The Surface of the Sun

This July, from start to finish, was just downright brutal.

I don't think I've experienced a continuous heat streak like this since I was living in Ghana, seriously.  Sure, we've had 'heat waves' of a few days in a row, but to be consistently in the high-80s to mid-90s, for a month?  Yeah, pretty sure the last time I had to endure that was in the Peace Corps (it was hotter over there, though.)

Anyway, this month - aside from the heat - was pretty awesome.  We were slammed with social obligations and family plans during the first half of the month, then had a solid two weeks of, well, nothing during the latter half.  I kind of enjoyed it.  After being so busy throughout June and early July, it was a nice change of pace to just sit around and do pretty much nothing for two weeks straight.  Lots of house stuff got done.

This year's gonna be ridiculous. . .

That being said, I was looking forward to begin the Back to School process during the last week or so of the month - I'm moving classrooms and teams this fall, so I wanted to get a head start on it.  Unfortunately, my 8th grade building won't be ready until mid-August.  This gives me only, like, two weeks to prepare. . . which is next to nothing.  To make matters worse, since nobody knows what the coming school year is going to look like (are we going back full-time, are we virtual learning again, or we doing some hodge-podge, hybrid model that incorporates both methods?) I can't really begin lesson planning yet.  I can't do anything productive whatsoever to help prepare for the coming school year, while I sit around with all this time on my hands.

Super frustrating.

This inability to get anything productive done has led me to climb the walls a little bit around here, so I've instead focused on random nerd projects, yard work, reading, working on my tan, skateboarding, getting back into running (after taking a few weeks off for my skateboard injury to heal, and sleeping in.

So, folks, I leave you now with your usual monthly dose of All Things Hough.  The July Edition.

Enjoy. . .

One day, towards the beginning of the month, Abby accompanied her friend, Larkin, and her family to Caseville for a day trip (where, as you'll recall, we ended up visiting ourselves four weeks later.)

Larkin and Abby, enjoying Lake Huron.

12-year-olds are HILARIOUS.

Kris finally twisted my arm and forced me to get a haircut, after nearly four months of letting it grow out.  Our friend, Danielle, cuts hair on the side, so we both went over there to get my locks shorn and share a few Bloody Marys with the Larsons. . .

Danielle and Kris (who, yes, is wearing my shirt - she was cold) taking a selfie for our friend, Courtney, who drinks Bloody Marys more than any other adult I know of.

My aunt and uncle sent me a random birthday care package in the mail for my 40th, filled with a bunch of vintage knick knacks left over from my grandparents' house.  Nothing like rubbing salt in the wound. . . .

Alayna lays down the law (this was taped to her bedroom door.)

BP shared this with me while we were camping at Jellystone earlier in the month, and it's ridiculously accurate (this is my personality type, apparently - I took it four times and consistently got the same result.)  This personality test totally nailed me - you should try it yourself, it's pretty cool.

Kris, the girls, and I - with both dogs in tow - walked up to Chestnut Hill one day so that Abby could practice riding around on her skateboard in the empty staff parking lot.

Watching the action.

She's not a huge fan of all her safety gear, but hooooooly shit does she ever need it.

This is one of Abby's 'tricks' she kicks down the board as she takes off.  Not really a trick, per se, but it sounds cool.

Alayna, snuggling with our shittier dog.

No idea why he does this.  Whenever both dogs are in harnesses (and only when they're in harnesses), Samson continually jumps and stands on Watson's back.  Every.  Single.  Time.

We tried seeing if Samson - who still pulls like crazy whenever he's on a leash - could pull me on a skateboard.  Turns out I'm too fat.

It was worth a shot. . .

Courtney and Ella met up with us after awhile, and the girls tried seeing if they could get Samson to pull Ella instead.  They ended up improvising.

Our yard, well on the mend after weeks of a hot, horrifying drought.

Kris and I have begun the long, arduous process of clearing out the garden beds.  We have Snow-On-The-Mountain growing out of control in a couple of them, and the only way to get rid of the pesky groundcover is to kill everything off and then cover the beds in black sheets of plastic.  For a few years.  Seriously.

The girls, 'helping me' clean the garage out.

The dads and I decided to check out the Tri-City Motor City Speedway in Auburn one Friday, and, as is the custom, we stopped of at the Duel Bar beforehand.  Cheap food, cheap shitty beer, and plenty of pool.

Couple of rounds of shots to help digest all the fried, greasy awesomeness.

One of us may have accidentally broken the front panel off their air conditioner unit while we were hanging out watching others playing pool.  We were able to snap it back into place, fortunately.  It was a group effort.

Heading into the speedway for a night of more cheap beer and cars driving around in a circle, over and over again.

In the stands, betting $1s on cars.  I didn't do bad this time around - not as good as last time, but I won enough to cover my losses.

Dave, Ryan, and Yours Truly.

Me and Morgan (a.k.a. "Baby Driver.")

Deep in Trump country. . .

At the end of the night, packing up and heading out.

You can tell it's a classy establishment when you see signs like this.

Morgan and I ordered rum and cokes at the Duel, where we decided to stop off at for a night cap.  His, inexplicably, was quite bigger than mine.

Alayna shows off some of her new StitchFix threads.  She's had far better luck with this company than I have.

Grillin' up some Jalapeno Cheese and Tomato Basil Chicken brats from Jack's.  We're big fans of these.

About half-way through the month, my longboard from Arbor Skate Co. FINALLY arrived, so Abby and I decided to take our boards up to the school parking lot to kill an afternoon.

Slurpees and skateboards.  Now this is a summer.

Relying on hours of research and the expertise of my brother, Chris, I finally settled on the Arbor Flagship Axis 40" Longboard.  I had decided on picking up a board after not-so-successfully trying out Abby's back on her birthday.

Chris has this same board, except his is the shorter 37" version (I'm a couple inches taller than him, so I bought a longer version.). The beauty of a longboard is that it's far easier to ride - being longer and lower to the ground, it's much more stable and easier to steer.  Granted, you can't do any of the cool tricks regular skateboards can handle, but, at 40 f***ing years of age, I have no interest in that anyway.

These are stock images from the product listing (found here), but mine looks identical to this one.  The wood grain is gorgeous.

These boards have been sold out for months - they're the best longboards you can buy, so they're in high demand.  I randomly found an online store that had ONE left in stock, while perusing the internet at 1am on a random Tuesday.  To the victor goes the spoils.

This was my first go-round on the new board, but you can tell I handled it way better than my previous attempt at skating (after 25 years of not skating at all.)  I got better as the day wore on.

I look like a dork in the helmet, but wore it so that Abby felt validated for wearing hers.  

Later that week, out on a Date Night with Kris at Diamond Jim's, in downtown Midland.

Kris and her Grand Order of Moms (some of them relatively new faces - this was a quasi-random assortment), on a Mom's Night Out towards the end of the month.

Morgan is the designated Fire Master whenever these mom events are held at him and Danielle's house.

Kris, Mees, and one of Morgan's signature funeral pyres.

It's heartening to see a Detroit staple resurrected in these trying times. . .

My kid is so frickin' weird. . .

And, in closing, another Zoom meeting with the infamous Sausage Pad (planning our upcoming camping trip down at a KOA in St. Joseph, which I'm sure I'll be discussing with you all very shortly - stay tuned.)

- Brian