Contested Vacation

Wow, is it Monday again?  I’m going to be honest – I didn’t write last week’s (meager) blog post last Monday like usual.  I wrote it on the 23rd when I started feeling crappy and Will and the kids went to the playground to see some of Will’s Nashville friends (which I will be perfectly honest, I was not thrilled about since our kids were at the time, sick).  Anyway, the last couple weeks of “vacation” have been a mix of nice time with family, crippling anxiety, and feeling like absolute s**t.

Let me give you a run down of our vacation and you can tell me if my anxiety was unwarranted.  After being in Nashville for 30 minutes following a two day drive from Massachusetts, Will’s cousin Walt, who had arrived only hours before, got a phone call saying he’d been exposed.  Strong start!  That was on top of finding out on our drive down that Will’s brother had been covid exposed to a co-worker several days before, and he and my sister in law had decided to cancel their flights down so they could test negative for 5 days.  Their results luckily remained negative and we were able to see them for Christmas.  As for Walt, out of an abundance of caution, he ended up leaving the next morning and his side of the family cancelled their flights to Nashville and stayed in Chicago for the holidays.  Unbeknownst to us at the time, this was a lucky move as Walt did not have covid, but two of his other family members did.  (They are both okay, luckily both were boosted.)

Next, Patricia spiked a very high fever the Tuesday after we arrived and started having coughing attacks.  Since everyone was on edge about omicron, and we were planning to visit with a different group of Will’s cousins and his elderly grandparents we decided to get PCR tested.  This was easier said than done.  As those of you with infants know it is very difficult to find a place that will covid test patients under 2.  Many urgent cares won’t even see patients under 2 (for whatever reason)!  Since we were not anywhere near our home pediatrician, we spent an entire day trying to get a PCR test for Patricia.  The silver lining is we discovered that a rapid PCR technology exists and we got PCR results (all negative) within the hour!  Unfortunately by this point Will’s family had cancelled the gathering with Will’s other set of cousins and grandparents because his aunt had just found out she’d been exposed to someone with covid.  (Luckily she tested negative many days later.)

With a clean bill of health, we went forward with slightly diminished Christmas eve plans, and had a great evening.  Unfortunately the night afterwards was another story.  After we tucked Julius into bed on Christmas eve, he woke up at 2am coughing and wheezing and completely unable to breathe.  All four of us were in the same room so Will and I woke up immediately and were both looking up the nearest emergency room to take him.  It was one of the scariest moments of my life.  He told us through tears that he didn’t want to go to the emergency room. (This is odd because he normally loves going to the doctor and begs to go to the hospital or urgent care whenever he gets a sniffle – no, I’m not joking.)  Since it seemed his breathing had gotten better we acquiesced (I really didn’t relish the thought of being in an emergency room in a red state in the middle of the omicron surge on Christmas day).  Julius returned to sleep with only a couple additional interruptions but Will and I did not sleep at all the rest of the night, instead listening to Julius’ wheezing to make sure it didn’t sound labored.  The next day (Christmas) Julius slept in until 9:30am CENTRAL.  That is two full hours longer than he has ever slept in his LIFE.  ON CHRISTMAS.  Poor guy.

Of course I was freaked out that Julius had covid, but some rational people assured me that since we’d all only been covid tested 2 days before it was unlikely.  And more likely that he had caught it from Patricia.  Julius bounced back quickly (with the exception of spiking a really high fever for 12 hours that went away the next day).  Of course through all this Will and I were not feeling great either.  Who knows when we caught it, but being in a car and hotel room together for 2 days and then sleeping in the same room it was doomed to happen.  Of course mine must have turned into a sinus infection or something because I progressively got worse and I am still in that state.  I haven’t gone a day in the last week without heavy napping.  Writing this blog post is the most strenuous thing I’ve done all week!  What a vacation!

Well that was mopey!  This post is reading more like a dead journal than a blog.  Let me liven it up a bit… WITH A CONTEST!  It has been several years since I’ve had a CONTEST.  I’m going to try to do a few this year*.  If you’ve gotten this far, you rock!  I’m going to give one lucky winner a rocket ship kit!  These are very similar to the Home Depot kids kits and whoever wins will require a hammer, Phillips head screwdriver and wood glue to construct the kit (or if you so desire I can build it for you).  Julius started doing the kits when he was a bit under 3 years old, with my supervision.  To enter the contest please comment with your new year’s resolution!  You have until January 31st to enter, which is the date I’m giving myself to come up with a new year’s resolution…

If you don’t want to wait… below are the instructions to make your own kit!  It fits 1 regular and 1 small peg doll as passengers upon completion!

Rocket Ship Kid’s Woodworking Kit

What you’ll need for each kit:

• 1″x5″ board
• 1″x3″ board
• 1.25″ dowel
• 2 #6 x 3/4″ screws
• 4 #16 x 1-1/4″ nails
• template here

1. Using a chop saw (or other saw) cut 1″x6″ board into 8″ segment.
2. Print and cut out the template above and use the template to trace the rocket ship nose in pencil.
3. Using a band saw (or scroll saw) cut around one side of rocket ship nose, removing a small amount of wood at a time, slowly forming a curve.
4. On 1″x4″ board mark a 1″ segment. Set chop saw to 31.6 degree angle.  Position saw to cut up to the first 1″ mark. Cut.
5. Set chop saw back to 90 degree angle (normal position). Cut along your 1″ mark to form first rocket fin.  Repeat steps 4&5 for other 3 fins.
6. Using a 1″ forstner drill bit, drill into the end of the dowel 1/2″ to form a hole.
7. Using the chop saw, cut dowel with hole into 1″ segment.
8. Using a 3/4″ forstner drill bit, drill into the end of the dowel 1/2″ to form a hole.
9. Using the chop saw, cut dowel with hole into 1″ segment.
10. Sand all pieces.
11. Mark the letter “F” on the bottom center side of the rocket face, and mark a fin with “F”.  Aligning the bottom (flat side) of the fin with the bottom of the rocket, drill through the center of the fin into the rocket using a 1/16″ bit. Using an awl trace around the location of the fin.
12. Mark the letter “L” on the bottom left side of the rocket, and mark a fin with “L”.  Aligning the bottom (flat side) of the fin with the bottom of the rocket, drill through the center of the fin into the rocket using a 1/16″ bit.
13. Mark the letter “R” on the bottom right side of the rocket, and mark a fin with “R”.  Aligning the bottom (flat side) of the fin with the bottom of the rocket, drill through the center of the fin into the rocket using a 1/16″ bit.
14. Flip the rocket over.  Mark the letter “B” on the bottom center side of the rocket face, and mark a fin with “B”.  Aligning the bottom (flat side) of the fin with the bottom of the rocket, drill through the center of the fin into the rocket using a 1/16″ bit. Using an awl trace around the location of the fin.
15. Place one of the cylindrical seats/windows in the center of the rocket face.  Drill through the center of the cylinder into the rocket using a 1/8″ bit.
16. Flip the rocket body.  Place other cylindrical seats/windows in the center of the rocket face, slightly above where the other hole was.  Drill through the center of the cylinder into the rocket using a 1/8″ bit.
    

    Finished rocket kits.

Assembly Instructions

You will need:  Safety goggles, sand paper, wood glue, a phillip’s head screwdriver and a hammer.

1. Sand all pieces until smooth, remembering to sand with the grain of the wood.
2. Find the fin piece marked “L”.  Place a small amount of wood glue on the long part of the fin, and place it in the position on the rocket body side marked “L”, aligning the bottom (flat side) of the fin with the bottom of the rocket.
3. Hammer a nail into the hole marked in the fin.
4. Find the fin piece marked “R”.  Place a small amount of wood glue on the long part of the fin, and place it in the position on the rocket body side marked “R”, aligning the bottom (flat side) of the fin with the bottom of the rocket.
5. Hammer a nail into the hole marked in the fin.
6. Find the fin piece marked “F”.  Place a small amount of wood glue on the long part of the fin, and place it in the position on the rocket body face marked “F”, aligning the bottom (flat side) of the fin with the bottom of the rocket.
7. Hammer a nail into the hole marked in the fin.
8. Flip the rocket body over.  Find the fin piece marked “B”.  Place a small amount of wood glue on the long part of the fin, and place it in the position on the rocket body face marked “B”, aligning the bottom (flat side) of the fin with the bottom of the rocket.
9. Hammer a nail into the hole marked in the fin.
10. Using your screwdriver, start a screw on the hole on the inside of the window/seat cylinders.
11. When screw starts to protrude through the center of the cylinder, apply a small amount of glue on the flat side.  Align it with the hole in the center face of the rocket, and screw until fastened.  Repeat for other screw and other cylinder on the reverse side of rocket.
12. Paint as desired!

*I think I owe many of you pokemon hats from the last contest.  I am so sorry.  When I ended up becoming an actual hatmaker and didn’t have time to make any and completely forgot!  If you still want one, let me know and I’ll make it happen.