Saturday, September 25th, 2020
What began as an unexpectedly enjoyable evening turned into another sleep depraved night. The man I had been sailing with last Friday texted to ask if I wanted to meet in Bethesda. Gentleman that seems to be he came to pick me up, so when EM learned I would not be the car she was quick to grab it and head out to meet her friend Julia and go for a joy ride.
My date took me to have ice cream and we went for a stroll around Bethesda. Somehow my red heels have become to big and I kept losing the shoes. It is bizarre what happens to feet and shoes when one has been mainly been walking barefoot or in flip flops for 199 days. My shoes are either to small or to big now, how can that be? Anyway, there was not that much to do or see and walking was sort of awkward with shoes constantly having to be slipped on again. So we headed back to mine and sat outside by the firepit.
Just as the fire was going nicely a slow, but steady drizzle started. This of course was an opportunity to test my newly installed awning, so we moved the portable pit, and indeed it proved to be very portable. Light weight and best, the frame does not get hot, so for two people it is easy to lift and move. Next, we moved the couch and sat out chatting for three hours, mostly warm and very dry.
Of course the Hydrangea takes up most of the prime property under the awning so I cut it back a bit today and have decided the pit and the couch need to be switched around - so as not to look into the basement window, but into the garden - the pit by the garden wall and the couch by the Hydrangea.
By 23:30 the last of the log had burned and somewhat reluctantly my date left, while I ventured inside after seeing him off and noting that EM was not yet home. Given she is not allowed to drive after midnight according to Maryland law, I send her a text, to see where she was, to which she responded that she was still with her friend Julia; I think hanging out at BCC HS.
However, instead of coming home she began to give me flag texting, about it raining and her need to enjoy things and that I had done similar things when young and that she could crash somewhere, possibly the car. This went on for two hours. Mad as hell I let her know this action would have consequences and headed to bed. I was still fuming in the morning, but did see she had made her way home at some time in the early hours of the morning and had left me a rather contrite letter trying to explain.
First and foremost it was important to her that I know she had not done anything stupid, like drugs. That they were simply trying to create memories of a senior year she would be robbed of. On this my heart goes out to her. I really do want the youngsters to have fun. And I know they do things outdoors, masked, distanced and all trying to make the best of a terrible situation.
I spend the day, especially the pool time thinking about it all and the consequences I had threatened. This was not helped by the fact that the car was empty, and I barely made it to the filling station before heading to practice - becaus eof the rain today at BCC HS covered parking lot. I had last filled up the Flow on Wednesday and I had driven no more than 20km in the past two days, if that much. So last nights' joy ride must have been well over 300km. No idea how that is even possible.
Anyway, when I came home from practice she was at her laptop attending a virtual campus tour. She did join for the lap lane, but we did not speak. I did not scream and shout, we just went there, swam, came back and had a shower. While swimming I had decided what to say. At home I sat down and wrote her letter in response to hers.
To me it is important that she knows I am not upset about her enjoying herself with her friends, or the fact that they had not looked at the time. What really riled me was the ensuing text discussion and the attitude that came with it. So far, we have not had any rules. I trust her completely to be responsible and she has been largely free to come and go as she likes. I do not have the urge to know where she is going or for how long.
As of today and for the next two months this has changed. Given she alluded to my youth, she now has the same rules to adhere to I had been dealt when I was seventeen and in boarding school. She needs to be home by 22:00 with lights out, including all electronic devices, by 23:00 on weeknights and midnight on weekends. There will be no sleep overs and if she takes the car, she needs to tell me where she is going, when she will be back and with whom she will be.
She will need to refill the car as soon as the gage says it is only a quarter full. The latter is not only as a courtesy to the next user, but to ensure there is enough petrol for her to get home in the middle of the night without having to stop at a filling station.
Also, I expect her to clean up the car after joy rides, especially given Jennifer’s imminent departure.
And finally, she will not get use of the car when it rains. Sounds weird right? But one of the issues last night was the rain; not that she cannot drive in the rain. She could not give her friend a ride home as one cannot drive with the top down when it is pouring.
I feel like a spoil sport, because the kids are locked-up enough as it is and this feels a bit like making the lock down even stricter. I have given a way out though. She can ask for exemptions. Such an ask needs to be in writing; stating the exemption requested and making an argument as to why it should be granted. This is more to help her with writing skills and developing a rational line of arguement; I do not think she knows this.
I am happy to say that she has taken this very seriously and entered the rules into her car rule book, which she presented to me after I returned from a neighborhood walk to pick up some kindling. She apologized about being a bitch and asked to be allowed to clean the car tomorrow as she wanted to work on history. I think we have made up.
I have prepared everything for our favorite pasta dish, now that I have managed to find this special swiss cheese here in the USA. Once we get together to make our spaghetti (I prepared the dough already) I hope things will be okay again. Not sure though if we will eat them tonight given it is late already. So, all in all an unusually eventful night/ day.
In my news forage I tried to stay away from anything related to the election, seeing I cannot change it anyway and it is all so depressing. Voter suppression, doubts cast on legitimacy, lawyers preparing to fight out which votes to count or not to count and stacking the supreme court to if in doubt cast the vote for the moron in chief, just like Bush – Gore.
Not that news related to the virus is more cheerful with 32.6 million and 7.2 million reported infections in the world/ the USA today. I did find two good reads taking a peak at what live may be like over the next year or so. This is a long but enjoyable. And here is a different glimpse take. I really enjoy reading these predictions, even though there are a lot of “ifs” and “buts”.
The latest item to add to the list of prevention or cure is Vitamin D. What a bit of luck that I got plenty of sun over the summer and have already included vitamin D3 in my supplements.