With the kids back home, it was back to something more resembling the normal march of quarantine monotony on Wednesday. We did the whole morning breakfast routine, arbitrated all the arguments over which cartoon to watch (primarily an ongoing debate between Clifford and The New Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle), fielded various requests for tablets, snacks, etc.
And being Wednesday, it was also…cleaning day! Always a fun day in the Schneider Haus. The kids were actually a little more upbeat about it than they usually were, so I guess the getaway was very good for them as well.
After a little early morning shower cleaning, I was off to the office to start tackling some projects that had suddenly picked up steam. Most notably, I had plucking away at creating a presentation that I thought I wouldn’t need to give until late this summer. But that timeline got pushed up when I got a request from the local American Institute of Architects for a presentation on that very topic at the end of June. That’s good news for me that I have access to that audience, so that moves to the front of the line.
Henry must have sensed my excitement and need to zero in on this, because he decided to join me in the office and jam on my guitar to give me some musical accompaniment.
It was actually a pretty sweet groove, I have to say.
Anyway, the day whizzed by in a flurry of work and cleaning. When I closed down the laptop for the day, I set about giving the kitchen a nice deep clean just before turning right around and completely destroying it with a somewhat elaborate and definitely messy meal of scallops and risotto for Erin and me, and tacos and quesadillas for the kids.
There is a certain insane zen in this. Kind of like those monks that spend weeks creating elaborate sand art and then blowing it away. There is something of that here. Nothing like a pile of dishes in the sink and splattered oil and bit of bean and melted cheese all over the stovetop I just scrubbed down. Ooooohhhhhmmm.
But hey, it was all of my own doing. Dinner was good and this is an excellent mediation on the fact that all things (including the state of clean) are fleeting and it’s all about process and journey.
And while we were cleaning up the kitchen (again), Erin and I were treated to a good old fashioned haunting. Amelia and Henry took turns putting a blanked on their heads and being the “ghost,” while the other would come up and say, “Let’s who this ghost REALLY is,” before pulling off the blanket.
Clearly Scooby Doo has had a heavy influence on the kids in the past few weeks. Which is cool with me, because maybe this is finally my opportunity to start wearing an ascot. I may not pull it off as well as Fred, but a fellow has to try.
