The boys spent the night with their cousins and had a great time. After picking them up, we stopped by my parents home as they provided us lunch from The International Hot Dog House. All of that was prelude to the two big events of the day.

The first was Alistair's baptism. Aside from some gender confusion issues (it's the baptismal gown), this Sacrament went quite well. Alistair was calm largely throughout and now smells of the chrism.

The second was seeing Janelle's parents. They traveled over from Wyoming, arriving today. We already have planned a couple of outings with them during this upcoming week. 

Clearly, I'm tired as I am normally much more verbose. We have another full day tomorrow, so I should probably get some sleep soon.

We certainly slept in this morning. I was surprised to find that the boys woke up even after I did, and I got up only because I started having my school nightmares again (likely thanks to the number of school emails I received yesterday). We basically ended up eating breakfast around lunch time. 

Much of our day was spent playing and bonding with the grandchildren. Rowen is clearly Irene's favorite as he plays plenty of games with her. Alistair is still just figuring out his internal functions, but is still quite fun to cuddle. 

The big event of the day was having dinner and playing games with my sister's family. They introduced us to two board games that I think Janelle has now already ordered for us from  Amazon. Even better, we got to spend time with Alex as she joined us for dinner. Meanwhile, the boys were having plenty of fun with their cousins. 

However, it's another late night, so I'll likely need to sleep in again tomorrow. It's a rough life ...

Yesterday we went to Cedar Point with most of my sister-in-law's family. We left Katrina's at about 6:30 in the morning and did not get back until sometime after 1 AM today. Although hot and muggy, it was still a fairly good day, as far as precipitation and could cover go, for this adventure. I am, however, quite sore and worn out today. I quite enjoyed the day, even if I am not able to handle some of the rides as well as I could in the past.

I think everyone had fun. Even Rowen, who refused to ride most of the rides, said he enjoyed most of it. Connor was the most adventurous of the boys, riding nearly all of the big rides. Our pace certainly slowed down in the afternoon as the heat and humidity started to take its effect on those of us who are used to (and prefer) the Alaskan climate.

There are a few things that I need to remember for future trips:
1. Bring a phone charger. I have one and rarely use it, but I really needed it on this trip, especially since we used the Cedar Point app so frequently for ride and food locations as well as wait times--not to mention the regular texts and calls to find where members of our group went. By the end, my phone (which I had switched to low-power mode when it was about 30%) was down to 3% and Janelle's was down to 1%.
2. Don't get the meal plan. While we only got 2 and they technically paid for themselves by the end, too few food vendors used them, often making it so we didn't get the food we really wanted (or we paid separately for it). This did lead to me getting a meatball "sandwich" made with two massive pieces of cheese-covered garlic bread that took three of us to finish it (with forks and knives as there was no practical way to eat it as a sandwich).
3. Get a drink pass for each person. While I certainly had WAY too many sugary drinks, the drink pass cups were a much better size than the free water cups (which were at least available). Meanwhile, the water fountains were warm and tasted nasty (no doubt by design).
4.Related to 3. Drink more water. Even if I have a drink pass, it's better overall to stay hydrated than sugared. 
5. Use wearable bags (like fanny packs or shorts with cargo pockets) rather than carrying bags and rain jackets. While I knew this from earlier trips, I still ended up carrying other people's bags as they went on rides that did not allow them. Meanwhile, most of the stuff in the bags went unused while the bags were nearly left behind on at least two occasions.
6. Don't over-pressure people to ride any ride. I pushed Rowen too hard on one occasion and I deeply regret it (and have apologized to him). Sure, my recommendations got him to ride a couple of things that he ended up liking (even saying one was the best part of the trip). Still, an over-pressured person not only does not have fun, but brings down the experience for everyone.

All told, it was a good trip.

Well, I don’t think my daily posts are going to be nearly as long even though I feel like I have so much to say. While busy days are one part of it, another is that I’ve been writing these on my phone. However, this probably helps keep me from going on too long anyway.

The short of it is that today had the Chinese buffet, haircuts for the boys, and a home viewing of The Black Widow (which I enjoyed). Other highlights included sleeping in, diaper changes at home while the moms were at the store, Rowen and Irene playing, and lots of time watching my new grandson. It’s late and we have an early day tomorrow.

Again, I’m not a fan of traveling. All of us had problems with our ears on the short leg up to Fairbanks (yes, we had to fly to Fairbanks to fly to Seattle before flying to Detroit). Trevor, Rowen, and I were all dealing with motion sickness and being over warm when we arrived in Detroit. Then the car rental place took over an hour in line before we got to our underwhelming vehicle.

However, it was all worth the time when we finally got to see my parents, our daughter, and our grandchildren. I’m exhausted from the past day of traveling, but I’m looking forward to thes next couple of weeks.

We are on out way to Michigan. Our dogs are under the care of our house/pet sitter, and I already feel guilty for leaving them. The boys are quite excited for the trip. We had to keep checking Rowen’s bags as he continued to try and pack a wide variety of toys (including a Nerf gun at one point).

I am quite anxious. My intestines are knotting not so much from worry as from already being off my normal schedule. I’m certain that everything will be fine, but I’m not looking forward to half a day of cramped travel. At least I can look forward to seeing family and friends once this traveling section is done.

Well, the flight is boarding now.

Today's Gospel is John's telling of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, with a complementary first reading concerning a similar (if less powerful) miracle with the prophet Elisha. While they certainly set up Jesus' institution of the Eucharist, they are also powerful examples of the importance of faith. In both cases, the people around the miracle worker are concerned that there is not enough to go around. They express immediate defeatism in the face of such a challenge. Jesus and Elisha instead say that what is there will be enough--and with God's grace, it is.

I feel that this is a message for more in our lives than food. How often do we wonder what difference we can make in the world? So often, the challenges in our lives seem insurmountable--certainly more than we alone can handle ... and honestly, that's a true assessment. However, with God, nothing is impossible.

When we worry whether what we do can make a difference or not, we need to remember the lesson from today's readings. God can make the little that we have (resources, talent, influence, energy, etc.) go a long way. What we have on our own might not be enough, but with God, it becomes enough to not only handle the task at hand, but to have more left over in the end. 

I made my first foray into clearing some of the trees and brush that have been growing close to our house. Although there are still plenty of beetle-killed trees to come down, almost all of them are either too close to power lines, too deep into the yard to be a priority, or only recently dead and can wait until next year. However, some of the living trees near our house are starting to get big enough to be a threat. 

I took out a wide swath of them today. However, I need to do about five times the amount before I will be done. The process is taking longer than I thought. Unlike the beetle-kill that I've been felling, I also need to clear these now because they are so close to the house. The other trees I've taken down will have to wait.

It feels weird to be taking down healthy trees when there are still so many dead ones out there. However, I believe that clearing this will make our house safer and will be easier to do now rather than putting it off until some unknown time in the future. I also think that it can make our view better with less clutter close to the house that can obstruct our surroundings--but that might also be wishful thinking on my part.

Rise of the Delta Variant: A friend of mine who works at our local hospital says that they currently have more people in there for COVID than they had at any previous point in the pandemic. While it's true that our area has benefitted from its isolation, this current surge is hitting us harder than expected. They have already expanded through their "surge" center to deal with this sudden rise of patients.

This was a preventable situation. Nearly all (99%) of the cases are from unvaccinated people. Considering that Alaska had the ability to vaccinate its entire population sooner than most other states, this is particularly frustrating. The misinformation spread about the vaccine and the hesitancy of otherwise intelligent people to take it falls squarely at the feet of far-right conspiracy theorists and the foreign agents who deliberately fed them the lies.

This new "delta" variant is proving to be more contagious with harsher symptoms than the variants that started this pandemic. The good news is that the vaccines distributed in the U.S. seem to be effective against it. Even the rare breakthrough infections (a fully vaccinated person who contracts COVID) have been quite mild with few hospitalizations. Medical professionals are still studying to see if people who previously contracted COVID are protected from the Delta variant (there have been conflicting results from early studies), but health officials are recommending that those people also get at least one dose of one of the vaccines.

I don't know what this might mean in the near future. While currently our area is operating as though there is no pandemic, we might be approaching a crisis point soon. Several Alaskan communities are headed into full lockdown as their medical facilities have become overburdened by this new wave. 

Unfortunately, some people are still stubbornly clinging to the lies they have been fed, continuing an epidemic that we could have had under control by now.

I've been a completionist for most of the video games that I play ever since I started playing video games. The first home video game I remember was a hand-held Space Invaders-ish LED game. I played that game until I could max out the score. I did the same for some construction rivet game on the Apple 2+. When our family purchased the original Nintendo, the only game we had for six months was the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridge it came with. I played Super Mario Bros. over and over again until I could play the game straight through without using any warp pipes. 

This tradition has continued. However, most games today are too big for me to truly find everything in them. Many games include a completion percentage that I tend to use, even if I know that 100% does not necessarily mean that I've found everything--especially in open world games. Sometimes, I set goals for myself based on what I learn about the game. As I have been busier these past few years, I'm usually content to simply get to the game's ending credits. 

Many game systems now include special trophies that have a separate (harder to reach) percentage of completion. I do not believe that I have reached 100% for any of my games with those kinds of trophies--until today. The Spider-Man: Miles Morales game was short enough, and its trophies reasonable enough, that I finished a new game plus playthrough today to win the final few trophies that I did not earn on my original playthrough. Honestly, it was worth doing just to play through the story again. 

It was nice to play a game to full completion again--not just beating the game, but finding all (or most) of the extra goodies. 

There are a few movies that are out or are coming out soon that I am interested in seeing. At the top of the list is the Black Widow movie. While the Disney+ shows have been scratching that MCU itch, I've been looking forward to seeing Black Widow in her own movie since she was introduced in Iron Man 2. I am hoping that it is more of a action-spy-thriller movie than "the entire universe is at stake" type of film. 

In that same vein is the upcoming Snake Eyes film. Like many men my age, Snake Eyes was my favorite G.I. Joe character. His backstory was full of ninjas, betrayals, honor, loyalty, and love and I would love to see a movie do justice to it. Unfortunately, even though it releases this week, there has been a block from its studio on an critic reviews. This is nearly always a bad sign.

The same problem is surfacing for The Green Knight, a movie adaptation of one of the oldest surviving Arthurian epics in English. This is not the first time someone has tried to put this tale to film, but none have been good. Even Sean Connery could not save a 1980s version (watch the trailer for Sword of the Valiant if you want a good laugh). Still, I believe that a movie could be made to do it justice while still making it palatable for a modern audience. It would be nice if this was the one to do it ... but that critic embargo ... well, I probably wouldn't have seen it in the theater anyway.

We already decided to wait on the new Fast and Furious movie until it comes to DVD. Based on what I have read about it, it should follow the formula that we've come to enjoy as well as test our limits of my suspension of disbelief. Thus, I feel that I can wait, but will still have fun when I see it.

I know that the Rock has a Jungle Cruise movie coming up, but the trailers have not sparked my interest. In fact, some of scenes in them have played like they were from the gag reel. Still, I liked the movies he's been in lately, even Rampage, so this one will be on my watch list when it comes out on video.

The only other one coming out before school starts that I would like to see is James Gunn's take on The Suicide Squad. However, with its R rating, I doubt that I will see it at the theater as I would have to go alone. Still, the buzz around it has been quite positive, so I hope to see it later.

Unfortunately, the ground has settled around our septic system that we had put in last year. Carting wheelbarrows full of dirt was not making great progress, so I'm glad that I have the trailer for Scarlet (my ATV) which can hold significantly more dirt (or pieces of tree, etc.). I had the boys come out today to help with the dirt transfer. We are taking the soil that got pushed over the side of a small hill and bringing it over to where the septic system is.

Connor, however, decided that he wanted to dig a hole. Now, he still started this hole next to the embankment I wanted to displace, but it's a hole. His goal is to make it deep enough for him to stand in with the rim being above his head. Despite my assertions that this was not a practical idea and that it would fill with water during the next series of rain showers he (and Rowen--whom he enlisted) decided that we wanted a hole. 

Yesterday, his the hard drive on his laptop (an older laptop of his sister's) bricked. I wonder if his hole project is a way for him to take his mind off of his frustration about the computer. This evening, when he would normally be on said computer, he asked to go out and keep working on his hole. He did this for an hour and a half.

​I have not seen the progress that he made, but he seemed quite pleased when he came in for bed.

The image of the good shepherd comes up again in today's readings and psalm. In the Gospel, Jesus sees the crowd as sheep in need of a shepherd. Now, I've felt that the metaphor of Jesus as the shepherd and us as His sheep is apt if for no other reason than sheep are dumb and can act against their best interests due to that foolishness. 

However, I wonder if there might have been sometime appealing about the work of a shepherd for Jesus. Certainly, Romantic writers have idealized the life of shepherds in their poetry. Do get me wrong, being a shepherd is full of difficult challenges and times of high stress, but if the shepherd cares about his flock, then those tough moments are certainly balanced by getting to watch the antics of these sheep he cares for. 

It also does not require a lot of micro-managing. The sheep generally know what to do; only occasionally does the shepherd have to deal with a particularly foolish or stubborn sheep. More often, the shepherd's role is to protect the flock from external threats, particularly predators.

Jesus looked at the crowd and knew that they were sheep in need of a shepherd. He could see the predators who preyed on the sheep. He could see that the sheep were lost and confused, needing the guidance that a shepherd could provide. Despite being weary and wanting to get away, Jesus decided to take up His role as shepherd and be their (and our) protector.