stand it.

But I really am not a pet person, and when the animal control lady came I was relieved to let her take over. Turns out that 30 minutes of dog ownership was just right for me. I'm good for another 10 years now, at least.

6


This is the last and final week of The Educational Summer Vacation. The amount of complete and utter exhaustion I feel after 8 weeks of doing this makes me doubt my ability to homeschool my 16-year-old all school year but I'm trying not to think about it.

We're learning about Somalia this week, so last night Phillip and I and the teenagers watched Captain Phillips, which is based on the true story of an American ship captain who was taken hostage by Somali pirates in 2009.

It was a good movie and I enjoyed it but OH MY GOSH THE ACCENT MAKE IT STOP. The ship captain was from Vermont and I don't know what Tom Hanks thought he was talking in or who he learned it from, but it was certainly not a New England accent.

After living in New England for 10 years, I feel personally attacked by the ear poison in this movie. And I say that as a native Minnesotan who didn't feel half as strongly about the accents in Fargo.

7

Overheard at my house:

12-year-old: What would you do if someone told you that you could eat a piece of pie but then you'd die, or you could not eat a piece of pie and you'd still die?

8-year-old: Eat pie.

12-year-old: Well, obviously.

8-year-old: Because dying with pie is better than dying without pie.

12-year-old: [nodding] Exactly. 

I'm not sure what the point was or what the moral of the story is, but I agree that if given those two options, you should probably take the pie.

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4 comments:

jen said...

I watched the whole Somali pirates thing while in the hospital recovering from my emergency c-section.

Ann-Marie Ulczynski said...

We have that movie, but haven't seen it yet! Now that's all I going to be thinking about!

And your summer series on the countries is amazing. You will rock this homeschooling thing!

Jenny Evans said...

Jen: Well that sounds relaxing.

Kassie said...

I am still chuckling about that overheard conversation!