Beneath the Wraps

            Roland has to take his vacation days or lose them.  He keeps on asking when and where we shall go.  He has a desire to go to North Carolina to see his mom who was supposed to come see us in May of last year – but because of the pandemic wasn ’ t sent.           There ’ s still a pandemic.   We are not in the clear.   It was announced this morning that while some counties have advanced from extreme to high risk, other counties have been set back – ours for example.   We were at extreme and went to high risk but have been told that we are entering extreme again.           I remember when we were told that the state would reopen in phases.   There would be four phases.   I don ’ t know of any county in the state who has gone beyond phase two.   I don ’ t wish for it to sound like I ’ m living in fear.   I thin...

           Every third Wednesday the Roseburg cinema reserves a theatre for the senior members of the community to see a recent feature.   The theatre doors open at noon during school but at 9:00 am during summer.   Roland decided we would head to the theatre, return to the house after the movie ended, collect Jenna and go and see Crater Lake.   Before the movie started there was the education and ticket drawing.   My ticket (or Roland’s ticket – I had them both) won a coupon for Lighthouse Bakery and Café which neither of us had been to or had even heard of for that matter.   Crater Lake got cancelled as it was pouring.   I was more excited about the rain than my disappointment in seeing the lake again (neither Jenna nor Roland have ever seen it in person).   Roland had heard that admission to the park would be free on Sunday.   By the time church had ended, Roland just didn’t feel like making the trip. ...

       Jenna had planned to kick off her summer by going to the beach.  The temperature had dropped on her last day of school.  It’s been cooler at the beach and raining as well.  The weather has challenged her plans as the temperature has dropped all over the state.  It's also been raining.                   Jenna enjoys the rain and thinks she'd be okay at the beach in the rain.   But I don't wish to drive an hour and a half in the rain to go to a cold wet beach.   I will have to take her later. Poor baby.        She and a friend kicked their summer off at our house playing games.   They would like to go see "The Incredibles" next week.   The theatre is much closer to us than the beach.

            Bill and Kayla had planned on spending spring break with Bill's parents who live in St. George.   Their house gets quite packed with visitors when the entire family comes to visit.   They have five children and I think at least 5X that amount in grandchildren.   Bill had planned on getting the family a trailer tent to add to their comfort of an overly squished house.   But, evidently, Bill's parents either forgot or found another opportunity and booked for a cruise - that same weekend!           I don't know how long before spring break Kayla had contacted me to see if they could make their spring break getaway with us in Oregon.   What a fantastic birthday gift for Jenna!   I decided to keep it a secret - knowing they would have to leave before her actual birthday but would be spending time with us close enough (Jenna turns 14 today; the fam...

            Spring break is over for Jenna.   Her cousins don't need to return to school until Wednesday.   I gave Jenna the option of staying home today, but she doesn't wish to ruin her perfect attendance.   Plus I think she is wanting a break for the chaotic noise level that has been a part of our house for the last four-going-on-five days.   That's right, Bill and Kayla brought their three children for a spring break visit.   I didn't even tell Jenna - which I'm glad, as I had my dates wrong and had expected Kayla a lot sooner thinking her children had the same amount of spring break that Jenna did.             Funny thing, Jenna had asked if I would take her to the library on Thursday - which actually happened to be a part of my agenda - thinking that her cousins would be here already - but they were actually due to arrive that very day. ...

            Modern Technology in some aspects has made our lives easier, but at the same time has seemed to create more challenges - particularly when there is a glitch or breakage.  Last week I had both my laptop and pc on my desk.  I could seem to receive the internet on my pc so long as my laptop was near - like an insecure child unwilling to go through with it on its own.  Oh, brother.              I've been using Internet Explorer on the PC as chrome seems to provide a tremendous amount of pop-ups (even though the blocker is set to BLOCK)  which is extremely annoying when taking an exam.  But lately I've been having issues with explorer as well.  I don't know why, but I have never liked Firefox.  And I can't open Yahoo in the PC at all.               I've be...

        Jenna had asked if her friend Kylee could spend the night.   They had planned for Monday night, but workday sleepovers did not work out well when she and Annette we better friends.   I told her it would be up to Roland.   He said yes and   Jenna created a list for the following day.               Jenna's agenda for Monday, August 21:   1) [Kylee]   2) pool 3) eclipse 4) doughnuts 5) library 6) rays/goin’ postal 7) little shop 8 games . . . 9) something scary 10) bed.   Allow me to explain:   First thing, we went to Kylee’s house to pick her up at 8:30 a.m..   Check off 1.   Next we went to the pool.   When we arrived, there was a note on the door: A birthday bash is held at the pool each year on the Friday closest to the 21st.   We have missed all three years however. We were in Roseburg this year as I...