Monday, September 3, 2012

Block Picnic

Almost every year, one of our neighbors organizes a block party. Almost every year, some how we don't end up going but yesterday we did. Lots of new neighbors with young children have moved onto our block, one family with kids with almost identical ages to Shanna's children. Shanna has given up trying to move into our neighborhood. Last year, houses were begging to be bought but a different story this summer with multiple offers the first week a house goes on the market. So they are probably going to build in Canton (can't really build in Ann Arbor unless they go into the townships) and they put a reservation down on a lot there. They were told that the house would take 8 months to build. Not sure why building takes so long as I thought my parent's house went up in less than 4 months.

But it was fun meeting the new neighbors. Our immediate neighbors on both sides did not go. One is a rental house full of young, very noisy and inconsiderate young men. Between them, there are 7 junky cars that they must find parking for, usually in front of our house. I've parked Josh's car in front to minimize looking at their cars. Our neighborhood is zoned for no more than 3 people unrelated living together but I assume only one or two of them has their name on the lease. There is a pool there currently a reservoir for West Nile virus as the filtration system seems to be broken. On the plus side, it keeps them out of the pool which now is so gross, they aren't even sitting by it. On the other side are very nice people with one of them battling Stage 4 cancer. He has outlived his initial prognosis by 4 years. He will go into remission for one set of mets then new ones pop up. One of the many clinical trials he has been on was oral Taxol. Now I thought the digestive system destroyed Taxol necessitating its iv administration. They must give something to block the enzymes that metabolize it.

A quiet weekend, the end of summer. It was in the 90s today and humid so I opted to bike. I had run a long way yesterday and was sore. When I came home, the grandboys had been dropped off. I take them out one by one although the trailer seats 2. I am probably strong enough for the 2 of them now (close to 80 lbs of kids not including the weight of the trailer itself). I took Danny first. We go to a playground that is not walking distance. Kids are so different. He is not like his brother at all despite sharing similar interests (trains and construction equipment). He is very unsure where to put his body doing things requiring gross motor skills. We worked on climbing today. Finally after some coaching, he was able to handle some of the climbs he couldn't do before. He was quite proud of himself. Oliver was too busy for his turn. Finally at the end of their visit, he remembered he didn't get a turn. By that time, I had taken my shower and it was in the nineties.  He was Not happy. (When he does something Shanna doesn't like, Shanna tells him Not Happy.)

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