Your Weekly Antics, That is Not the Fiddler on the Roof Edition...10-19-23

Well kids, here we are. I hope you've all skipped work and are out enjoying this beautiful sunshine. If you're Like Joe Wrixon, you may very well be on your roof. Here's what I've got...

1. The working man never rests…Joe has many titles, and here's another one...Exhibit 1, Roof Cleaning Joe. If you look closely, you’ll see Joe hanging out on his roof not playing with the water balloon sling shot as I suggested, instead he's being productive, spending his free day from work, power washing. For those of you who may be concerned that he was up there just messing around, he was very productive and did dismount in one piece. This is how we are entertained here on our little corner of the Woo - Pull up a lawn chair, grab a coffee and watch Joe power wash his roof, what better way to spend a random weekday. Someone’s gotta make sure the ladder doesn’t fall and he gets stuck up there.

2. One of the perks of working at the same place for almost 30 years? When you call Erin Pepka at 8:15am via teams and she’s not phased that you’re still un showered and in your pj’s. #noonecares

3. From what I understand, we may be some of the last people who have window air conditioners and have to put them in at the beginning of the summer and take them out come fall. Let there be no mistake about it, I’m not the one in charge of that, Al and Sam manage that task. You drop an air conditioner out a window one time and you’re never allowed to go near a window during AC season ever again. Uncoordinated or strategic planning?

4. Who knew that the AC’s would serve more purpose than just cooling our living space. Apparently, the hum that the AC filled the house with was enough to keep all the outside noises muffled, quiet and unnoticed by Gibson. This quiet provided Gibson with the care free slumber he needs in order to recharge so he can continue protecting us from nothing during daylight hours. AC's are out and the house is silent - so quiet is it that every noise from the outside, as little and minuscule as they may be, permeates the walls of the Kap house, disrupting Gibsons beauty sleep. If Gibson doesn't sleep, that means we don't sleep. At all hours of the night we are now being alerted to such things as rain, leaves falling, the random critter scurrying through the yard, the wind, wind chimes, you name it. Now he hears every – single – thing all night long and alerts us to all of them. No, I'm not having the AC's thrown back in the windows, I'm smarter than that. Instead, about 4am I ordered Gibson his very own sound machine. Fingers crossed for future sleep filled nights.

5. More night sounds – a friend of The Antics informed me she’s got some unknown person outside her building playing the harmonica in to the wee hours of the morning. This has been confirmed by other residents, not just her, so we can’t say she’s imagining things. No one can identify the culprit, so naturally they’ve concluded it must be a ghost. If you’re going to have a ghost wandering around the grounds of your building, may as well be a happy harmonica playing one.

6. School pictures. Your Kids get older and long gone are the days of those elementary school photo's. They'd come home with the package of who knows how many photo's that you could have made in to wallet sizes, 8 x 10's, 5 x 7's, mugs, key chains, stickers, poster size, you name it - you'd take a look, not remembering the battle that may have ensued picture day morning when your child didn't like the outfit you laid out for them. That same kid may have decided last minute when already late, to switch that outfit up and throw their coat over it, leaving you to be surprised when you got that school photo back seeing exactly what it was they were wearing. By the third kid, you've embraced this and have learned that those pictures in all their goofy smiles and mismatched clothing will be the best pictures you ever get of your kid, realizing they themselves sealed the deal, making that photo part of their collective history and just the beginning of the reasons why they should have listened to their Mother. You hold this thought dear to you knowing that in about 10 years that photo will be up for discussion and you can sit back and maybe say I told you so, but better yet, not say a word and just grin from ear to ear knowing that they now know you knew best. By high school, this is no longer a subject for discussion unless they're preparing for their senior portraits, because now the school photo's are for identification purposes and to be shared in the upper classmen's yearbooks. Case in point. This years class photo goal was to try to match the color of the shirt they wore with the exact color of the green screen used behind each student as their photo's were taken. The purpose of this you ask? So when that photo is developed those photo's will look as if they were that of a floating head. I'll be looking to get my hands on one of those.

7. Change - brought Harley, as seen in Exhibit 2, to the vet earlier this week for her yearly wellness check. Despite being early, she was well behaved and per usual a fan favorite. I happened to pay in cash, and believe it or not, I actually had change coming to me which is unheard of for our vet visits. The receptionist was so out of practice having the vet charges paid in cash, that she didn't have enough bills to return to me, instead gave me $10.63 in coins for change. In coins. I left there lugging ten dollars in change in the pouch of my jacket... you can't fit that kind of change in your phone case.

8. Money's money, right? As paying in cash is such a rarity these days I was happy to have the change to throw in my nearly empty change jar. Who knew in addition to replenishing the change jar that I would also be able to use one of the many quarters I received to compare the size of these giant blueberries to. If you're a blueberry eater, you will have noticed that the price of blueberries have gone through the roof. You can't hate the blueberry farmers, it's not their fault that prices everywhere have sky rocketed, everyone has to cover their expenses. However, after comparing the size of these blueberries to one of the many quarters I now have, I had to ask myself...what the hell? Are these biochemically engineered blueberries? Where were they grown? What was used to grow them? Are they some kind of cross bred fruit? Are they even real blueberries? Is this why they're so expensive because they're so large or is some weird chemical being used to get them to grow this big? I will add that these mutant blueberries were tasty, but left me wondering what I was actually eating. Exhibit 3, mutant blueberries.

9. This brings me to next week's experiment. I will be saving one of these blueberries in the refrigerator. Like the infamous apple from Antics past, let's see how long it looks this good. We may be rethinking fruit all together. At least if you're eating a bag full of peanut m&m's for breakfast, you know what you're getting...the ingredients are written right on the package.

10. Went to see the Taylor Swift movie with the youngest Kap kid last week. I have to say it was pretty awesome, but this was the best part of it. Exhibit 4, this little swiftie all dressed up, no cares in the world, dancing away and living her best life.

And last but not least...take tomorrow off and enjoy the day. It's supposed to rain again this weekend.

Have a great weekend!