Friday Photos

A look back at the week, Monday through Friday, through photos

Had a different week than planned but it ended up OK! 

Monday morning, I wasn't working which turned out to be fortuitous. Jacob called me and asked if I could come and pick him up. His classes were starting that morning for the new semester but classes were not in the cards for him on Monday. He'd had outpatient surgery over the break and probably overdid it the previous weekend (he concluded that going to the Bengals game on Sunday was not, in retrospect, a good idea). He called his surgeon's office and was able to get an appointment for later in the day on Monday. Sitting up was uncomfortable for him so he asked me if I'd pick him from school, bring him home and then to the doctor's office. 

A city street scene: To get to Jacob's place, I go on this street. It looks like many others in the vicinity of UC- narrow three story houses with not much room in between them with cars in front of each house as these homes are almost all rented out to students. (I stopped because the vehicle in front of me stopped; I stopped prematurely and took this picture.) The road is ostensibly wide enough for two cars going in the opposite direction to both proceed but practically speaking, two cars meeting going in opposition directions is dicey. I encountered a car going the opposite direction and we both had to stop and move as far over as we could so that we could get through. When our vehicles were almost touching due to how narrow the road was, the girl driving the vehicle gave me a look like, "You're obviously not a student. Why are you clogging our roadways?" and I gave her back a look that I hope conveyed, "You may be a student but I am a mama bear going to get my injured cub so I have a better reason to be on this street than you do!" At any rate, we both got through unscathed and I got to my injured cub. 

The report from the doctor's office was a pretty good one. Jacob just needs to take it easy. Like it isn't an option to not take it easy if he wants to heal. He got a note excusing him from classes for the week so he decided to stay with us so he could rest.

Jacob's girlfriend still had a week left of her winter break so she came over Monday afternoon to visit Jacob at home. Alyssa's boyfriend came over to the house after school so by Monday late afternoon, instead of the four of us at home like I'd anticipated, by dinnertime, we had seven people in the house. I was making a meal that I figured would be plenty for two meals but with seven of us at the house, would be perfect for one meal. So I invited everyone to stay for dinner and looked forward to a kitchen full of people eating a nice meal together. The recipe that I was trying was a new one but I was not worried about it not tasting good- the ingredients practically guaranteed that it would be good. I put the potatoes in the oven and was prepping the rest of the meal when I glanced at the oven and noticed it was not on. There was no light, even the time display that is normally on even if the oven is not in use. But the oven should have been in use because I turned it on to cook the potatoes. The oven was dead as a door nail. The oven that was about three weeks old. The oven that was initially installed incorrectly rendering only half of the electricity going to the oven meaning it didn't heat up properly. Yes, that oven. Kaput. This was a less than ideal situation on a couple of levels not the least of which was dinner! For seven of us. Thankfully, I was able to cobble the meal together between the microwave and the air fryer. 

Before the stove fiasco, I went to a drugstore to pick up a script.

$0.15 for the win!! This will counterbalance the $8k surgery bill nicely...

Here is how the rest of the week, the days wherein I didn't go to retrieve an injured child or have a major appliance fail, looked:

We got a new stove on Wednesday and I didn't have to cook on Tuesday. Truthfully, I could have come up with a meal via the crock pot, microwave and/ or the air fryer for Tuesday's dinner but Donnie had told Jacob of a newish restaurant that Jacob said he wanted to try. Twist my meal preparing arm for take out...

Alyssa said she'd prefer Penn Station to the other place and I agreed with her. So Alyssa went to PS and picked up our favorite subs from there- chicken teriyaki minus mushrooms and small fries. It's a not very often indulgence for sure but oh so good!

I sold our twelve foot Christmas tree. I haven't put it up the past two Christmases and have not missed it. I mean, I miss it all lit up and looking nice. But the work of bringing it up the stairs, assembling it, adding lights due to some of the lights not working, standing on a ladder to decorate part of it- nah. The guy that I sold it to seemed super glad to have it (of course I relayed that not all of the lights worked...) so all is well that ends well. Now I can't decide what stuff to buy to fill the space where the two boxes were in the basement how to organize the basement to make use of more space with the boxes gone. 

Buh bye

The boxes are too cumbersome to take up stairs with the tree pieces in them so I took each piece upstairs by itself. It made quite a mess!!

I didn't work at all during the week. It was a slow week sub need wise and I knew my time was useful at home with Jacob so, again, it worked out. The one nice thing about a job that pays very little is when you don't work, you're not missing out on much ;). I got some chores done around the house and did a little more reading than I normally do during the week. I was reading our local newspaper online and read an article about a recent uptick in stolen automobiles around Dayton. The article linked a crime map. Oh my!

Each colored dot represented a certain crime. You can see how the cities of Dayton and Cincinnati have rather large clusters of crime. Our town is not big enough to be named on the map- it's located north of Middletown. I've never been happier to live in the suburbs! I know that crime can and does happen anywhere. But... clearly it is concentrated in some areas.

Speaking of our safe (by and large...) suburban town, one of the days that Abby didn't work was a mild temperature day and we took an almost four mile walk round trip in town to get coffee for Abby. While we were out, I got this pair of earrings with menorahs on them for one of Jacob's friends who is Jewish. 

And by got, I mean I took them from the Boro Art Box that Abby and I passed while walking through our downtown. Everything in the art box is free. It's fun to look at; we stop at it almost every time that we walk downtown though we don't always take items from it. I like our town so much- no dots on the crime map and an art box with free art- yes please!!

By the end of the week, Jacob was feeling better and asked if I'd take him back down to Cincinnati. I made him a meal for the evening that he just needed to heat up and then we headed south. 

On my way back to the interstate after dropping Jacob off, I saw this house and stopped to take a picture (there was no one behind me!). I love the shade of blue that it is, the pop of color against the bland neutrals of the sky, sidewalk, and trees near it and how narrow and boxy it is. I don't want to live in 'Nati- too many crime dots- but I do appreciate some of its buildings.