Some odds and ends from the past week as I'm hoping to wind down the blog.
During our creature search, my daughter Joanna found an empty snail shell and yelled into it: "Is anybody home?" Since no one answered, we couldn't cross it off our list of creatures to find. ... My son Elijah loves kicking so much that he'll put his foot to anything that isn't nailed down. In the park, an empty coconut kept him occupied for 10-15 minutes. In the house he'll kick a regulation leather ball barefooted, and when he gets his hips positioned, he'll deliver the ball with real velocity. ... Elijah is a sneaky son of a gun, especially when it comes to running away from mom and dad to go into the street. Since I'm not confident everyone here would slow down their bike or car for my boy in the street, his getaways spark a frantic chase with shouting, "FREEZE!, FREEZE!, FREEZE!" Of course, he ignores us and runs into the street. It's bad enough that a Grab driver raced his bike up on the sidewalk and roared right past my son; in the street, Elijah is most likely considered fair game. This week, I was talking with a couple and their son in the park for a brief moment and a city worker tapped my shoulder and pointed to the street where my son was climbing the railing for the bridge over the mucky canal. I ran and safely hauled him down. Well, at least he stayed out of the street, which is crazy busy with very fast moving vehicles. ... It seems like it's trash burning season. Tet is approaching, and even with Covid hanging over the holiday, people still perform their annual rituals such as cleaning like crazy, and perhaps burning is considered a form of cleansing. Maybe it clears ground debris but it certainly doesn't purify the air. ... An older man two houses down from us is recovering from Covid and says he hasn't been the same since he's been sick. He exercises a little in the park, but says he lacks stamina. The neighbors across the street seem a little more subdued since they got Covid. I've had a sore throat for a while now, which I blame on air conditioning at night but I worry nonetheless. However, I don't have a fever, cough and can taste all the food I shovel down very well, thank you. My appetite is fine. We don't want to get mixed up with Covid for two reasons: 1) We don't want Covid; and 2) we're due for the booster in a few weeks and having the virus would delay that for who knows how long. ... A woman I met at the Coffee House was on the verge of getting her visa to join her husband in the United States. She said it's on hold now because of the Omicron variant. That doesn't bode particularly well for me and my wife's effort to get approval to enter the U.S. The USCIS web site suggests we might not get a response until June at the earliest, but we don't know anything for sure. Bummer. ... Speaking of the Coffee House, their cakes and snacks have returned, and so have the crowds of youngsters. ... One of my friends in the U.S. is fighting painful back issues. I wish him nothing but the best and a speedy recovery. ... My wife put her backpack on the park bench along with Elijah's face shield and bouncy ball two days ago. Elijah decided to make a run for the street so my wife chased him down and they hung out a little bit. When they returned to the bench, the face shield and ball were gone, having been thrown into the canal. And so it goes. My wife retrieved the face shield but was unable to get the ball. We have persons of interest. ... The guy across the street is again loudly sawing metal bars in front of his house for all to hear. And so it goes. ... A week later, the trash thrown against the tree by the Grab delivery guy is still there.
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