Saturday Random

I'll try to keep this cheerful - I realize it's mopey around here lately.

• Today would've been mom and dad's 56th. Dad...is not doing well (haha, so much for cheerful) mentally coming up on 2 years of mom being gone. Which really, why would he be?
• Today is the boys' final award ceremony for their Trail Life troop. It'll be outside and different than usual, but barring extreme heat (please God), it should still be a pleasant time.
• We're also meeting in person with my writer's group today - first time in many months. I think, technically, we could have been meeting as there are only six of us (which is, obviously, lower than 10), but we generally meet at a church and so Der Kommisar had tighter restrictions. Because Christians are more contagious than normal people. Or something.
• Anyway, we'd been meeting over zoom, which is fine, but also not the same.
• The boys are officially finished with all of their curriculum. Let the summer break begin! Which means instead of doing schoolwork every day, we'll have mandatory reading time - both our read aloud and individual reading.
• Speaking of read alouds, our current is Around the World in 80 Days. I'm enjoying it mightily -- especially being able to give a sufficiently snooty French accent to Passepartout whenever he speaks. I've realized I have never read any Verne before. Not sure how a lit minor in college (added on top of having taking AP Lit in HS) managed that. But whatever. He's very readable today, which was, I admit, a tad surprising.
• The boys are enjoying it as well. We have our own little wagers running on whether or not Fogg will make it around the world in his 80 days or fail and whether or not he stole the money from the Bank of England. Eldest says no and yes, respectively. Youngest says yes and no. I think yes and no as well - but I also snuck a peek at the last chapter because I couldn't stand the suspense of the first question.
• Said peek sneaking thoroughly annoyed eldest - he says to me, "MOM! You can't DO that." To which I replied, "Why not? The pages turn." And he says, "But you're supposed to wait and see what happens!" And then I explained how I desperately hate surprises and will enjoy the book more for knowing the end. He is still not sure about that, but since I'm keeping my own thoughts on the wager quiet (so as not to influence opinions), he's letting it lie. But periodically I catch him giving me a disbelieving look of annoyance. But then, he's a tween, so it might be unrelated.
• The traffic is starting to pick up some, and hubs is now beginning his grumbles about his commute. I guess some things will absolutely go back to the way they were. Sigh.