June: The End of Stay at Home...?

One day, the girls, dogs, and I went up to the school so Abby could skate.

Thank.  F***ing.  God.

They finally lifted the governor's Stay at Home Order (finally), which lasted nearly three months and drove everyone to madness (except Yours Truly - I was pretty cool with it.)

Since the ban was lifted, there's honestly been no discernible difference to society here in Midland.  Everyone (well, everyone with a f***ing brain) is still walking around in face masks whilst in public, avoiding each other like the plague, and just about everything's been either cancelled or closed until further notice.  Some things have been opening up this month, other stuff remains closed, and some things opened up too fast and are now once again being forced to  closed.

Honestly, at this point, I think it's just a matter of time before we all go back into quarantine.  People are stupid, and stupid people are going to ruin everything for everyone.

Maybe I'm being a pessimist, but it's hard to see the ignorant masses of this country banding together for the common good.  You can blame the media, or politicians, or apathetic, 'wutta-bout-ma-freedom?!' American culture itself for that, but I have a bad feeling I'm going to end up right about this.

Anyway, here's a rundown of all that went down in June (at least the stuff I haven't talked about yet.)

Enjoy.

There's a church right next to Chestnut Hill Elementary that's typically vacant, so it's a good spot for Abby to practice her skateboarding.  As you can see here, she's pretty good at 'pushing,' but turning is a whole other story.

After awhile of watching her skate around, Alayna asked if she could try it out.  In a rare display of sisterly grace, Abby consented.

Safety gear is essential with Houghs.  You all saw what happened when I tried to skateboard a couple weeks ago.

Settin' off

Alayna takes after her old man - she wasn't a natural at this like Abby was.

This is more Alayna's speed, honestly.

In the second week of the month, on the 'official' Last Day of School, we had a 'graduation parade' for our 8th graders.  All the teachers lined the loop in front of the school, and all the kids on our team drove through the loop and we could wave goodbye to them, congratulate them, and hand them their diplomas, all while wearing masks from a safe distance.  Afterwards, I hung around to break down my room and clean it out.  After four years in the same classroom, I've been reassigned to another team and another classroom in the building.  Still teaching 8th Grade U.S. History, but in new surroundings.  The end of an era, for sure, but I'm looking forward to a fresh start in the fall (hopefully - we'll see what happens with society and this Covid-19 bullshit.)

Playing some video games in the basement while John and I constructed the wall.

I took this righteous selfie on Alayna's phone, one evening while hanging out over at the Collier's place for a backyard grill-out.  She's since made it my profile picture.  I'm handsome.

This was also taken that same evening, over at the Collier's.  No idea what she used to make a mustache, but whatever.

Erik and - surprise, surprise - Morgan tend to Ryan's newly-constructed bonfire in the Collier backyard.  Fires are a must in this friend group.

After decades of service, we finally put my brother Chris' bike out to pasture.  Over the course of the last couple days, we've amassed a few new bikes, and I spent the entirety of one day switching out handle grips, brakes, racks, and other such parts from bikes we no longer wanted and putting them on other bikes that we intended on keeping.  Alayna had been using this one for the last year or two, but she recently acquired a new Mongoose bike, so had no further need for it.  Minutes after putting it out to the curb, it - and two others - were promptly snatched up.

These are the types of videos we find on Alayna's phone camera roll. . .

To say that Alayna was successful this year in school would be one hell of an understatement:  she not only received All A's on her report card, she received All A's on every report card for the ENTIRE YEAR.  Not a single B+ or below the entire year.  She definitely crushed it this year.

Erik and I had discussed purchasing a couple Yetis to get engraved with some Masonic insignia, so I played around in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator with a couple different designs.  After a month or two of tweaking, I finally came up with this classic Memento Mori spin on the traditional Square and Compass symbol.  Wellington Ltd in Midland engraved both of our Yetis - two designs per cup - for a low $40.  I plan on engraving my other Yetis with designs and shit later this summer, once our social calendar slows down a bit.

Abby, rocking her I Am Midland campaign shirt.  During the beginning of the pandemic, as local businesses were forced to shutter, Red Threads - a local shirt printer that has handled multiple clothing orders for me and my school, as well as Kris' PTO efforts through Chestnut Hill - came up with this campaign to help them out.  You ordered a shirt (or hoodie) with this design on it, and the proceeds went to the local business of your choice.  Alayna went with the Humane Society, Abby went with a special needs outreach, Kris went with. . . I forget, and Yours Truly selected Radio Wasteland (surprise, surprise.). About two months later, they were ready for pickup.  To sweeten the deal, if you go into any participating local business wearing your I Am Midland gear, you receive discounts or freebies, depending on the business ($5 off vinyl purchases, for example.)  Talk about badass advertising.

The second weekend of the month, Kris and all the moms in our friend group once again drove down to Kalamazoo to hang out poolside all weekend at one of Danielle's friends' house.  Sounds pretty boring to me, but whatever floats their boat, I guess.

Moms, taking selfies and tanning.

Meanwhile, back in Midland, Yours Truly was able to finally sell back to Radio Wasteland some used vinyl I no longer wanted.  In exchange, I was able to get two, brand-new, limited edition, colored releases, free of charge (what with my store credit for the used vinyl, and the $5 off for wearing my I Am Midland hoodie.)

Moms, assembled.

One of these days us dads are gonna take a picture like this, and it's gonna end up way sexier. . .

Wouldn't be a moms weekend away with out. . . some sort of craft.  This year they decided to tie-dye shirts.  Like a buncha frickin' hippies.

Drinking poolside.

That Heads Up game is a pretty good time, for sure.

More selfies with Kris' phone.  I'm pretty sure that's, like, 80% of the pictures she takes.  Must be a woman thing.

I made cauliflower and shrimp teriyaki stir fry one night for dinner.  A healthy alternative to traditional, greasy-ass Chinese food.

One of my kids' feet.  Who knows.

I ordered this hat from Grip or Token, a Canadian Masonic website.  The quality of their apparel is insane - so stoked to get this in the mail (weeks after ordering it, mind you, 'cause of the pandemic and what-not.)

So Samson has been digging in the backyard lately.  That's pretty badass.

My go-to summer whiskey.  Perfectly spiced for hot, sunny days.

Abby's friend, Olivia (at far right) has been coming over to our house every morning for weeks.  She's a polite kid, so we don't really mind all that much, and it does keep the girls occupied.  I took this picture from inside, hence the shitty blurriness (my apologies.)

My newly-upgraded, trusty, Maxpedition Jumbo Verispack, which I've owned since June of 2010.  I've recently modified it with some additional pouches - and plenty of morale patches and pins - to better suit my adventurin' needs.

This has always been my go-to walk-around pack, theme park pack, hiking pack, etc., and more often than not in those instances I'm utilizing it as a camera bag, first and foremost.  To better protect my more expensive lenses (as I've gotten older, my lenses have gotten nicer), I bought this padded insert that really keeps the goods secure and safe.

This Janus extension (located on the strap in the previous picture) is now a pipe pouch, and can hold a couple pipes, a tobacco pouch, and all the accessories needed.  And when I don't need it, I can just unclip it from the strap.  Pretty handy, indeed (if not a little nerdy.)

Kris has been bitching about the decor in the dining room since we moved in three years ago.  This month she finally got shit the way she likes it. . . but I'm sure that'll change in a couple months.

Alayna attempts to give Samson a bath.  He is not a fan of baths.

Alayna and her friends are really into make-up, and enjoy giving each other makeovers whenever they hang out.  Like, for example, turning one another into zombies. . .

The wall in the basement, freshly painted (Kris went to war with this while I was gone on Brocation 2020.)

Child labor.

While the dads were all gone up to Marquette for the weekend (more to come on that later), all the wives and kids got together a few times at one another's houses.  Over at the Larson residence one evening, the girls had fun taking a series of selfies (inexplicably in someone's car. . . . whatever.)

(That's Sophie, the Larson's daughter.)

Kris wants to decorate the main room of the basement (where the kids watch TV and play videogames) in old cinema decor - movie posters, a bunch of cinema-related decor from Hobby Lobby, etc.  So, to that end, she painted the once-teal wall a dark, theater-ish red, while the trim underneath is a dark grey/black (it kinds looks dark green in this pic, but it's not.)

No idea.

In preparation for her BFF's return to Michigan (after weeks away in South Carolina), Alayna decided to bake Maddie a cake.  The cake was the easy part - she whipped that up no problem - but we didn't have any frosting to speak of.  Undeterred, she decided to make her own. . . only to discover that we lacked a key ingredient, powdered sugar (what can I say, we eat pretty healthy around these parts.)  Still determined, she decided to make her own powdered sugar using a recipe she found online, then used her freshly-created powdered sugar in a frosting recipe she also found online.  

The resulting frosting can give any person diabetes upon ingestion.

You couldn't pay me enough to eat this, but the tweens ate the shit out of it.

After months of pestering me to buy one, Kris finally said 'screw it' and picked up an air hockey table off of Facebook Marketplace.  Happy wife, happy life.

- Brian