He got up at 7:30 and had some time playing Minecraft by himself as I got things packed. He ate some oatmeal, and we got driving a few minutes after 8. We did some listened to Story Pirates on the way down and August also played Minecraft and other things. Delayed a bit more as we needed to get gas along the way. Didn’t matter though, as when we got there Marc had just left the office (he’d actually seen us driving the other direction) because he’d gotten a call from Bezeq. He’d been without internet for weeks and it was taking them that long to come out.
When we parked Andraous was getting out of his car at the same time and waited for us. We had had similar timing last time. This time, however, as I was getting the stuff out of the car August suddenly started throwing up. Luckily, mainly into the dirt. Andraous helped carry stuff up and I carried August. We just had to change his shirt upstairs.
As Marc, Omar, and I met I kept checking in with him. August felt good enough after a little while to have his Cheerios and then a cookie, and after an hour or so he gave a thumbs up for his stomach. I was pretty sure it was car sickness and he was fine the whole rest of the day. He then also ate a hard boiled egg, some ka’ak, and a few other things through the day. He got a lot of screen time: he watched Phineas Rage and Llama Llama on YouTube, played Minecraft (he spawned several worlds and had fun burning down a spooky mansion). At one point, as we were having a break, he showed Marc some of the graphs he was doing. Once when I checked in with him he was playing Minecraft and said something was “Downeight gorgeous” At the end, around 1:30, he reflected on his time: “So much iPad time: circles a world three times (he had been shocked when he was flying around randomly for a long time and came back upon a village he had already been to), burned down a whole mansion…”
He talked to Marc again about math and science and Marc mentioned a story and I read him https://www.sciencealert.com/astronomers-have-just-recorded-the-biggest-explosion-since-the-big-bang More reflecting on what he had done: “I thought about how to get a brewing stand in Minecraft…” One of his interruptions (there were very few) while we were meeting was to tell me that he realized it was easier to find a village with a brewing stand and take it than it was to fight a blaze to get the ingredients you needed.
The plan had been to go to the Bloomfield Science Museum, as we’ve done in the past on a Friday. Luckily, I looked and found it is now closed on Fridays. August wasn’t upset by it, and was fine with finding something else to do. Marc said there is a new trampoline park at First Station. But it closed at 3. I found that the one in Ra’anana is open until 7 and August and I talked about doing that. But then I suggested that might not be a good idea after another long drive. August agreed, and then liked the idea of walking around the Old City and getting food.
We left at 1:45. As I drove to Jaffa Gate he sang a song, as Bar, to members of the Family family, about buying ice cream and getting down to zero dollars, starting with 100 million dollars or so. He then had a game where Brother saw a bomb falling on the jungle, accidentally, from a plane. He came up with Brother saying, “Yeah, extra bolts” then when the flap opens and the bomb falls out flatly saying “Oh no.”
We parked and walked up into the Old City. Turned right and walked through the Armenian Quarter. First discussing Minecraft, and how he is my good luck charm when mining or fishing. He made the rhyme: “I’m your good luck charm of the sea, I think Poseidon’s happy with me.” We were then discussing how old everything was in the city and what was 3000 years old and what life was like back then. He would ask if they had this or that item.
We missed the turn I was looking for and looped around through the south end of the city and into the Jewish Quarter. Unfortunately, this was where August’s water bottle was running out and he wanted it refilled. Otherwise he had been doing a great job walking. I say unfortunately because it was the Sabbath and everything was closed. It was 3:10. Luckily, there was a pizza place selling its final slices. We bought two and a mango drink and went and sat out at a table.
He was asking about things in caveman times, and of food asked why it was hard to get, at least half joking when he said, “Usually it’s easy to get food on your own…you just go to a restaurant…take your coins…” He was then asking how the cavemen would respond to a variety of modern things, like, “What if I sent a computer back to the cavemen?” To all I would answer, “They’d think you’re Poseidon.”
We lost our table after about ten minutes when the guy closed his shop. There was a bench though. Saw a little confrontation between a tour guide and a group of soldiers that walked by, but don’t know what about. And noticed a few tourists wearing face masks.
We kept talking about cavemen, then headed back, taking the short route to the north and through the main market area, which luckily wasn’t very busy as things were closing.
At the mall where we parked we tried to use the bathroom, but the security guard wouldn’t let us in that building as it was closing already. Where do they expect people to go to the bathroom? August was fine though. We drove home, listening to Story Pirates. Some traffic, but not horrible and we were home at 5:20.
He showed Carly some 3D graphing, as one of the new things I had put on his iPad for the drive today was a 3D graphing application. He did piano for alone time, then played Minecraft with Carly. He had soup for dinner, then Carly tried another Neal DeGrasse Tyson book with him. Boast was a word of the day. The book proved a bit much though. He played piano.
He and I then did a lesson on binary on Brilliant. I then found a number converter and he was converting numbers between binary, hexadecimal, and decimal. We went upstairs and I read The Last Kids on Earth. He did more number converting. Carly gave him a bath, and I heard him bring up hurting people at school. He brought it up with me the other day. I talked to her later, and it started as the same thing, talking about how it had been an accidental kidding trick to get out of a school he hated. I didn’t hear the whole conversation, but heard him say, “Time traveling is dangerous…if you kill the first germ life would never exist on Earth.” And he talked about going back in time to say sorry, or to stop it from happening:
“I can change the future by changing the past.”
When he came out from the bathroom I had been chatting with Peter about a former coworker at MTHS. August saw it and said, “Facebook? Seriously? You’re wasting your time on Facebook?”
We went in to bed. We listened to “The Great Playground Leap” on Stories Podcast. He showed me a wart on his foot. He also has a bump on his hand (has had it for quite a while) but it hasn’t hurt him. He said this hurt a little now and that it had been there for a few weeks. He said, “Indicator: when your body isn’t damaged you shouldn’t feel pain.” We also talked about when his eyes bother him (I had carried him a bit of the ways back to the car as we were walking into the sun) he said, “My eyes were watering…I think when it is sunny…or something is really funny…” We listened to a Bedtime Explorer, and he told me about triangulation in Minecraft, using the Ender Eyes to find a fortress.We listened to a little a little Haydn piano and he was asleep by 10:30.
Getting jazzy:
Talking to Marc:
Walking through the Old City:
The endless ice cream song:
Ode to Joy in different keys:
