What I did on My Covid Summer Vacation.

Well you may think it’s a little late for a “theme” of what I did on my Covid Summer Vacation (think Christmas Story) but we thought it would be fun to regale you with stories of our exciting Covid Summer 2020. Enjoy!

Jodie’s pond view

Jodie:

Even though this summer did not go as planned; my older sister moving out, my younger sister living at school and me hopefully traveling; Covid gave my family the perfect opportunity to spend time together at home before life took over again. Both my sisters and I lived at home for the duration of the summer, which was unusual, for the past eight years someone has always been out of the house at one point or another so it was nice to have a summer that felt like we were little kids once more. We were able to enjoy our home like we used to. I live on a pond, so we got to waterski every night, fish, go for sunset boat rides and dinner cruises. We were able to enjoy being together and that was just the thing we needed. My older sister recently moved out of the house so looking back on this summer I am grateful that we had this uninterrupted time together and without Covid this would not have happened. Looking on the bright side of things has made dealing with this crazy pandemic a little easier!

Maureen’s car being towed and her son and father

Maureen:

I have two kids 13 and 18 who know EVERYTHING there is to know about the world and how it works. Sound familiar for those parents with teenagers, right? So, my plan was to ship my 13-year-old off to his grandparents’ house on the lake for a couple weeks and get the other graduated and ready to ship off to college. Yeah! My older sons’ high school graduation was a on again, off again affair due to Covid. A lot of people made a huge effort to make it the best experience possible for the kids, by making signs and having drive by parades, but it was tough on the them. Not what we were hoping for but were thrilled it finally happened and he could move on. College planning was again a matter of adjusting to the constant changes of what the university was doing with competitive sports, classes and on/off campus living. Took lots of encouragement to get it done, but it happened, and we made it through it. Took Zach, my younger son up to his grandparents to spend a few weeks on the lake so I could have some down time, and on my may (delete)way back my car dies in upstate NY. Three weeks later and multiple trips back I finally get my car back. Following that was 2-week quarantine and a fender bender to the car that was just fixed. Can I have a redo? 

Truly though, I feel lucky for how this summer has gone. Could have been so much worse. My friends and family have made it to this point unscathed by COVID. Thankful for all the time I spent with my family and friends, and hugs from my kids this summer and every day. Makes it all worth it.

Justin’s new house

Justin:

Buying a House: 2020 has been a crazy year, but there has been some good that has come out of it.  When the virus hit, my fiancé and I found out quickly that being stuck in a 1 bedroom apartment near Boston was not an ideal situation. After being stuck in small apartment in a crowded building for several weeks, the need for more space became more and more evident. Within a short time we found ourselves living at my parents house (further from the city) more than our own apartment.  There was more space, a yard, and we didn’t have to talk over each other during our virtual work meetings.  Suddenly, the idea of buying a house further from the city with more space sounded better than ever. Over the course of a month or two, we had found a house, placed an offer, and were soon moving in.  Not only have we spent more quality time with our family than ever before this year (including our dog who’s happier than ever), but we finally got the yard and space we always dreamed of.

Wayne’s Hershey bar Shutters

Wayne:

My Covid Summer DYI Weekend Project.

Despite Covid 19, I did end up going to my usual vacation spot in Maine. It’s not a very interesting story, so I thought I would share a weekend DYI project that I did instead.

I had been wanting to add shutters to my house that I had just purchased just 2 years ago and being thrifty (or cheap as my kids would say) I would scan Craigs list almost daily to look for some second hand shutters. Success! I found the prefect size vinyl shutters (as I needed two sizes) for only $8.00 a pair. Not only that, but the guy said he would drop them off at my house for no charge. Score!

Of course when  he showed up I was in the middle of a work Zoom meeting with a client. I quickly ran out to greet him and inspect the shutters. He had arrived in a giant van that can best be described as a yard-sale on wheels. He explained how the shutters were on the bottom of the pile of merchandise in the van and was it OK if he unloaded in my yard to access them. Certainly, no problem I exclaimed and quickly ran back to my meeting that was still in progress. A few minutes later, I looked out the window to view his progress and voilà, my lawn had been transformed into a mega yard sale. If I wasn’t in the middle of the meeting I would have probably gone out and done some shopping as there was quite an impressive array of artifacts. I assumed he had collected them driving around on many a garbage day (to my kids horror, in the past I had scored some good finds doing just that). He knocked on the door and said he had uncovered and counted all the shutters and in the 2 different sizes. I quickly counted them and agreed all were there. I paid him, thanked him, and he packed up and left. I ran back to my meeting.

That weekend, upon scrubbing and painting the shutters, I came to the realization that he and or I must have counted wrong. I was one shutter short. I had 17 instead of 18. In a semi panic, I called hoping he still had one left (as he had several more pair) and he did, and apologized profusely that he had short changed me. He promptly dropped one off the very next day. Well I painted the new shutter and the next weekend began hanging them. They looked terrific, in fact they looked brand new. As I went to the shed where I had stored them to get the last 2 shutters, to my surprise there were not 2 but 3 left. WTF? Did they multiply? How did that happen? Well guess who felt like a big jerk? Now you all know why I’m not an accountant. Anybody need a 55” freshly painted chocolate brown shutter? It kind of looks like a big Hershey bar.