Friday, July 1
I worked up until 2, put in some vacation hours and had the rest of the day to do whatever. I spent about a half hour decorating the house for the 4th of July. It is mostly decorating the front door and the entertainment center inside the house.
Today was the last day of my daily working from home Facebook post. I got to 523 working days with my first post being on March 24, 2020. It seems like such a long time ago now but during that time seemed like it was taking forever, and life went slower. Back then, we weren't sure when it was going to end or even knew if it was going to end. I wanted to get back to my normal life because I missed it so much.
Doug needed to upgrade his phone and had been sitting on it since January and mine would not make or receive calls or text message since Tuesday. I had to be on Wi-Fi calling to use it. I was annoyed. I thought maybe something really horrible finally happened to my phone and it wasn't paid off yet. I was a little nervous on what they'd say once we got there. We hopped in the Escape and drove to the west side.
We got to the mall and went inside hoping to be seen right away by a AT&T rep. We were immediately seen as soon as we walked through the door. He asked us what we came in for and Doug said an upgrade and I told him my phone hasn't been working since Tuesday. The rep told me it was because of the AT&T service...apparently it was down for a few days in the greater Olympia area. I called Mom and told her about my phone and that Doug was sitting with the rep to go over his options. They didn't have the phone he wanted in store, so he had to wait until in came in the mail a few business days later. No big deal. We walked over to Best Buy, and he purchased himself a new Fire Stick because his wasn't working properly.
We got on the freeway and headed to Hawks Prairie to drop off the recycle that had accumulated and went to the store. We hadn't been grocery shopping in two weeks. So, we did those two things while we waited for Erika to get home from work. Around 4:30, we drove over to Erika's house and picked up his Nintendo Switch he let them borrow. She and Zach were on their way out to dinner. Doug and I went home, unloaded groceries, Ben made it home around the same time we did, we put the groceries away, made our pizza and watched an episode of Obi Wan Kenobi.
I had Ben invite the Pablo's over for some s'mores. I started the fire in the pit to get it going. They stayed until about 9:30ish and then Ben had to go get ready for his fire shift the next day. I stayed up a little bit longer working on my blog and logging caches from the weekend before.
Saturday, July 2
Apparently, Mom and Erika made some plans to make jelly at my house at the last minute for Saturday and told me on Thursday night. Ben was on shift at the station. They both came over around 10ish and we started preparing the strawberries. Mom brought everything over we might need including the pectin, the jars and the bowls and utensils. Mom and Dad decided to seal them old school with wax. I haven't seen this technique done since the early 1990's. We all grew up on our jelly having a wax coating on top, so this wasn't unusual for us.
Erika spent some time at the sink washing and cutting the tops off the strawberries. Mom blended up the berries that were ready in the food processor and I mixed in the pectin and sugar and mixed it in the large pot until it boiled. Doug kinda helped by getting the first set of jars ready but after that, he was pretty much worthless. When it came to sealing them, Erika cut up the wax, melted it and poured it over the cooled jelly to seal it.
We did three batches, and everyone got 12 jars each. We owed Mom $20 for the supplies and strawberries. We cleaned up, little did I realize I would be cleaning up sugar for weeks, Erika went home, and Mom and I went to Winco to pick up a few things I couldn't find the day before when I went shopping. This is the savage truth of the long-lasting effects of Covid, supply and demand and inflation. It sucks a lot. Winco had some pretty good sales on meat, so I bought some chicken and steak for our upcoming meals.
Mom wanted to go to the Dollar Store, so I took her over there, we also went inside the Value Village for fun. I found a shark stuffed animal and I had to bring him home. We stopped by the Walmart near our house to see if they had my Patriotic Funfetti cake mix. For some reason no one carried it this year. I had to make my own with white cake, white frosting and red and blue sprinkles.
We went back to my house. Mom went home and I made Doug and I some sandwiches for lunch. I got started on the cakes and realized I didn't have anything to put the done cakes in. I drove out to Tumwater (because I know they have cake boxes) and purchased a couple boxes at the Walmart. I bought some flowers and drove across the street to the cemetery to change out the flowers for Grammie and to wish her a Happy 4th of July. The 4th was my favorite holiday growing up and it makes me miss her more during this time of the year.
I went home and continued making the cakes until it was time to clean up and go to bed.
Sunday, July 3
We wanted to go kayaking on Alder Lake, but I heard it was supposed to rain. This summer's weather sure has sucked so far. It wasn't even consistent crappy weather either. We have a couple of nice days and then it gets cold and rains. It was hard to make plans especially on the weekends. So, we decided not to go kayaking and do it another time. Instead, Ben came home from shift and played his video games until I got up.
The night before, we made plans to go hang out with Trish, Amy and Ed in Bonney Lake because his mom decided to forgo 4th of July plans at the lake with us the next day. I was bummed out. We got our stuff ready, grabbed some games and headed up to Bonney Lake. We left our house around 12:30 and got there around 1:20ish...so not quite an hour. We sat around a bit and hung out while looking at the two games I brought. We brought chips, beans, one of the festive cakes I made the night before
Trish started dinner. She was going to grill the burgers on the BBQ, but the rain ruined that unfortunately. Instead, she cooked them on the pancake griddle. I started the beans and we put the chips into shareable bowls. We had to yell at Amy so she would stop eating all the chips before dinner was done. Ed showed up shortly after 2.
Of course, we all ate way too much and then played some Yahtzee and Risk. Amy actually played Yahtzee with us. Ed won the first game, and I won the second. I actually got two Yahtzee's! Then Ben pulled out Risk (I've never played this game before and had some learning moments) and briefly taught us how to play. We had to cut it short because we had to start heading home for the fireworks at Rainier Vista. We invited Josh and Heather to go with us. We thanked Trish for inviting us over, gave out some hugs and headed home. We got back around 7:30 and noticed that the weather improved just a little bit.
Ben played his game for a while and Josh and Heather were late getting to our house. Once they did arrive, we didn't have much time to waste. They brought their nephew Cooper with them. We literally had time to grab blankets to sit on and start walking over. There were people everywhere while we walked to the park. We found a place over by the tennis courts, laid our blankets down and hung out until the fireworks started. Josh and Cooper disappeared and brought back ice cream.
Fireworks began promptly at 10:00 and lasted until about 10:20.
We sat there for a little bit to let the crowd die down a bit and then picked up our blankets and started the walk back to the house. Yes, we had to wade through people. We got back to the house, hung out with some drinks and snacks. We chatted for a bit. Meanwhile, I found out through the Thurston County Scanner Facebook page that someone had gotten shot after the fireworks and that person died. We were just there! I also found out that it was near where we were! The Pablo's waited until the traffic slowed down before heading home.
Later on, that evening, I learned that the person who died was related to some of the people I went to high school with. Small world! We went to bed shortly after.
Monday, July 4
The next morning, we got up, ate breakfast and tried to get some stuff done around the house since none of us had the next day off because it technically isn't a holiday, which sucks. The day after the 4th of July should always be a day off when it falls on a weekday. It really didn't matter to me since I only worked two days this next week anyway.
I went outside and saw Rhonda was in her yard, so I walked over, and we chatted for a bit. It was mostly about the shooting that occurred the night before. I told her that I knew the victim's family and that I grew up with them. She and I both agreed that it is indeed a very small and stupid world. We wouldn't be surprised if they changed the way Lacey or any other town in the area did their public events. Ben played his game most of the day and made us late going into Rainier to pick up Mom and Grandma. I wanted to leave at 3, but that didn't happen.
We finally got into Rainier, picked up Grandma and then Mom. Mom made it even later by having to stop by the dentist office in Yelm to drop something off. I was more upset because we were going to be even later to the lake. We were finally on our way...about an hour late.
We got there around 4:30, unloaded the Escape into Mom's collapsible wagon and wheeled our belongings to the front of the house with the lake view. We set up our chairs and tables and was disappointed that Mount Rainier was covered by clouds. What was even more disappointing was it was barely summer and kinda cold for a July holiday. This summer sure took its sweet time this year. Last year we were at least able to swim by this time. That didn't stop some people from swimming and tubing. I also found out that we were so late we missed the 4th of July boat parade. Lame.
Instead, we hung out a bit, talked to a bunch of people and then they wanted to take a bunch more people around the lake in the boat. I went and it took about an hour. It was fun hanging out and talking with the people that went. Mom got to meet some of her relatives she's never knew about including my Mom's grand aunt, who is 100 and her 1st cousin once removed.
We got back to shore, and burgers, hotdogs, sides, chips, desserts and drinks were being brought out of the house. It was quite the spread. Meanwhile, people in our group and others around the lake were starting to do the daytime fireworks off of their docks. Once the food was ready and put out, there was a mad rush to the porch to pile food one plates. I grabbed a burger, some sides and fruit for the time being. My plate wasn't big enough to put all I wanted on it. As everyone ate, we noticed that the clouds finally went away from our view of the mountain. It got darker and darker, everyone started putting their flares out on their docks. I actually got cold this year and had to go put sweatpants, socks, sweatshirt and my winter hat on.
Around 10, we watched the barge putter out to the middle of the lake. I just love a good firework show. Every year I could not wait for the 4th of July at my Grandparent's house. The last 8 years or so just have not had the same impact as it did when we went over there. I am grateful of what I have but I just miss it, a lot. Once the show was over, we packed up all of our stuff, placed it in our collapsible wagon and pulled it over to the Escape.
We thanked Paul and Peggy for a nice time and headed back to Rainier. We dropped Mom off first and then Grandma. Ben and I then went home. I showered really quickly and got into bed. The new work week was going to suck because I went to bed too late. Next year I might consider taking the day after the 4th off.
Next Adventure: Leavenworth Weekend: Lacey to Leavenworth
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