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.
