It was Friday, and we were all pretty excited for the end of the week. Amelia was wrapping up school, I was trying to get a few last work bits done, and Henry and Erin were working with the ABA therapist. The morning went pretty smoothly, and Amelia was excited for “Field Trip Friday,” which is a little virtual adventure her teacher offers for those who get all their afternoon asynchronous learning done.
I had to run a few errands, and I returned to Amelia being pretty distraught because she couldn’t seem to log on for Field Trip Friday. I went up to help her, and indeed it just wasn’t letting her in. I wound up emailing with her teacher, and we eventually did get her logged in, but of course by then the activity had pretty much ended.
We found out after the fact that there had been some technology issues, and several kids were locked out and it sounds like even the ones that made it were subjected to lots of freezing up and other issues. Amelia seemed pretty chill with that, and even said with great chipper spirit that she could just do field trip Friday next week.
Which is why I was surprised when I went up to my office and heard sobs from her room. I went to see how Amelia was doing, and she was really sad about missing out. We talked about it, and while she understood, she was understandably disappointed. But, I told her if she finished her homework, I’d take her and Henry to the park later.
Her mood did improve and she did buckle down and get through the rest of her schoolwork. So after Henry woke up, I took them to what we call the “tunnel park,” a really cool play area nearby.
We walked out into what felt like Mars. Colorado is experiencing some of the worst wildfires in the state’s history, and while this one isn’t super close to us, we were enveloped in an ash cloud that turned the sky orange. Very Halloweeny and spooky, yes, but also very disquieting and eerie.
It made me think of the song, Orange Sky, which starts with, “I had a dream I stood beneath an orange sky.” It was one of those odd things in life where it was both horrifying and also beautiful and compelling. Photos can’t capture it, but our whole area was enveloped in this strange glowing shroud.
Still, we did hit the park and the kids had fun, even with the post-apocalyptic backdrop.
We got back to the car, I could see ash sprinkled all over it, and it was continuing to lightly flake down. The sky was looking a little more normal, and we headed back home. There, we ordered some pizza and had a nice movie night with the kids. The world might quite literally be on fire, but we are doing our best to keep things as normal as possible for all of us.
