Monday April 4th – I now act as full-time caretaker for Wilton. Not what I appreciate doing but what I must do. In fact, as a personal judgement, I would be fine either way if a future partner didn’t ever want children. It truly is a full-time job, what with arranging all his after school activities, teaching him how to organize his backpack and planner on his own, and watching him with a careful eye while he’s at home so he doesn’t spend every extra spare minute on YouTube. I guess this is the consequence of living in a car-dependent American suburban like Hudson, Ohio. Seriously, read up on how isolated kids before age 16 feel when they’re essentially under house arrest without an adult to drive them to their friends, or just watch the linked video; in any case, his family is the only interaction he gets when he isn’t able to walk or bike to a friend’s house, and such is the avenue of energy drain through constant child supervision. Regardless, while he is at school, I can find time to continue cleaning up the house, and I also drove my dad to his radiation appointment today in Akron.
Tuesday April 5th – After driving my dad to his appointment again with our Honda Odyssey, we finally did an oil and transmission fluid change for it after the service light came on a week ago. I think I’ll just buy an ebike and at most an electric car later in life after going through that ordeal. Got Strava since I’ll maybe exercise during these few terms at home. Worked out in park while parents walked.
Wednesday April 6th – Allergies are back? Sore throat and itchy eyes, so I mask up again for a few days. Drive dad to his radiation appointment again. Come back to pick up Wilton. I do a mock interview with my mom to prepare for her first job interview in many years.
Thursday April 7th – Mom does her interview, says it went fine. Since she’s eventually going to go back to work anyways, she says it’s best to get acclimated with a very small (8 min) commute time and a small company (Great Lakes Textiles). We take a walk at Hudson Springs Park this time. Lots of friends at Dartmouth telling me they have the ‘rona. Quite different from the early days in the pandemic when no one I know got it—which also reminds me of how eerily similar my social life is to those early days of March 2020. Having a chemo patient in the house feels very similar to pandemic 2.0, only now it’s all pathogens that must be treated like such. So in essence, even though there are lots of friends nearby that I haven’t seen in many years, it still feels wrong to go grab lunch with them, and my mom feels the same way (she hasn’t seen anyone outside of our family since mid-February).
Friday April 8th – Our Medicaid application was approved. We’ll spend the weekend researching coverage at the CCF Main Campus (we’ve been going to the Akron General Campus), as that was where our original neurosurgeon recommended we go for further treatment. We also did a final review of our legal documents with our lawyer and are currently planning a signature meeting with some family friends acting as witnesses. Have been masking for a few days since Wednesday, but since my symptoms are very mild and have been the same since Wednesday (plus the fact that the antibiotics I’d been on and had stopped around that time were supposed to be anti-inflammatory too), I felt safe enough to stop (because 12 hours with a tight KN-95 kind of hurts my ears).
Saturday April 9th – Met Ethan Bird (old HS friend) at the library during a special board of trustees election today. First person outside of family I’ve seen since leaving Dartmouth early March, and first time seeing him since July 2021. Nostalgia trip for sure. Dad is still doing good by the end of week two, feeling lively enough to read books with Wilton every evening. Wilton’s friend Nathan came over to play some Minecraft with him today while his parents delivered food to us.
Sunday April 10th – ‘Twas an uneventful day, sending Wilton off to Chinese school, and taking a walk around Hudson Springs again. It was also the first fully sunny day in many weeks if my memory serves me correctly, resetting my S.A.D. clock. The USCIS office in Philadelphia finally booked my great uncle/great grandma’s biometrics appointment and we scheduled their return flight today for May 10th, exactly one month from now. Once the weather warms up enough, my dad says he feels good enough to bike with me to Downtown Hudson from our house for exercise, which certainly isn’t an easy (or safe, with the lack of bike lanes and sidewalks) feat given the 3.5 mile distance.
Given my dad’s current stable status, I think I’ll push out blog updates a little less frequently now.
For what it’s worth, I hope you and your family stays safe and can enjoy some more decent weather in the coming weeks. I am always a short call, text, email, smoke signal, etc. away whenever you want to catch up for a bit.
Man, so much has happened since we were “roommates” all those years ago, yet sometimes, those moments feel like they were from just a couple months back.