Day 8: The Ocho

If you haven't heard, the state of Colorado has issued a shelter-in-place order that begins tomorrow at 6am. We've pretty much already been doing that anyway, so I don't expect it to feel any differently. It was a beautiful day today, so we had plenty of backyard time with sand, bouncy balls, and bubbles. I'm slowly chipping away at that to-do list, though it feels like every time I look around I'm adding new items.

What I'm listening to today

Our Fake History (podcast) - Since I haven't had a three-hour round-trip commute in over a week, I've fallen behind on my podcasts. Our Fake History is a staple in my car. Host and historian Sebastian Major devotes his biweekly, hour-long podcast to finding out what's fact, what's fiction, and what is such a good story that it simply must be told. Rather than just rehash dry history lessons, Sebastian tackles historical myths like the death of Rasputin, the Archimedes death ray, and whether the moon landings were faked. This week I tuned in to "Episode 107: What Should We Believe About Boudica? (Part I)," which is a study of the mythical leader of an anti-Roman rebellion in 60AD Britain. Boudica is the first OFH topic in a long time that I have never heard of, so it was fascinating to learn about something new (to me). The brilliance of the podcast is that it often tackles a secondary theme that dovetails perfectly with the primary topic. This episode addresses the idea that "history is written by the victors," which is appropriate in this case because the only known historical accounts of Boudica are from Roman sources. In addition to being a historian and a teacher, Sebastian is also a talented guitarist, and he uses his own guitar compositions as segues to link the show together. I can't recommend this podcast enough.

What I'm doing today

Fixing - Almost three years to the day after purchase, our kitchen chairs have begun to fall apart. It's like they're iPhones or something. I spent a few minutes gluing and tightening legs and dowels in order to prevent the Destroyers of Worlds from destroying the chairs any further. The 3yo was fascinated, but I think he was just taking notes in order to become a more efficient destroyer.

Shelving - We had a new garage door installed last month, and there is still plenty to do on and around the door. For example, in order for the installation tech to hang the new brackets for the door, I had to take down all the garage shelving that was in the way. I finally got around to hanging the two large shelves back up on the wall today, and it was no small feat. First, the newly installed brackets are larger than the old ones, which means that the shelves needed to be cut narrower in order to make them fit. The shelves are attached to the walls, but the front edges are suspended from the ceiling using load-bearing hooks and chains. Because the shelves are no longer the same size, the chain lengths were now wrong too. So I had to adjust and readjust the positions of the hooks and the lengths of chains until the shelves were once again level. These are 10-foot-long shelves, so just getting them up and in place was difficult enough, but I can say that they are now reinstalled and perfectly level again. 

Walking - Because of nap time, the 3yo missed out on a lot of yesterday's quality time, and it's beginning to show. This morning he was feisty, grumpy, and wild. If he wasn't throwing sand from the sandbox at his brother he was trying to drag his sister around the house by her hair. He needed a break, so this morning he and I took a long walk on the trail that cuts through our neighborhood. He was so happy to be out and about holding hands and pointing out big boulders, waterfalls, birds, and animal tracks. On the way back we stopped and sat on a bench and had deep conversations about picking up trash, making big piles of trash, and selecting an appropriate trashcan for disposing of trash.