QuaranSpring

We have been on quarantine since we returned from Florida. I've been told I'm negative because I don't shut up about my objections to this stupidity. I try to enjoy life the best I can under these circumstances but it doesn't mean I have to shut up and be positive all the time. The Jews tried to be positive instead of fighting back when the Nazi's quarantined them and required travel documents and look where it got them. Some things you don't shut up about. You can enjoy life while still "Being negative" and speaking out about governments abusing power.

Anyways, onto Quaranspring. 

The kids have been home 24/7 since March. School is cancelled this year so they are always here. I love my kids. I love having my kids home. I don't love having them here 24/7 fighting with each other when I have to work from home and am trying to finish up my BS in Cybersecurity at the same time. There is a Metallica song that comes to mind, "The frayed ends of sanity".

A few weeks ago my work life got turned upside down. I was on-call one weekend and got a few calls about a certain customer. Then that Sunday night as I was about to take a relaxant and crash out I got paged again. I thought it was going to be something stupid again but when I joined the Webex there were a couple dozen people, and quite a few of them in high places, on the call with NDA (Non-Disclousure Agreement) posted on the Webex name. I have never seen anything like this and knew I was in for some fun. I had no idea just how much fun that was going to be though until the next day. That night I was told go back to bed, this is going to be a long one and I need some rest. I thought it was a good call by management. The next day the fun continued, and for two weeks it continued. We had a couple bridge lines running round the clock for two weeks and had to have someone from my team on 24/7 to help out. That meant working at 2 am, 6 days a week for me. It sucked. If I didn't have kids it wouldn't have made any difference when I work. But I couldn't sleep in the day because of the kids being home. I got paged at least once during the night for some stupid crap unrelated to this which only made it worse. After two weeks the migraines I had pretty much eliminated a couple years ago had come back so even if I couldn't get some quiet time during the day to sleep I would wake up feeling like I'm having a seizure. After two weeks the insanity ended and it took a while to get back to normal life. I've been playing catch-up on life every since.

I kept a couple of the old toilets when I replaced them a couple years ago. I use them for my "Shitty herb garden". Dean has learned that he can eat these plants. Here he is enjoying some mint.

The days all blend together lately. I don't remember if this was before the incident at work or after but I decided to make Natalie some baby back ribs. 

Getting our rib on.

My front yard was nothing but rocks and a couple cactus when I bought the house. Three years later we've turned the patio into our spot for happy hour.

When Dean isn't being a pain in the butt. Watching It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. He looks very focused during Always Sunny time. He loves this show, because of the music, which I have mentioned several times.

Real conversations in the Alves home.

"Zach, what was the first capital of the United States"?
"I don't know".
"Give you a hint. It's always sunny there".
"Oh, Philadelphia".

"Dean, where's it always sunny"?
"Outtide"

Zach showing off the guns.

My backyard is finally growing in. It was nothing but rocks when I bought the house. Not a single plant was back there.

Easter

That orange egg was hidden really well under those flowers. Dean was obviously paying attention when I hid it because he walked right over and grabbed it.

Natalie tried to kill me over this picture so I turned her into an Easter egg.

The kids really liked The Simpsons ride at Universal. I decided to let them watch The Simpsons Movie. We watched it twice and both times Dean was laughing non stop the first 15 minutes.

Two weeks ago I fixed up my Tikka T3. When I was on the elk hunt I noticed I broke a recoil pin in the scope ring. I bought some parts and did a few upgrades while replacing the cheaper scope rings with a picatinny rail and some much better rings. I like the scope up higher like this because I get less blackouts and don't get that kink in my neck trying to look through it. I also replaced the recoil lug, action screws, and bolt shroud.

Adri learning how to clean a rifle.

My broken ring. I thought the ring was cutting into the action because the rail is angled at the end. Once I got the ring off I was relieved to find out it wasn't actually cutting into the action. One of the screws was stripped so I had to use a tool my dad bought me years ago to cut it off. Luckily I was able to do it without any damage to the rifle.

Just need to re-calibrate my scope and I'm ready for action.

Dean teaching his friends how to cook.

The week after all the crazy fun at work. I wasn't feeling so good on a Tuesday afternoon so I took the afternoon off to take a nap. However after two hours of sleep I wasn't tired anymore so I went on a hike. One of the only things we can do right now.

First snake encounter of the year. This is a long nosed snake. I was one step away from stepping on it when I saw it.

A couple days after my Daisy Mountain hike my boss gave me an extra day off. I had a four day weekend to catch up on everything I was behind on. We decided to take a family hike at Cave Creek before it gets too hot.

They are making cars practice social distancing now at the trails. So lame.

There are only 4 or 5 Saguaros like this.

Teaching the kids how to work.

Last year we didn't hit 100 until June. It was actually the same time as my hometown Riverside hit 100 last year. This year we are having an early heat wave. Already breaking mid 90s and supposed to break 100 April 30th. I believe the valley is already breaking 100 today, a few days before we will. Needless to say the pool is now open.

It's Not 100 Degrees Anymore

This is the best time of the year in Arizona. Everyone else around the country gets to freeze their butts off and its actually good weather here. I usually get in 3-4 hikes a week  and all the summer fat starts coming off. Plus we're really busy with the kids and the holidays.

This year my sister decided to come out here a couple days before Halloween. It was a good decision on their part. We have a lot of cool activities for the kids out here. We took the kids to Cave Creek, Zoo lights, and the best pumpkin patch I've been to

At Cave Creek

That's a 400 pound pumpkin

Natalie bought a selfie stick. Nerd.

That's a giant sundial

This was at Autumn Fest at Anthem Park

On one of the days my sister was here Jeff and I went shooting at Table Mesa. Cody didn't have earplugs so he got my earmuffs and I got toilet paper in my ears. My AK-74 isn't that bad but Jeff's S&W AR 15 made my left ear ring for days. I've had to take it easy on the heavy metal since then. I'm getting pretty good with my HK VP9. 14 out of 15 shots hit their target.

The pumpkin on the porch was in a cactus the week prior. I think it's supposed to be Trump. On the left side of the patio a pumpkin puked his seeds and guts out.

At Zoo lights. It was pretty cool but no animals.

Captain America fell asleep before getting his first piece of candy but he had a death grip on his bucket through the entire line. He woke up to a nice surprise.

The morning before going to the pumpkin patch I hiked up the hill behind my house like I do a couple times a week. I took this panoramic from my Galaxy 7 phone.

At Mortimar Farms

No I didn't have to stage this picture. Zach went running right up to the tractor.

Adri showing off her gymnastics skills.

Zach kept wanting to go again. I let him go 5 times in a row. Cass and her family had already moved on, it was hot, I didn't have sunblock, and eventually I had to pull the kid out. Epic tantrum when his turn was up. I'm pretty sure he could have sat in there all day; or at least until he falls asleep in there.

Zach is quite the climber

I'm pretty sure Zach has a favorite cousin. We might have to have a talk with him because he might even have a crush. He loves his cousin Aubrey.

This wagon is the best thing since sliced bread. It's hard to get a good wagon these days. Everything is made of plastic, including the wheels. Had to get this one online.

Yeah we got lost. I didn't even try to get through it. We made it somewhere in there then turned back. 

At this point the kids were getting tired and didn't want to smile. I told them to say "Hillary for jail". They all started yelling it and laughing and the guy next to us got the most disgusted face. I wanted to give him directions to California.

As far as handing out candy this was the best Halloween ever. I dressed up like Mr. Robot, got a fog machine and strobe light, and listened to the best Metal album of all time, Insomnium's Winter's Gate. One song 40 minutes long. I had kids refusing to come up and ask for candy. A couple of the bigger kids came charging across the street until I hit the remote in my hand for fog and stopped them in their tracks. Several people commented they thought I wasn't even real. I didn't move or respond; not even when they said thank you.

The last couple days his cousins were here Zach started his talking strike. He's been doing this a lot lately going from talking to humming entire sentencing. It drives us crazy. This round lasted three days then started up again. So we got him another evaluation with a speech therapist. Personally I think it's selective mutism. Last week Natalie left for the weekend with Cassandra and he talked most of the weekend. You can see here he's being quite the talker. Today he's humming again.