And "summer" is here, only in the sense that the kids are out of school, the weather has been more like October it seems, cool and cloudy. That being said  we had a spike into the upper 70's which was enough motivation for me to get out the kid's pool. When it's in the 60's they'll swim because they are crazy so I figured it's a great way to keep them off ipads even though it's guaranteed to kill the grass. 

L

So with kids out of school comes me being home more which really sucks. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy spending time with the kids, despite how frustrating it can be some days, but I make no money if I don't work. My boss is extremely flexible and I'm able to have off whatever I need when school is out. It really is great but when my paycheck comes in £400 is a tough pill to swallow so my stress levels go way up money-wise. 

My opportunity to run long on Mondays goes away with kids off school too. I normally go for a long run for 20 plus miles since kids are in school and my wife is working. I still can likely sneak this in but I do feel bad leaving the kids to be occupied by screens so the overwhelming guilt stops me. Once again the treadmill saves the fitness! I can more easily manage two 8 milers in a day versus being gone for 3 plus hours so treadmill it is! I choose to run at times the kids are destined to be on their ipads, morning and then night so the guilt is less. I figure if everyone is watching whatever they want on their screens I'll do the same but in motion! 

So here we are, a treadmilling fool but perfectly happy for now. 

2nd degree black belt JKD

1st degree black belt eskrima 

I quit martial arts today. Been doing it for a long long time, about 10 years. I haven’t been in class for probably 8 weeks. With the stress around my daughter’s situation high I felt it necessary to be at home. I wasn’t out much anyway, two nights per week, but more and more it seemed the best thing to do would be to stay at home. It feels weird. I told my instructor about the situation and he understood of course. Am I done? I hope not. I’ll continue to practice on my own and hopefully return in the future. It does feel strange. The conversation with my instructor was odd, I felt like I’d given up, my community is now gone. I have few if any friends here but at class I always had people to talk to and joke around with. Yeah, I’ll be back. Hopefully better than before, a sabbatical of sorts. 

Final news is we lost a cat the other night. Rose was about 4 years old and seemed to have been hit by a car. She came limping in, hid in the litter box lying on her side. She spontaneously pooped and then wretched a few times. That was it. I’m assuming spinal injury with those presentations. The vet said to look at her claws, they’ll be damaged if it was a car. Cats try to get away and grab the pavement, sure enough hers were. We are all sad. Rosie was the cat who always meowed at me. I had my morning coffee with her every day, she relentlessly bothered me for scratches. I probably talked to her the most out of anyone! 

So a lot of negatives here, but I guess that’s good to write about. 

Rose

My final photo of Rose