Augustus

Hi Internet.

Having to park on a side street because they're still tearing up our road.

So August this year ended up being, well, pretty eventful (as far as Augusts go.)  Aside from Back to School shopping and Brocation 2023, we hadn't planned on doing all that much, buuuuut apparently we're far more social these days than we bargained for. Our weekends ended up becoming jam-packed this month, just like July, and coupling that with the Return of School/Work kicking off a week earlier this year, this month smacked into us like a maelstrom.

I'll let the pics and video speak for themselves folks, and check in with you guys next month - enjoy.

After months of having our road torn to shreds (over the pipe-connecting overhaul project the city has been undertaking this summer), they finally got around to re-paving our street this month.

Work faster, guys.

This has seriously been all summer long. Parking on a side street and having to walk to one's house like some kinda Amish person.

The end result is pretty badass, though - not gonna lie.

Done. At long last.

So throughout the summer I've been able to keep at this, hitting the gym up about 4-5 days a week (depending on what's going on.) I'm sure that'll taper off a bit once the school year picks up, but, for now, it's keeping me from turning into a bulbous mass during my months off of work.

I haven't been doing as much of this as I had wanted - again, this month was insane - but I try and scan in a few rolls of negatives when I can (it's getting a lot easier now since I've gotten the hang of it.)

We met up with the usual friends downtown by the Tridge one night towards the beginning of the month as they were firing up all the hot-air balloons for their annual take-off thing (I forget what the official name of this event is, my apologies.) While that was situated on the other side of the Tridge, they had a live band playing nearby a beer tent, which is where we set up shop most of the evening.

Sophie and Ella bouncing in harnesses.

Kris walked across the Tridge with a couple of the other moms at one point in the evening to get some pics/video of the balloons that were stationed over there.

Meanwhile, back at the Beer Tent. . .

The next morning, in the early afternoon, we drove over to my brother Chris' house to help celebrate the nephews' birthday.

The Terrors

The kids enjoy doing my hair (Abby wanted me to look 'emo.')

Any beer with habanero peppers in it is a win in my book.

Sam catches himself a frog.

Little kids. I do not miss having little kids.

Chris and Levi, enjoying the shade.

Hot Mess.

Later that evening, I drove over to Mitch's house to sip on some different drinks with him, Erik and Omkar. Just a low-key hangout while some golf was on (you know how Mitch rolls.)

Some weird cashew liquor that Omkar brought back from India.

We'd be hitting up this distillery later in the month whilst on Brocation '23.

A random assortment of weirdness on Mitch's bar island.

The next day, Kris and I took Abby and Alayna out to the Saginaw Mall to knock out some Back to School shopping (and get me fitted for a suit for my step-brother's upcoming wedding in October.)  While out and about, Abby found a friend in Macy's.

This is the kind of stuff Alayna likes to Photoshop on her phone these days. She has issues.

Abby and Ella, doing what they do.

The night before Brocation, I decided to get into the spirit of things by enjoying a whiskey and a WW2 classic. #middleagedguyshit

Abby and Ella. Once again.

Photo courtesy of the Cannonball (95% of the pics on her phone are of the dogs.)

Set my classroom up in record time this year - 100% ready to roll in only four hours.

They didn't tear up my room as bad as last year, so that helped. It's awesome only having to devote one day to this Back to School crap - definitely a far cry from when I used to devote an entire week to setting up my classroom for the upcoming school year.

I always text a pic like this to my 8th graders from the previous school year on the morning of their first day at the high school. 

Samson, the lovable idiot.

. . . what?

Had a couple beers over at my brother Jeff's house one evening with other brother Chris. Beat both of their asses at billiards, asserting dominance as eldest and most powerful of brothers.

While I was over there, Kris played some board games in the basement with the girls (but, judging by this pic of Abby here, it was more like BORED games. . . get it?)

Watson's an asshole.

This city really needs to knock it off with the road construction nonsense this summer. Ashman has been ripped to shreds for over two months, and they've barely made any progress with it - it just sits there like a demilitarized zone, and folks can't use it. If it was a random side street or something, that'd be one thing, but it's one of the busiest streets in town and not having access to it is maddening.

Alayna has been making some serious bank this summer dog-sitting for the neighbors' three dogs. They blow up an air mattress in their living room so Alayna can crash over there, which makes it easier on the dogs, and because they're wanting her over there they pay out the ass for her services (which she's a big fan of.)

They're super friendly - if not incredibly LOUD - dogs.

That weekend, we went over to the Collier fam's house for an end-of-summer blowout. The usual backyard shenanigans - bonfire, corn hole, etc. - were on hand, which is to be expected at any Collier function. This toss was incredibly frustrating for the dudes playing (obviously) - you don't see that happen too often.

Lonnie, Erik and Mitch.

The gang, minus the Holty's, Omkar's wife Deanna, and Amy and Brad (who divorced last year, and he doesn't come out to anything anymore - it's a rare occurance.)  

Not sure what we're looking at here on Morgan's phone.

Had to get a second group picture once Amy got there because if we didn't she'd bitch and moan about it.

I hate this game so f***ing much, all it does is give me anxiety.

Winding down by the far at the end of the night.

Abby had ridden her bike over there earlier, so we tailed her home to make sure she got it back to the house okay (the headlights helped.)

The next morning (seriously - this friend group is out of control) we had a second round of end-of-summer partying over at Mitch's, taking advantage of his pool setup.

I don't drink crap like this very often, because it's a calorie bomb loaded with sugar. . . but for a hot day poolside?  Why not.

Mitch turns on more golf (because it's Mitch) while he gets his grill and smoker going on the day's meat load.

Perilous undertaking here.

The wives, not helping out with anything at all.

I give him a lot of shit, but this guy is damn good at what he does.

Kris does Alayna's braids for her. . . again.

Abby, Maddie, Alivia, and Audrey (and Ella in the tube.)

Coach Big Balls takes a shot to the face.

Wrapping up in the pool after dinner.

Abby and Ella are weird kids.

Alayna set her locker up at Midland High the third week of the month (she has the same locker as last year, I guess at MHS they use the same one for all four years of their schooling there.)

While she was doing that, I was off at a professional development workshop at Heritage. Just look at how much fun I'm having (a coworker texted me this, thinking it was hilarious.)

The Cannonball on the first day of her Sophomore year of High School.

And one with her 8th Grade sister.

Kris was able to get a few of Abby outside by her Northeast sign (we ordered Alayna's MHS sign but it takes a couple weeks to custom make.)

The next day was my first day of school, and Kris wanted to get a picture of me starting off Year 17.  Hooray.

Had some students drop off some classroom essentials to my room at the beginning of the day, courtesy of their parents. This sorta shit never happens, so it was an awesome surprise.

My neighbor, Dave - a civic engineer - noticed that the grade of the road in front of our two houses was off, and the rain water wasn't draining like it was supposed to. He documented the flooding and reached out to the city, who identified the issue and sent crews back over - yet again - to tear up our small section of the road.  Just our two driveways.

What luck is this.

This process took, like, two weeks. Two weeks of parking in the street, unable to use our own driveway.

Going out for ice cream with the girls one evening, for shits and giggles.

Sent this pic to the dad group - we've all been watching the new Ahsoka series on Disney+ when it drops each week on Tuesday. Then we can nerd out over it the next day.

On the Sunday following the first week of school, the guys had their Fantasy Football Draft. I'm sure I've talked about this league before. I joined the first year they did it, but it wasn't for me - $50 buy in wasn't crazy, but it's just a waste of money when you don't know jack-shit about sports (like me.) Anyway, in the years since then, I've always offered to be the 'sticker guy' - the guy who puts the stickers on the player board after each one is picked by someone in their annual fantasy draft.  Typically, this task is undertaken by the person who comes in last place, but, since I do it voluntarily, the last place person just buys my beers for me throughout the evening. I'm totally cool with this.

Erik and Morgan - the league's co-commissioners - always try and come up with a contest of some kind in order to determine draft orders. One year, they had an axe-throwing contest, another year they played a round of golf. This year, Morgan rented out another one of the huge-ass vans from his dealership (like we use on our Brocations every year) and drove us all downstate to Auburn to hit up a Top Golf shooting range (or whatever you call 'em.)

Not sure how the contest worked exactly - I think you got points for hitting the balls into certain areas in the range.  Maybe.

While they did this, I had a couple beers and graded some papers from the first week of school.

This Fantasy League is made up of seven of the guys in our usual friend group (myself excluded, obviously), plus four or five other guys who we hang out with from time to time, but not regularly.

Collier played like shit today, he was not happy about it.

With their draft order complete, we moved over to a dining area where all the dudes set up their notes on players and whatever, and Morgan went over the league's bylaws like he does every year.

This is the board thingy I put the stickers on whenever someone chooses someone during their turn of the draft. It's easy enough, and free beer is free beer, folks.

They were having the trophy engraved back in town, so were unable to have it on hand for photo ops - we joked they could photoshop it in later.

The driveway, almost finished (you can see I'm still parked on the street like some kinda low-life.)

And so, as August and the Summer of 2023 draws to an end, I leave you now with a project that Kris has been working on the last few months - a compilation video comprised of one-second clips that she collected every day of the summer, either in pictures or video. She made one of these before during Quarantine, and had decided to do it again for the summer - turned out pretty cool.

- Brian