June: Phase I of Summer

My classroom, all packed up at the end of yet another school year.

'Sup, readers.

June is, I'm sure, going to stand in stark contrast to the rest of our summer.  This month, aside from a handful of events was pretty low-key.  Sure, we hung out with people here and there, but with Kris working and Alayna hilt-deep in Driver's Ed during the weekdays, we weren't traveling at all.  We only made it up to Eight Point once - alongside Jeff's family, if you'll recall - and so Yours Truly spent quite a bit of time on his yard and tackling random projects around the house.

And that's totally fine with me.  July, which you will see for yourself in the coming weeks, is going to be absolutely insane around here, so having some downtime in the first stretch in order to decompress from the 2022-2023 School Year and get some shit done around these parts is just what the doctor ordered.

So anyway, here's a look at what transpired around the Hough house this last month.  Stay tuned for the insanity of next month's installment. . .

At the end of the school year, one of my students gave me this hand-drawn piece of artwork he had created for me, using fancy art markers of some kind.  He was also in my House this year (think Harry Potter - it's based on the traditional British system), Ausdauer (hence the wolf howling.)  He seems to get me pretty well - I'm definitely framing this and hanging it up in the fall.

That same day - which was also my daughters' last day of school - Alayna's friend, Cristina (in the hat) - hosted an end-of-the-year pool party in her backyard for her friends.  From left to right:  two girls whom I don't know (they're not super close with Alayna), Gabby, Cristina, the Cannonball, Lexi, and Mocarrah.

This is like Alayna's equivalency to me throwing up the rock sign (which I arguably do way too much in pictures.)

Lexi and Alayna. . . again with that frickin' Snapchat filter.

Even at a sunny, pool party with all her friends, this kid is trying to waste time on her frickin' phone. . .

Alayna, Mocarrah, and Lexi.

A selfie with the whole gang.

Rachel, the ELA teacher on my team, did the Bourbon Trail down in Kentucky with her husband and some friends over Spring Break, and she brought me back this single-serving bottle of some high-end bourbon as a souvenir (she's awesome.) Well, I've been holding on to it for a special occasion, and I can honestly think of no better opportunity than the Last Day of School. Paired with NOFX's Punk in Drublic on vinyl, this made for one whoop-ass drink.

These purple flowers (Irises?) blossom in the early summer every year.  Then they die.  Like everything else in our stupid yard.

Allowing the girls to blow some of their amassed Starbucks gift cards one evening (they're each sitting on a small fortune.) Easier to just roll down the back window and let the girls order for themselves.

Hung out with Morgan, Erik and Mitch one evening, and played a few hands of Euchre while sampling some of Morgan's bourbon he had lying around his house (him and Mitch are our resident bourbon fanatics.)

A bunch of the wives had all gone out to dinner for someone's birthday earlier in the evening (Kris didn't, as she hadn't been feeling well and had stayed home) and returned to the Larson residence later on in the night, requesting Morgan build them a bonfire.

The next day, I thoroughly cleaned out the entire garage.  I took an entire day, but I probably haven't cleaned it this thoroughly since we moved in.  At one point Kris came out to pour cat litter into the used paint cans - something I guess you're supposed to do prior to tossing them out.  Those paint cans had been cluttering up the garage for years.

I'm going to war with these bushes this summer.  They've grown out of control, and are now taller than the house itself.  Not sure why the previous owners decided to plant these so close to the side of the house, it makes no sense.

Seriously, it's taller than our chimney for Christ's sakes.  I was able to trim quite a bit of it, but I'm going to need a saw for some of the larger branches.

The dogs, as always keeping vigil over their domain.

The first weekend of the month I was definitely tackling house chores with a vengance - cleaning out the garage, chopping down bushes/trees, etc.  Next up on my list was the shed, which was in desperate need of a deep-cleaning as well.

I uncovered a squirrel nest at the top rafters of the shed (there's a little alcove at the top that I've never really looked in before) which explains why my dogs have been eating at the sides of the shed, trying to get in there.  There was literally a big, black garbage bag's worth of shredded garden bed covers, walnuts, and wood chips up there that I had to clean out - they had been nesting in there for God knows how many years.  I even came across this skeleton in the nest - I ultimately removed the skull and hung it from a small nail, over the shed's workbench, as a kind of trophy.  Thug life.

Meanwhile, Kris weeded out the main garden bed. . . which, you know, isn't nearly as impressive.

The finished produce - just look at how much more room I have in there now.  I wish I would have taken a 'before' picture so you could have seen just how bad it really was in there.  We tossed out a ton of crap.

And it only took four hours. . .

Construction on Whitewood finally began this week, at long last.  The city had been sending out notices for the last two years that they would be ripping up the street in the Summer of 2023 and replacing all of the drain pipes that lead from folks' homes out into the street's main storm drain.  This was part of a city-wide initiative in order to stave off the mass-destruction we saw in our neighborhood in the wake of the Great Flood of 2017.  We're really hoping this massive undertaking does the trick.

They started at the top of the street and, over the course of two or three days, moved a couple houses at a time digging out the street, outlawns, and sidewalks where the pipes were so that the plumbing crews (or whatever they're called) could get to the lines and do whatever the hell they were supposed to do with them.

Here's this asshole, ruining a bunch of my grass. . .

You can see them doing something with the lines there.  Not sure what, exactly.

This was ridiculously loud, by the way.  For days.

Abby does some weird dance routine in the newly-cleaned garage.  We find crap like this all the time on the girls' phones.  Can't wait to show their fiances this stuff when they're older.

Aftermath of the first leg of road construction.

These strips of gravel and loose rock span the entirety of the road in front of every house on the street. If I make it through to the end of the summer without some stray pebble cracking my windshield, it'll be a godsend.

Stumbled upon these old school classics at the grocery store this month while out looking for popsicles for the girls.  I grew up with these things in the '80s, I had no idea they still made 'em.  Holy nostalgia.

Quite possibly the stupidest car decals I have ever seen.  Pomeranians, bursting through the car's body as if they're not six pounds soaking wet.  God, I hate Pomeranians. . .

So Alayna is starting Drivers Training this month, which, obviously, is absolutely terrifying. Before she starts out on the road with a legit instructor, Kris and I wanted to get her some experience behind the wheel (like we did at Stratford Woods awhile ago.)  Lately we've been hitting up this mega-church parking lot out on Jefferson St., north of town - big enough so she can drive around without having to turn around a bunch, or risk hitting other cars or whatever.

For three weeks this month, Monday thru Thursday from 9am to 3pm, Alayna had to be at the Midland Community Center for Driver's Training.  Sometimes this entailed sitting in a classroom, and other times she was out on the road for driving sessions.  Kris got this pic of her driving off with her driving instructor and her friend, Cristina (who always shares a car with her.)

I recently put up some LED lights - like the fancy ones I have in the Study - in one of the basement rooms so the girls have slightly cooler hang-out area down there.

We hung out down there for a bit and tried out a few of the different settings - I think Galaxy 2 is gonna be my favorite down there - killing time before Kris and I met up with the Larsons for some Comedy Night thingy down at the Midland Center for the Arts.

We've found that these new lights can function as blacklights, so all of our blacklight pens glow super bright under them.  The Cannonball had a blast with this.

Samson enjoys naps a great deal.

Having some drinks before the beginning of the comedy show, while a jazz band plays in the background.

Kris gets her selfie before the show once we got to our seats.  The comedians that evening were absolute garbage - not only did I fail to laugh once at any of the 'jokes' told by the stand-up comics, I doubt I even cracked a smile.  Oh well, can't win 'em all. . .

After the shitshow, us and the Larsons drove over to the Boulevard for a couple drinks before calling it a night.  Place was as dead as usual, but the vibe in there is awesome - old school townie bar.

This is a very, very interesting beer.  Not sure if I love it or hate it.

Following a weekend with my extended family up at Eight Point Lake, my nephew Levi became obsessed with the bandana I wore around my neck while it was hot out (for a sweat rag.) He pestered his dad until Jeff relented and went out and bought him the exact, same one that I had been wearing.  Frickin' hilarious.

Later that week, Jeff swung by for a bit and helped me take down those obnoxiously-tall bushes along the side of my house.  Had to use a sawzaw because they were too thick to manually saw through.  The bushes look kinda stupid now, but should round up at the top once the branches grow back in.

One afternoon, post-gym, I decided to spend some time downstairs in basement cleaning out some of my pipes and watching Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on the projector screen.  Far crappier ways to spend one's afternoon, folks.

Kris and I took the dogs for a walk one afternoon, later on in the week, and got to check out up close some of the street carnage throughout the neighborhood. . .

Piles and piles of dirt and rubble are everywhere.

This is expected to last until October.  So, you know, that's pretty cool. . .

Driving around Midland these days is a total pain in the ass:  everything is closed, so it takes you twice as long to drive anywhere.  Getting out of our neighborhood is a trial in patience, because Ashman and Waldo - streets that border our neighborhood to the East and South - are closed as well.  I love summer.

Halfway through the month, one of Kris' cousins was getting married down in Detroit and I was volun-told to take pictures for them.  Now, I'm not a wedding photographer by any means, I just have a semi-professional camera, but her cousin has seen our family pictures over the years on social media and asked Kris if I would be willing to do it.  She said 'sure,' then asked me if I was cool with it, in typical wife fashion, you know.  I didn't include any of the actual wedding pics featuring other people because I figure that's their private business and whatever, but I included some that featured us in them.  Here's the girls hanging out in this one side-room of the venue they reserved for the wedding reception, about an hour before it started (during that time when the bridal party is driving around in a limo getting tanked.)

The usual.

Technically Alayna took these ones (any of the ones I'm in.)

They had one of those photo op areas off to the side of the reception (which, as you all know by now, Kris is a huge fan of.) The reception, like the wedding and everything else, was a pretty low-key, informal affair - hence them asking me to photograph their wedding for them. . . for free.

The Houghs

The next day, back in Midland, was Father's Day. Our neighbors were out of town that day and, because the weather was absolutely gorgeous out, they offered the pool to us.  We pounced like this in a heartbeat.

Kris got a few pics like this - some turned out better than others, but it's a pretty cool visual.

Kris tried to get a pic of both girls whipping their hair back at the same time, but Abby kept screwing up.

And one of the whole fam.

The next day, Mitch invited me over to his pool for an hour or so while he hung out in the backyard, playing lifeguard.  I brought over this tall boy to keep me company while I hung.  Not too bad.

This is how this dude spends most of his time off this summer.

Kris stopped by the Collier residence to hang out and have a drink with Mees on the back porch one evening after work.  With the weather as nice it is during this time of year, you find yourself doing that more and more often.

Typical evening in the Hough household, post-dinner, with everyone tired and worn out.

Our new neighbors to the right of us (who replaced Ken and Linda, who moved out like six months ago) recently installed a sprinkler system in their yard, using the same company we've been using.  Well, when they came over and ran the waterlines for the neighbors, they accidentally sliced open one of our lines, and our side yard flooded.  I sent the company these pics, where you can clearly see the tire tracks passing directly through where the flood is coming from.

The company was cool enough to come out and fix the damage within a couple days, but still - total pain in the ass.

I've been trying to get to the gym about 4 days a week, whenever I have a day where we're not doing something socially or whatever.  One day after parking, I turned to make sure my car was locked at saw that Abby had written a message across the hood.  What's funny is that I had just washed the car a couple days prior to this, we're just dealing with that much pollen in the air these days.  Gross.

During another hot, sunny day, our neighbors - once again out of town - again offered us the pool for the afternoon.  Hell yes, we'll swim.

We haven't been doing it as much as we did last summer, but on occasion we'll head downtown for the weekly Tunes by the Tridge - live music, free of charge, along the riverfront.  We always bring a cooler and a couple camping chairs and hangout with some of the usual friend group families.  This time around it was just us, the Bos family, and Mees (Ryan was out of town for work.)

Alayna had a friend with her, and was walking around the downtown area hanging out in the Commons area.  When I checked Life360 (our family tracking app) to see where she was, the GPS signal made it look like she was at one of the local bars.

This evening's musical performer was some douchebag singing Bro Country (a.k.a. 'Hick Hop') with a southern accent. . . despite being born and raised in Michigan.  I can't stand that crap.

What a frickin' clown show.

Abby was staying at home, not feeling well, and requested that Kris stop somewhere and pick her up some soup on our way home.  So here's a pic of Kris, in Kroger, trying to pick her out some soup (Abby requested Campbell's brand.)

One of the girls bought this at a Dollar Tree.  I would never, ever buy food at a dollar store, but, then again, I wouldn't eat something this processed regardless of what store was carrying it.

Found another online store (shared via slickdeals.net) that was clearancing out vinyl.  Basically giving the records away for free and just charging shipping ($8) per album. A lot was picked through, but I ended up getting a 3-LP of Elton John B-Sides, rarities, and demo recordings from his early years, a 2-LP of ....And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead's Source Codes, a 2-LP edition of the Almost Famous soundtrack, a 2-LP of Cream's Goodbye Tour (shown here), and a 2-LP of Public Enemy's Greatest Hits.  All on colored vinyl, brand new, with a total of about $42 out the door, almost too good to be true.  Reviews of the site were sketchy, so I was totally ready to contact PayPal and cancel the transactions if I didn't get them in a couple weeks, but in less than a week the albums started arriving at my door. . . 

Absolutely no issues whatsoever - they all arrived in mint condition, as advertised.  This was a steal, and I'm hoping to pounce on this again if the company ever repeats this offer.

Collier took this pic on his way back to Midland one evening when the storms were getting intense.  Summer thunderstorms are the best.

Kris takes another living room pic of a standard evening in the Hough residence. . .

Abby wanted to watch Billy Madison - a cult comedy from the '90s that's one of my favorites - one evening, towards the end of the month.  While watching the end of the movie, I started texting back and forth with BP a bit.  I mentioned that I was wrapping up Billy Madison, and BP began to freak out. . .

Not only was BP watching the exact same movie as we were (randomly), he was only about six or seven minutes behind where we were in the movie.  This is the sort of coincidences you should come to expect with best friends. . .

Great movie, great soundtrack.  I've been trying to get a reasonably-priced copy of this soundtrack for years, but it's often out of print.  Pretty stoked I only had to pay $8 for this copy.

This summer has been plagued with on-again/off-again smoky air, blowing south from the wildfires that are currently ravaging Canada.  Air quality in Michigan deteriorated towards the end of the month, with conditions breaching the 'harmful' level - you can tell by this pic I snapped on the way back from Meijer one day how bad it got at one point.

Closing in on Fourth of July Weekend, you can see the meal plan we had leading up to our weekend away up at Eight Point Lake. . .

Finally got around to leveling out the fence that we put in two years ago.  Kris has been asking me to lower the top bar below the chain link (like you see here) for about two years, but I've just dragged my feet with the whole thing. Jeff left that saw of his at my house so that I could cut down the posts (pounding it into the ground was too difficult.) Check that sum'bitch off the ol' Honey Do list. . .

Sprinkler company had to come back again to fix a control valve for Zones 4 and 5 in our yard that week - it's been seeping into the ground and they can't seem to pinpoint where the problem is.  Home ownership rules.

More shots of the finished fence.  This took no time at all with Jeff's saw - I'm gonna have to pull the trigger on one of these bad boys.

At the end of the month, once she had completed the first session of Driver's Training, Alayna was able to go to the Secretary of State's office and get her first Driver's License. Unlike when Kris and I were 15, and were only issued a paper permit that allowed us to drive with an adult in the car until we hit 16, kids nowadays are issued a photo license (aligned vertically instead of horizontally, like ours) right at 15. These licenses then have three 'phases' tied to them: phase 1 lasts until the driver completes 30 hours of road time, completes the second session of driver's training, and turns 16. The second phase lasts until they're 18 years old. The third and last phase - before they get a horizontally-aligned license - lasts until they're 21.

Mitch found these sunscreens at his house after Meatapalooza, and found it amusing that they were all the same brand, just different SPF levels. He made this meme and sent it out to our dad group text thread, which is hilarious because even though that specific sunscreen isn't mine, I have the exact same one at home.  I've bronzed quite a bit this summer, so the rest of the friend group makes fun of me for it.

Getting ready to log in some more road time with Kris one evening.

We bought a three-pack of these magnets that we can slap on our cars whenever we're driving around town with the Cannonball. Just keep them in each of our cars' glove boxes and slap them on the back of the vehicle in order to give other drivers on the road an explanation for why your car is driving like complete shit.

Kimmel sent us this picture of his drive through Chicago during these Canadian wildfires.  I'm pretty sure they had it even worse than us.

Had to update my profile picture on the back of my Costco card towards the end of the month while shopping for supplies for our upcoming weekend stint at Eight Point.  I'm too handsome for my own good.

Kris' cousin Lily came to hang out with us for a week this summer while her mom recovers from some kind of surgery or whatever.  Kris and the girls drove down to Flint to pick her up, approximately halfway between Midland and Romulus, and brought her back to Midland the night before we left for Eight Point. I know it's confusing that Lily is Kris' cousin, but it's the truth: Kris' mom is the oldest of six siblings, and Lily's mom - Kris' aunt - is the youngest.  There's over a ten-year difference in age there, and Lily is this aunt's youngest child.  Long story short, Lily's like one year behind Abby in age.

Hanging out in the basement, screwing around on phones - usual teenage girl nonsense.  And so concludes the first phase of the summer, folks.  It was nice and chill this time around, but next month's installment is going to be much, much crazier - July's usually are around these parts. Stay tuned.

- Brian