Jonesy’s journal, 1.31.21

Boyd has been getting after it with drawing this weekend. Tons of dinosaurs! They look great and he's hanging them on his wall. I'll share a photo soon.

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Evey had a sleepover with Ryan this weekend. I made some fajitas and we ignored the KU/Tennessee game. The girls had fun. Adro, Bub and I played Marvel Comics memory... and I won! 16 to 15 to 14, a TIGHT game.

Watched SNL and conked out.

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Bub went and hung out with his pal Nolan for a few hours on Sunday. Afterwards, Bub and I went to the farm to deliver some cookies and a bookshelf, and visit with Judy and Virginia. 

Back home, I worked on bagging my Captain America comics and watching some NBA. A very chill night. We finished The Meg, from RedBox.

The report from  Nolan's:

They have a way fun house... with a zip line... a pond... their apples are juicer than ours... they have two cats and a dog... 

Basically, Boyd was impressed. Their sliced bread is better than ours. 

Yeah, I get it. Remind me to tell you about the Kansas T-shirt. I'm beginning to understand why I thought my dad was a hardass....

The cut-outs

Hello people! I'm writing tonight. For a few minutes...

I asked my fellow Jayhawk fans to keep an eye out for these cuties (and me) for the KU/TCU game tonight. I'm not subscribing to EXPN+ based on my lousy internet and PRINCIPAL, but Carrie Jordan tells me Bub was 2nd row behind Dr. James Naismith. Cool!

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Listening to Run the Jewels on YouTube. They're becoming one of my favorite bands, but mostly El-P for the lyrics/rhymes, Killer Mike for the overall political badassness.

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Today after school, I picked up Bub. Then I told him, "I've got a couple errands to run." Bub hates running errands. He wants to head straight home so he can get into his zone; snack, Xbox, chilling. Mess with that? He gets grumpy.

I told him I didn't have much to do, and he might even have fun.  One of my stops would be the comic book store (I'm excited to get new bags + boards for my Captain America run) and he could come inside with me and I'd buy him something. "Well, maybe..." and I told him, you don't have to bro, you could sit here with the dog and not see anything potentially cool...

He fell asleep immediately. The comic store was closed (COVID-19) anyway so no need to wake him up. I had him. back home in an hour; he was happy.

I finished up work emails and cracked a beer. Got Bub some cheese and crackers. He asked me if I could help him fix his headphones with Duct tape. We fixed it! He was pumped. I went back to work. Turned up the music. Evey was still at school shooting photos for the yearbook (boys bball), Adro was still at work. I fired up some snacks because what the hell.

Brought Bub some cheese and crackers while he was on Xbox and he was like, "Whoa! For me? I don't have to quit playing?" Told him to keep going, it was just me and him. 20 minutes later I came down and asked him, "want some little smokies?" His eyes lit up and he asked, "do you got some?!?" Yeah man! 

I brought him five li'l smokies down and he acted like I handed him a brick of solid gold. He was so excited. Back upstairs for me, I had music on and was going slow, drinking a brown ale from my co-workers, chilling.

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It was 20 degrees out the other day and Bub had a home-school day. Wanted to go outside. Asked me if he could. "Well, yes, but bundle up."

Next thing I know I'm out there throwing the mini light-up football with him! Ugh. We had some good throws, though, and agreed it was time to come inside.

 

 

Expecting snow overnight

Maybe two inches... hopefully enough for some more sledding!

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How about those Chiefs?!? We're all excited for Super Bowl LV!!!

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Why am I yelling?!? Because that's what I do!!!

1202021

Heard on the radio that today was a palindrome... and there won't be another one for a thousand years!

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Biden took office today. A new chapter begins.

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This is a pic of the kids making cookies for Santa, Christmas Eve 2020.

Playing in the rain

In the next few days I'll post some photos from Christmas and some more pics from the snow days.

This one is of Boyd and I, Dec. 29, a Tuesday, 7 p.m., over at the Hall of Justice. It was dumping ice cold rain at the time, and Boyd really wanted to play catch outside, in the dark, with his new glow-in-the-dark football.

So I told him to put his gear on and let's see how it goes. 

We played with that little $5 Walmart ball for three, four days in a row. Boyd can ZING IT. That's why I think he likes it so much, it fits his hand just right that he can really chuck it and compete with his Old Man in throwing long bombs.

But man, this was an awful night to go outside. But I was off work. I was stir-crazy, like Boyd. The girls looked at us like we were crazy. And I think they thought, 'they won't last 5 minutes.'

I had the right gear on (some new warm stuff from Christmas, and a waterproof jacket) and I didn't really get that cold. And it was nice to be outside. And you know, it was fun chucking that flashing football in the night sky. It's not really glow-in-the-dark, it has a light inside that flashes and is activated with impact. But it automatically shuts off after about 2.5 throws. So if we didn't time it right, that missile would be midair and go dark.

But the cool thing was, with the little light off the HOJ, and timing it right... we'd still catch the dark ball two out of three times. And that was cause for celebration.

I didn't want to go out there and drag Boyd back in after a few throws. I wanted him to relent, to say, "that's good, we're cold, let's go inside." We took a few breaks to play some songs in the HOJ and warm our hands. But I bet we threw the ball for a good... 40 minutes, maybe 45? We moved around the yard a lot and tried different tricks (running routes, throwing skyballs, etc.)

I doubt Boyd will remember the times we went outside in the soaking rain after Christmas 2020 to chuck a random Christmas present (that I forgot to put under the tree) but I think I'll remember it. It was a useful mental break, and something physical to do while the weather was bad. And it is pretty hilarious to see a 3rd grader zip a plastic football so hard that you know it might hurt a little if you don't catch it right...

It’s 2021...

Can you believe it?