Busy, busy, busy.....

Not a lot to report this week. Overall it was another crazy busy week at work. I wish I could say there's an end in sight but I don't think that's the case. At least no anytime soon. The picture shows week #4 of my beard growth. 

The other pictures show the current coronavirus cases and the Emergency Alert that went out to our phones last night. Coronavirus cases are on the rise and we've had more cases in the last few days that at any point since this started. Local hospitals are approaching capacity now and we're being urged to stay at home. I wish I could say I'm surprised by the uptick in cases but I'm not. Over the last month or so I've watched people more concerned about their rights to not wear a mask than in public safety treating the virus like it's some kind of hoax to control people. The doctors and scientists who actually know what they are talking about have been warning that this would happen but people still didn't listen. My only concern is keeping my family safe. San Antonio is now either the 3rd or 4th biggest hotspot in the country depending on the day. It's gotten so bad that even our moron of a governor finally put a halt to the reopening of the state. I'm starting to think that we're going to have the girls at home for school next year. If the virus is still going on we'll probably keep them home. If virtual schooling isn't offered, we'll home school them. It's looking like I'll be home from now on so we'll see what happens. If one of us need to quit our job to homeschool the kids, then we'll do that. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I hope everyone is staying safe. Stay home if you can and if you absolutely have to go out, wear a mask!!!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! This week was insanely busy. This was the first week with the guy who quit gone and the work came in like an avalanche. I was so busy that I only got a lunch break 1 day. And that day was Tuesday when we went to our dentist appointments. Other than that things were crazy busy and don't show any signs of slowing down anytime soon. I was also on call this week which made things even worse. I ended up putting in 7 hours yesterday with patching and and other stuff that came up. Today we're probably not going to do much with me being on call. Yesterday we started a new movie marathon. A few weeks ago we finished the Rocky/Creed movies which Emma especially enjoyed. Yesterday we started watching the Transformers movies. Some of them were better than others but spending time with the girls is fun. The girls are both continuing to get so big. Caitlin especially has grown. Last Sunday night we stopped by Nana's house and Caitlin is now officially taller than she is!

On the work front, everything has been super busy for Toni as well. Thankfully with the coronavirus cases on the rise again Toni's job has told her to close the doors and do most of the work virtually. I'm very thankful for that. There are a lot of stupid people out there who refuse to wear masks so I think this is better for her not to have to deal with them. Toni has already had 2 residents die from covid-19 so I'm glad she won't be having as much contact with her residents. I'm starting to wonder how much worse the coronavirus is going to get. I read that yesterday the number of new cases hit nearly 32k! Those are numbers that haven't been seen since April. My biggest concern is just keeping my family safe. I truly don't understand these people who are marching on state houses armed with AR-15's or people out protesting. People are literally complaining about not being able to go out of their houses to get haircuts. I just don't understand people..

The only other thing to report is that I'm 3 weeks into growing my beard for an entire year. It's finally starting to look like a beard again which is nice. Looking back at pictures from this day throughout the years was kind of bittersweet today. On this day a year ago we were spending our last day in Disney World. The thought of moving to Orlando keeps creeping back into my head and there's a very real part of me that would like to do it. Unfortunately with the current environment with covid, I think the safe thing to do is to just stay here. San Antonio actually has had the 4th largest increase in cases over the last few weeks (Orlando was 3rd) so it's not like it's particularly safer being here right now but we both at least have jobs so there's that. The thing is, I don't know if I want to continue doing something I have no passion for just to earn a pension so that maybe someday I can retire. We've got a lot to think about on that front..

Our vacation 2020

This week was supposed to be the week that we would spend in California seeing Disneyland. Unfortunately the coronavirus had other plans and wouldn't allow it. Maybe next year.. This week we still took most of the week off and tried some adventures in San Antonio. We went down to the Missions and saw 3 of the 5 missions. They were pretty cool and not crowded at all which was nice. We also visited an area that seemed a lot like Austin to me. There was a coffee shop, art shop, and even a small grocery store running along the San Antonio River. We also got to drive around one of the streets in the historic district and see some of the expensive houses down there. The area was really nice and the houses looked like something out of the Victorian era. We also went down to an apartment complex that Toni's company owns and used their pool for a couple of hours. It was nice to get away from our area of town, at least for a little bit.

This week we also took the girls to the orthodontist. Emma got her spacer removed and Caitlin got braces. They were both really brave and did great! I'm really not looking forward to going back to work this week but unfortunately I don't have a choice right now. At least not for a little while longer.. We're on pace to have the house paid off in around 2.5 years so once the mortgage is gone, that will open up a lot of opportunities to do other things that don't require as much income. We'll see.... This week also marks 2 weeks since starting to grow my beard again. It's taking a while but I'm glad to see it coming back.

I'm on call this week and will have to work next Saturday so this week isn't going to be much fun. I'm hoping it's uneventful though. We have our dental appointments on Tuesday afternoon and I'm thinking about getting an appointment with a chiropractor as well. I've been having a lot of joint stiffness and cracking so I'd like to get looked at.

The School Year Is Over

Well, just like that, the school year is over. This is actually a sad time for us. Not just because school is out but because yesterday we had been scheduled to start our vacation to Disneyland in California. Unfortunately with the coronavirus cases still being high, we decided to cancel the trip for this year. We'll probably have the girls do some summer classes for school in July just to help them get caught back up. I'm not sure what else we're going to do this summer. Neither Toni or I are going to be able to take our vacations fully next week as we had planned but we're still going to try to take at least a couple of days to do something. A lot of stuff is opening back up but I think that has more to do with politics than actual public safety. I still maintain that I will listen to the doctors and scientists. Once hospitals start allowing visitors again, I'll consider going back out. Until then, I'll keep the family at home as much as possible. 

On Thursday night we drove past Emma's school to wave goodbye to all of the teachers and to pick up her yearbook. It was fun and Caitlin said that she smiled so much that her face hurt. :) Other than that, not much has changed. The weather is definitely getting hotter so my lunchtime walks are getting a little hard but I'm still trying to walk in the mornings. I've been trying to lose weight but it's definitely been challenging. I need to figure something out though. I'm not comfortable at my current weight and am tired of not feeling my best. It's not that I feel bad, but I just don't feel good either. I think I'm going to pull the bike down and start riding again. 

Other than that, the beard growth is now at 1 week. I still have only stubble but it's nice to see the beard returning. Not sure I'll make it the entire year we'll see. Hopefully this week we'll be able to at least get out and have something like a vacation and I'll have some good pictures for next week. I hope everybody stays safe.