High School Practice Begins

Today Cameron began high school tennis practice.  This was the first week that practice had been allowed since March 16th.  Cameron and Doug had been working on the drills these past few weeks, but Cameron said that it was extremely nice to be back on the court with his friends and Matt, his coach.  When Meg and I picked him up, he filled us in on his matches and what he thought he did well at and what he needed to work on still.  He struggled with his serve the most, but felt good about his ground strokes.  I was glad to hear his report after his first day back at Bethany, but overall I was just so incredibly happy that Cameron was able to be with his friends and classmates once again.  It has been a long four months, having some sort of normalcy today was extremely nice.

Ticket to Ride Europe

For Doug's birthday I gave him the game Ticket to Ride Europe.  We had played the original so many times that I thought it would be fun to play a new version of a family favorite.  Since Meg went to Nick's tonight and Cam was at Bailee's, we decided to give the game a try this evening.  It was different than the original game with train stations, ferry routes and tunnels included.  I thought that they were fun additions.  It took me awhile to learn where countries like Brest were on the map, but after a few hands I really enjoyed the challenge of the European version.  Although Doug beat me in our first round, I was able to take him the second time that we played.  Doug definitely has had the upper hand in the original game lately.  It was nice to feel as though I at least had a chance of winning tonight.

A Day of Gift Giving

Cal stopped by for lunch today.  While we visited, he gave Doug his birthday gift.  He had wanted to get him a new Tom Brady jersey, but they were on backorder until September.  Instead he found a Tampa Bay Buccaneers shirt for him.  Doug really liked it.  It will be strange to see Doug cheering for the Bucs this year after faithfully rooting for the Patriots for over a decade.

Meg made it back from Bloomington and Cam arrived home from golf in time for everyone to give Doug the rest of his gifts after dinner.  My parents joined us for the occasion and brought a mini-cheesecake to go along with the big cookie that Meg and I bought him earlier in the week.  Doug appreciated the Mother Bears' gift certificate that he received from my parents.  Meg gave him an IU polo shirt.  I found a Ticket to Ride Europe game for him and Cam supplied his dad with a bag of goodies including pork rinds, raspberry salsa, and Ghiradelli chocolates.  All were perfect gifts for Doug and a great way to end a wonderful weekend.

Happy Birthday to the Heinisch Founding Father!

Today Doug officially turned fifty years old!  We had planned to spend his birthday in Atlanta, but had to cancel due to the pandemic.  Although it was disappointing not to be able to travel this year, we still had a wonderful day.  Doug and I played Ticket to Ride.  He finished reading Jordan Rules.  We enjoyed a dinner of grilled chicken and sweet corn.  Doug received numerous texts and phone calls wishing him a Happy Birthday.  Cal stopped by for a visit after work before heading out on the lake and my parents came up in the evening for a game of Oh Hell!  While we watched our neighbors' fireworks from our front porch at the end of the night, we talked about all of the places that we had spent celebrating the 4th - St. Louis under the Arch, Vermont and the home of Calvin Coolidge, Maine for an impromptu parade, Mount Vernon and DeKalb.  All of the trips were a lot of fun and we hoped that we'd be able to return to vacationing next year.  It was nice this year, however, just to spend a quiet day at home reminiscing about the thirty-one birthdays/4th of Julys that we had celebrated together.

A Rare Outing

Doug came home earlier in the week and said that he had read that the perfect outdoor social distancing activity was miniature golf.  Cam and I were both in favor of trying it, so today we headed to Paige's Crossing in Columbia City.  Doug had never been there, but Cam and I had enjoyed it last summer.  We decided to bring our own putters just in case, but probably wouldn't have needed them.

We played course A first and Doug quickly jumped out to the lead.  Cam and I figured that we would be able to catch him, but that wasn't the case.  Doug played extremely well leaving Cam and I in the dust.  According to Doug it was the biggest margin of victory in our miniature golf history.  He was probably correct as he beat me by twelve strokes and Cam by ten.  Cameron chose course B for the second round and Doug was once again victorious.  Thankfully, it was a lot closer this time and he needed a career hole in one to beat Cameron by one.  Before we left Paige's Crossing we called Mad Anthony's to order lunch.  We hadn't eaten there since before the pandemic began.  Doug was happy to get a jambalaya pizza while Cam and I chose unwraps.  Doug was even able to pick up a growler of Summer Daze to go.

The rest of the day was a quiet one.  Meg called to let me know that they were going to try Bub's for dinner.  Brett had to work late, so he agreed to meet them at the Chocolate Mousse for dessert.  Cal worked at Tippy and then went to David's for the day.  Cameron got in two rounds of nine holes at Maxwelton by playing two separate balls on the front.  He met up with two other guys playing by themselves and agreed to join them.  Tonight my parents came up for a game of croquet which featured Grandpa Cutes making a career shot to knock out Doug only to rebound himself through a wicket ending his run at becoming champion.  It was a great way to end a fun day.

My Friend Mary

Mary texted me this morning to say that she'd be at the high school from 1 to 3 while Evan was participating in driver's education.  She was hoping to walk over and pay me a social distance visit.  I was super excited when I read her message.  It had been quite awhile since I had talked to her in person and it was the perfect day for it as Cam was golfing, Cal was working and Meg was in Bloomington.

My visit with Mary today was a little atypical.  She had a couple of issues that were troubling her and we spent some time talking about them.  I have found in our past conversations that it has usually been me with a question or concern to run by her.  I had hoped by the end of our talk that I had given her some encouragement on the topics at hand.  I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her and was a little bummed that the time had flown by so quickly.

Tonight I thought a lot about our conversation.  Mary has always been one of the nicest people that I have ever known.  She has a way of lifting one's spirits and finding a kind word in every situation.  She was a great help to me when I was teaching.  She's loyal, hard working, an excellent problem solver and a wonderful friend to have. Thus, I was completely dumbfounded when I found out that someone had treated her and her family poorly.  In fact, it broke my heart.  As I relayed the story to Doug, I kept saying, who would be mean to Mary?  I still don't understand that, but knew that my Mom's phrase "Everything happens for a reason," was more than appropriate in this situation.  I was glad that Mary had the same thought and was already finding the positives in their current dilema.  I wouldn't have expected anything different.

"And Another One's Gone . . ."

Cal left tonight for the week.  His friends had made plans to be in town for the 4th of July and he wanted to spend time with them and Hannah Marie for the next few days.  Last year we hosted everyone, but with the pandemic we just weren't able to open up our house to them this summer.  Cal was alright with that as he realized that avoiding COVID-19 was a priority for our family.  I was sad to see him leave and started to cry, but he stopped me and said he wouldn't be gone that long.

Cal was right, but I still hated to see him go.  I appreciated that he asked me to watch Bohemian Rhapsody yesterday.  It was fun spending time with him and sharing one of my favorite movies with him.  He liked the movie a lot more than I thought that he would.  I have always been a big fan of Freddie Mercury and Queen.  I didn't realize that he like them as well.  Tonight before he left Cam, Cal and I had time to catch an episode of Scooby Doo and Laff-A-Lympics together.  I was glad that he made time for us this week.  I know he will enjoy his friends and we will see him soon.