As with every spring my life has gone from being absolutely stagnant to a speeding
bullet. In Minnesota the winter really makes your life stand still. There's no yard
work in winter apart from shoveling occasionally, it's very difficult to get out
and enjoy the outdoors and you will even frequently convince yourself not to
venture out to many indoor establishments because it will require having to brave the cold for a short amount of time. I believe that the average Minnesotan spends the entire winter adding things to a to do list that can’t be crossed off until the snow is gone for sure. As soon as we get a day that’s above 40 degrees Fahrenheit the powder is lit and it’s boom, off to the races, that list needs crossing off baby!
The winter had a few noteworthy events for me. In February Amelia and I took a trip to Boston for Dan Vagle’s wedding. We met The Cochrane twins and Andrea out there. Amelia and I stayed at this amazing Victorian mansion converted into a B&B called the Coolidge Corner Guest House in Brookline, it was so charming and comfy. One of the most interesting parts of our stay was on our second night a couple of guests at the B&B had the most raucous sex I've ever been privy to overhearing. The antique brass bed frame in their room was creaking
like a donkey having a panic attack and the woman (or one of the women, I don’t know the people) was moaning at probably 80% of her ability. The wedding was great, as was the rest of our trip.
I had dessert at least three times every day of the trip and since I was on the east coast I also had a number of bagels with lox. I read Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell over the course of the trip. I had an excellent time overall.
Once responses finally started to pick up with COVID-19 it was early March. I was very impressed by the steps local small businesses and large retailers took without the need of a government order. Elena’s school voluntarily closed early just before their spring break was set to begin and they won’t return for the rest of the year. I managed to go to the midnight release for Animal Crossing the night before leaving for James and Carolyn’s cabin. They were only allowing up to 5 customers in GameStop at a time and they were the first business I saw put tape marks six feet apart to stand on. They really should have been closed altogether but they knew they had a big payday on their hands with Animal Crossing and Doom Eternal releasing and I’m personally very grateful that I’ve been able to play Animal Crossing over the course of this pandemic (I’ve logged over 90 hours so far).
James and Carolyn’s cabin was an absolute blast! We watched a ton of old VHS tapes, four of us had Animal Crossing, Jake had mixed some amazing old fashioneds and brought his Sega Genesis Classic, Carolyn made some amazing meals for us, the fireplace was never lacking a fire, and we were surrounded by natural beauty in one of the most beautiful areas in the world: Rhinelander Wisconsin.
Things were pretty slow when we got back, our Spring Break Route 66 Road Trip Extraordinaire featuring horse back riding and hot air balloon ride was canceled (I might have subconsciously hoped for as much to avoid the hot air balloon ride). The governor’s shelter in place order followed swiftly and it was a pretty slow month after that. We managed to get a trampoline in the midst of the outbreak by driving to a Dick’s Sporting Goods in Duluth for a curbside tramp pickup (no not THAT kind of curbside tramp pickup!) It was a beautiful 60 degree day, all of our snow had melted and I managed to get the trampoline set up right before four days of heavy snowfall. Minnesota strikes again!
The trampoline has done wonders to keep Elena occupied, Amelia and I renovated the bathroom to keep us occupied. It was about the middle of April that the traditional Minnesota spring explosion managed to find us, having seemingly no respect for the global coronavirus pandemic.
One of the houses we had been looking at dropped in price and there were a few other houses on the market that were also appealing to us, we decided that if our realtor was willing we had better take a look at these houses before someone else did. Touring houses while our family and the realtor were all wearing face masks is a memory I’ll never forget. Most of the houses were fairly disappointing, a couple were really nice but one of them really grabbed both me and Elena, Amelia wasn’t quite as excited but she agreed that it was a cool house and that we would be cooler people for living in it. Long story short we put in an offer, it was accepted and we close on May 29th.
Amelia and I were pretty stressed out about the whole thing (buying a new house with a flat roof and geothermal heating/cooling and selling our current house) but after we had the home inspected a lot of our anxieties were calmed. We also bought two baby chicks which also helped us cope with the stress of buying a house during a pandemic in hopefully our last year having a reality TV host as president. Elena named the chicks Peanut and Pickles because she thought that if we were going to eat them someday we should name them after food.
A day or two after getting the chicks I finally got a chance to see my parents in person for the first time in over a month. This social distancing had really gotten in the way of something important that we were trying to tell them in person, not about the house but something bigger. My chance came for a strange reason. My grandpa Paul was sick with pneumonia and was on his death bed, my mom was going to go stay with him and my aunt to help take care of him. My dad was going to drive her down and offered to bring me along to see grandpa, probably for the last time. In the car I managed to break the news to them, first that we had just gotten two baby chicks and second that Amelia was pregnant and due in August! Grandpa had been sleeping a lot before we showed up but we woke him up to talk with him a bit. I shared with him the news of the pregnancy and as with everything we said he was pretty unresponsive, he did however respond regarding another piece of news. When I told him we were buying a new house and let him know that we would be doing the title through DCA (the company he founded 60 years ago) he held up the “A-OK” sign. He died a couple days later.
It’s already ramping up to be a wild ride. Just like any spring in Minnesota we’re on a rocket ship that won’t end until the first snow fall and then will abruptly crash and lay dormant for nearly half the year until it picks up and goes berserk again. It’s something you learn to do well when you live here. Life does have a pause button, only we don’t control it and there’s no play button only fast forward. Here we go again!
