He was up a little before 7:20, so he saw me before I left. He was watching Max and Ruby as I went. So my Father’s Day gift was getting to take the car in for its first service. It took 3 hours, and I got to walk over to a nice coffee shop and work. I got to ג.ג.ג. at 8 and then had to wait in the waiting room for 20 minutes. Got the car dropped off, and walked to the coffee shop called Zak’s a block away. I sat at a seat at the window and had two large cappuccinos and an egg salad sandwich.
As I sat working on a Kumi Now essay about collective punishment, my iPad open with the Kumi Now and ICAHD websites open, a group of Jewish women came in and sat behind me. One of the women asked me “Can I ask you a rude question?” At first I dreaded where this was going, but she was really polite, so I thought maybe it would be a good conversation. But then she just asked if I could move so they could have more room. Anticlimactic.
I got a call a little after 11 saying the car was ready. I went back and picked it up. Every thing was fine. But they don’t vacuum or wash the car.
When I got home, I found they had made a wonderful Father’s Day sign and hung it over the stairs. The sign had math problems all over it, and August had made several that were “tricky”. That is, incorrect.
I got August to help me vacuum the car. He was first watering some of the plants usin a big plastic bottle, and had me get a second one out of recycling. Vacuuming the car took a total of three sessions, as it keeps overheating out in the heat.
August asked “Is zero odd or even?” We looked it up and learned why it is even. He also asked, “Did you know my tongue is made of rebar?” and “What’s moose gelato?” Don’t know where he got that (but gelato is from Monsters Beware and The 26-Story Treehouse has funny ice cream flavors). He asked, “Can you read Ben Braver to me? I mean Ben Less-Brave?” Carly came down, already wearing her swimsuit, and I asked why. He said, “Because she’s doing the dishes. Man, you’re so ridic.” (‘Ridicules is from Ben Braver.)
We got him to try his sandals when he went outside with me. He liked them okay, but pointed out that his toes touch the grass when he walks. We talked about donating them, and he asked “What’s donate mean?” A word of the day. He says he has a bunch of Iron Man books to donate, in his lab. He mentioned Iron Man a few times, and while I was gone he had, out of nowhere, asked if superheroes take snack breaks. I pointed out that Hilo eats mangos, and Ben Braver hangs out in a coffee shop. He said those don’t count as they aren’t on paper and we read them digitally.
We got ready for swimming and went to school. We also took several bags of printer parts back to the box, and a bag of aluminum cans to donate. Carly headed to her classroom and we recycled the cans, then headed to the pool. As we walked there he was asking about different checkmating scenarios, like is it possible to checkmate with two bishops, or with a rook, etc. He also asked, “What’s 8 times 8?” We figured it out, then he said, “So there’s 64 squares on the chess board?” I taught him the “8 times 8 fell on the floor, picked it up, said 64” rhyme and he really liked it. He wanted more, so we made up “7 by 7, walking in a line, counted them all, there were 49.” He already knows 10×10, 9×9, and 6×6 and below, so now pretty much knows his squares.
We were swimming at 2:15. Carly caught up a couple minutes later. Maya and Ben were there, and Carly and I spent most of our time plying monkey in the middle with Maya. August wasn’t really into playing himself, but would hang on us to make it harder, or retrieve the ball, etc. He was really getting splashed a lot and wasn’t bothered by it at all.
We left at 3:30. Carly suggested going to Sushi Ishimoto, but August really wanted to play out an idea he had for a Brother and Sister game. So he asked Carly to drop us off. She did, and she went to get food. We did Brother and Sister upstairs. Basically, Millie could also turn into Bar and other people.
Carly got back and we all ate. He then went outside with her to cut apart the tomato plants and cut back some other plants. We have put all of the plants outside, and Kelly and Mike’s daughter is going to come water them once a week (they live over in the house that was Jack and Celeste’s last year).
I finished my packing, and August came up to watch me. I then drove to the school and dropped off the car. I walked back, and was home at 6:30. Carly gave him a bath and washed his hair. He had me take a photo of the bumps on his back (shoulder blades) so he could see them. He saw the bag of lollipops I had bought for the flight and he said, “I’ll be looking forward.”
I took a shower. He was singing a “Ryan is the Best” song and also “Final Countdown”, which I had played for him earlier when we read Ben Braver, as it is mentioned in there.
The Gett driver got there just before 8. We got in the car. August sat in the middle, immediately getting his shoes on the back of the seats before I could get his shoes off. August had us playing the ‘Who can be quiet the longest’ game. He said he learned it from Up. He said “No buts about it” a few times, did a little dancing, and admired the full moon. He said, “In my lifetime, I’ll go by 300 billion street lights.”
We got to the airport and everything went smoothly as we went through. We went to the ‘Alternate Cafe’ in the area where we usually get food. Got a smoked salmon sandwich and couple of cheese things, and August chose lemonade and we had cappuccinos. As we walked to our gate we saw a new little play area. He said he remembered play areas in airports before. That’s been awhile.
As we sat at our gate (very close to where we were when we went to Greece), there were a bunch of teenagers all using the many charging ports available. I said something about them being desperate to charge their phones, and August picked up on it, asking several times, “Why are the teenagers desperate to charge their phones?”
We got on the plane. August, I think, was trying to stay awake for the takeoff. It finally got taxiing at 12:40 (it was a 12:20 flight), and he fell right asleep.
Starting a new countdown for summer 2020:
Pool 1:
Pool 2:
Cutting tomatoes:
Singing about the end of the countdown:
Singing about a calculator error message:
