Try to Not Spend It All at Once

I received an unexpected check in the mail yesterday. I was unknowingly part of class action settlement: Jette v Bank of America. Whoo hoo! 

I'll have to hurry to the bank. The check is only valid for 180 days. 

Make. It. Rain!

Let's zoom in:

I had mixed emotions when I saw that amount. On one hand I was disappointed, but on the other I was excited to show it to the girls and watch them laugh. And they did. Daphne was the one who noticed that the postage cost more than my check is worth.  

Anyway, I'm still going to deposit this. It's a matter of principal. 

Testing the Finals

Cityview is central Iowa' independent newsmagazine. Cityview holds a food contest to see who serves the ultimate version of a popular food item each fall. As you can see from the August cover, 2021 was the year for the chicken wing contest. 

The contest started with 64 entries, winnowed that number to 32, and then moved to the "Final 8." (If you're curious, Sakari Sushi Lounge won.) 

I think this question should be, "Where are Des Moines' Ultimate Wings?"

I like this list of eight businesses because it feels like they are solid endorsements from people who know what they are talking about. People take pride in their favorite spots for food, and most won't make these remommendations lightly. I've been using this list to help Daphne and me find some new places to test out. We haven't been disappointed with any of their wings.

Wednesdays are Wisco days for us because Char has confirmation from 6 -7:30 pm. Wisco Grub & Pub is only three minutes from our church, so we can drop off Char (who had dinner earlier) and have a leisurely dinner of wings, ruben rolls, and Wheel of Fortune. We go with their in-house made medium sauce.

I typically only take Charlotte to Gameday so she can play in the arcade, but we stopped by on Saturday for a late lunch. That's buffalo sauce on the left and Asian sauce on the right. 

ShortE's BBQ is a fun Saturday spot, too. These wings have Texas sauce and honey buffalo sauce. Our go-to side is the bacon jalapeño wontons. 

Jethro's BBQ wings aren't in the final eight this year, but they smoke their wings before they fry them, and they are always impressive. The sweet sauce of the month on the left wasn't doing much for me, but it turned out to be a great compliment to the hot Sriracha dry rub on the right.

Side bar: Taco Bell sold Crispy Chicken Wings for one week, and I actually put that in my Google calendar so I wouldn't forget. I wasn't disappointed with these wings because I didn't expect them to be good. They were okay, but they're never going to be in anyone's Final 8.

Cactus Bob's BBQ Corral is less than two miles from our house, so their wings are next on our list to try. But part of me (and I don't mean my waist) thinks I should maybe stop ordering wings for awhile. 

My dad's depression forced him into repeptitions where he'd only want to eat the same meal over and over again. I sometimes worry about falling into similar ruts, but I think I'm okay.

Char has book club for an hour tonight at the library, and when Daphne asked if I wanted to change our plans and go to Catctus Bob's instead of Flame, I said, "Are you kidding? I'm not missing dinner at Flame." I order something different everytime we're there. It's all good.

Scenes From 2020

I wrote this in January of 2021, but I didn't post it because it didn't feel right. Now, I can see that it isn't bragging to say that you are lucky that you can count your blessings. 

I can't say that 2020 was worth celebrating, but I don't want to forget some of the things that we were able to do.

We started the year off with a bang at Universal's Wizarding World of Harry Potter.

We now know how lucky we were to have gone to Florida right after Christmas. If we had waited to go during spring break, then the trip would not have happened.

Planning for our June trip to Nova Scotia began in February. Thematically, we ate breakfast poutine at the BeerStyles Taproom while we booked houses through Airbnb. 

We were lucky that all the places we booked refunded our deposit money when the border to Canada closed. 

Charlotte attended her first piano festival in March. Here a nervous pianist gets some support from Mom. 

It was lucky that the festival was on the 7th. Things began to shut down a few days later.

Charlotte made this Easter wreath for our front door in April. 

We were lucky that she was able to roll with the punches and not just sit around and complaining all day about missing her friends.

We brought Ellie home in May. Our two girls bonded quickly, and they are now best friends.

We were lucky to get a dog with such nice disposition. 

We enjoy walking down to the Johnston library during the summer, and we were pumped when we discovered that you could pick a private browsing time. We did this more than once for books and movies. 

I don't think you can book a browsing time now, so it was lucky we got in when we could.

We lost power for 18 hours, but other than that, we weren't really affected by the derecho in August. But in mid-July, we believe a small funnel cloud ripped through our neighborhood. 

Quite a few trees were left with a "V"-shaped bite taken out of them. 

You can see another tree like that standing behind the wood-chipper.

We were thankful that no one was hurt, and we were lucky and grateful that our house and property were okay.

On August 25, Urbandale schools opened their buildings in a hybrid model, and Char was able to return to class in person.

She had to wear a mask, and only half of her class attends on "J-Hawk" days, but Char was just as excited and nervous as she was on the other first-days-of-school.  I asked her when she got home, "How did it go today?"

 

Charlotte quickly replied, "It was great! We... and then we... our teacher... then we played... Ha! I love school!" 

Daphne and I gave each other a high-five. We had been telling Char, "No, we can't do that," all summer long. We kept reminding her that our major goal was to keep ourselves as healthy as we could so she could go back to Karen Acres and see her friends again. We were lucky that it worked out for her for almost three months.

I was almost as excited when Flix Brewhouse reopened two days later. We were only going to stop by for some takeout on a Saturday afternoon, but the rest of the tables were empty, and the precautions Flix had taken were well thought out. 

When they brought us our boxed lunch, we surprised ourselves by sitting down and eating there. 

We only removed our masks to eat (and read).

The menu was limited, but I had them add tomatoes to their meat lovers pizza to approximate a supreme.

They did have Daphne's favorite salad. 

Daphne and I each took our first bites and then looked at each other. I don't know who teared-up first, but it was Daphne who said, "This is how life is supposed to be." It was the first time we had eaten outside of our car or home in 165 days. I suppose it isn't too surprising that we got a little emotional.

I felt so lucky to be able to enjoy the atmosphere at Flix again. We went back for lunch several more times. The deal was if the dining area was busy, we'd get takeout. If the area was empty, we'd stay. 

Sadly for Flix, it was almost always empty. The Urbandale Schools District moved to online learning the same week in November that Flix was forced to close their theaters again. 

We are now back in our school buildings, so I am hopeful Flix can also reopen again sometime in 2021.

We reopened up the garage theater during Thanksgiving break. It was cool out there, but we were lucky to have Grandpa's propane heater to warm the space up before the movie started.

Here's where I taught school while UHS was confined to online learning only. I didn't enjoy working with students this way, but we did okay. I never thought I would get out of bed in the morning and walk past my school desk on the way to the bathroom.

We were lucky our internet held out, and we had enough data for three computers running Zoom all day.

We had a small gathering at Christmas, and Char was exited with her gifts.

It's lucky she likes to read so much. That will serve her well in the years to come.

For New Year's Eve, Char invited us to her movie party. Her goal was to stay up until midnight. She wanted to be there when 2020 finally said goodbye.

It's lucky we made it until 12:00. I mean that in more ways than one. 

In this post I used the word "lucky" 13 times. That isn't because I do not have a thesaurus. Lucky is the word I have used all year to keep my spirits up. 

I had to keep reminding myself that we were lucky to stay healthy. Not everybody did. We were lucky to have each other. Not everybody did. We were lucky to alway have food on the table. Not everyone did. We are lucky we stayed together. Not everyone did.

I know it's too early to celebrate the end of the pandemic, but it's never too early to count my blessings.

More Than Money

Daphne took a "thank you" picture of Charlotte holding some presents that she received from our friends Rob and Nichole who live in Sioux Falls, SD. We had to leave town before they got off work that day, so we couldn't open our presents in person. Our car broke down on the highway about 30 minutes later, and this is the last picture I will have of Char in our RAV4.

We had the car towed to a Toyota dealership in Sioux City for an inspection. Apparently a rod broke in the engine and that did enough damage to ruin the motor. We could replace the engine with a used one, but the price of that repair is well above the car's value. It's time to let the RAV go.

This car did give us our money's worth. The RAV is a 2008, and we bought it used in 2009. Back then the model was so popular that you couldn't throw a stick into a parking lot without hitting a red RAV4. I drove it for years without a major repair or a car payment. 

Still, it makes me sad. I've got more than money invested in this car.

Charlotte was born in August of 2010, and the RAV brought her home safely from the hospital. 

I vividly remember putting Char's baby-seat in the back seat for the first time. Daphne and I were so nervous that she wouldn't be secure. I drove five miles under the speed limit and did my best to avoid every bump in the road. My speed slowed even more when we passed the Drake University campus. There were people everywhere as parents helped their kids carry stuff from their cars to the dorms.  I said to Daph, "Look, they're dropping off their babies while we're bringing ours home."

Five years later, the RAV helped mark Char's growth with her first booster seat.

She climbed into the RAV's backseat without a boost three years after that.

Char graduated to the RAV's front seat last year.

This is some rough math, but if you figure there's 180 days in a school year, then I have driven Char to daycare or school over 2000 times. That's a lot of daddy-daughter stories, singing, songs, and laughing in one space. 

I had the dad-idea that the RAV would also be Char's first car to drive, but that opportunity is going to someone else. One of the mechanics at the dealership is interested in fixing the RAV for his son. We made a deal over the phone, and he's going to mail me a check, the plates, and the odds and ends left in the car. I'll mail him the title in return. 

Daphne noticed that the check for the RAV will match the costs of the taxi ride and the rental car that we needed to get back to Des Moines. 

In a way, the RAV brought Charlotte home safely one last time. 

It's All About the End

We drove to Sioux Falls, SD to visit my mother last week. On the way home, despite two major repars this year, the oil light on our RAV4 came on. I quickly pulled over and shut off the car. The high that day was 25 degrees. I tuned to Daphne and said quietly, "We're screwed."

We called AAA, but the calling traffic was high, and we kept getting disconnected. Then we had to wait 15-20 minutes again to talk to someone. It also took awhile for the AAA operators to agree that we actually were where Daphne told them. Apparently AAA 's tech does not use Google Maps. The traffic outside the car was also busy. It's unnerving when your car rocks back and forth from the force of the semi trucks that blast past you. 

Two vehicles from AAA arrived three hours later. One tow truck took the RAV to a Toyota dealership in Sioux City. Because of COVID, we were not allowed to ride in the tow truck with our car. The other truck drove us nine miles to a truck stop near Vermillion, SD. The young truck driver told us three times, "Boss says to drop you off here at the Coffee Cup. You'll have to arrange transportation for yourself." Then he drove off. It was 2:00 pm. 

Walking around the inside of a truck stop without having a car on the outside is a very uncomfortable experience.

We downloaded the apps for Uber and Lyft, but nothing seemed to be available. Vermillion didn't have a car rental business, but Daphne discovered that they did have a taxi service. Daphne is a better thinker than I am in situations like this. She was able to get a hold of a taxi driver who was on a job 30 minutes away, and they agreed to come and get us. The car rental places in Sioux City were empty because of the holidays, but Daphne found a car that we could rent at the Sioux City airport. It was now 3:00 pm. 

We had to get to the airport before they closed at 5:00. We also had to get to the dealership by 6:00 if we wanted to get our belongings out of the RAV. All we could do was wait for the taxi and pray that we could get home safely.

While Daphne was making phone calls, I asked Charlotte if she was getting hungry? She replied, "Yes! I'm starved!" My heart sank. Char hadn't complained once about being stuck in the car, and she didn't admit to being hungry until I asked. As we walked the isles looking for something for her to eat, Char wondered if I was also going to get something? I said, "I don't think so, honey. I'm just too nervous to eat right now."

That's when Charlotte looked up at me and said, "Dad, this is all going to work out in the end. We're just not at the end, yet." How's that for a zen moment? I smiled and gave her a side hug. 

Char was right. With God's help, it did all work out. The dog-sitter could keep Ellie for one more night. The taxi brought us to the airport with time to spare. There was a car to rent. The the RAV was towed to the right place. We were on the road by 4:45. I parked the rental in our garage at 7:50. 

We had not even been gone for 36 hours, but it felt so good to finally be home.