pop and explode just before the fire goes out

July 1: I managed to convince my parents to “Marie Kondo” the house because it’s getting more cluttered every time I come back. But since the first step of her cleaning technique is to shove everything into one giant pile, I’m worried that some people will do that step and then just leave it that mountain.

July 2: Ruth is loose again. She has been slowly emptying her house of items and depositing them into the front yard. While walking the dogs, I saw that her bushes were full of mail, clothing, and a landline phone. She has been standing in the middle of the street all morning, cussing out anyone one who walks past. Neighbors have apparently been begrudgingly feeding her and making sure she makes it back inside safely because no one is able to get a hold of her daughter.

July 3: Nick invited Angi and Kat to go to Google with us one day as a cousin work trip. No one knows how he found out, but Kat’s dad somehow found out and invited himself along. And then he invited Lyra and Sharon along. Nick is supposed to limit his guest count to four, but he’s getting off easy here. They could have very easily turned it in to a full family trip with at least a dozen people.

July 4: Heidi’s favorite firework has always been the Piccolo Petes. They emit a shrieking sound along with a sparkling flame. If you take an old nail and a hammer, you can crimp them in just the right spot to make them pop and explode just before the fire goes out. Every year, she has to experiment to find the sweet spot because the design keeps changing. She sits on the curb with her feet in the gutter, hammering tiny creases into them until she gets it right.

July 5: There have been earthquakes two days in a row. Today’s one was a rolling one that kept getting stronger the longer it went on. It was a 7.1 magnitude earthquake. We were far enough that the thing we had to worry about most was the living room flat screen TV toppling over.

July 6: Whenever I visit Orange County, I’m always most excited to go to Target. I love being able to browse the aisles without having to ask busy people to unlock the shelves to all the personal hygiene items and alcohol. It feels so freeing and extravagant.

July 7: Marie Kondo-ing is going better that I expected. Closets have been almost emptied and I can see the wooden floor again. We finally made enough space to put away the chairs we took out for Christmas seating. We cleared out enough of the garage that two cars can now fit in it, the way it was originally intended to. Which is nice, but then Dad found some bad wiring in the kitchen. He turned off all the electricity to avoid getting checked when he tried to fix it. But after her put everything back on, half the lights upstairs wouldn’t work and we can’t find anything wrong with the fuses or circuit breakers.




much love,
hedgie