This'll Just Take a Minute

I can't even read the clock right. Eri: "You're going to soccer, right? Aren't you a bit early?" Me: "Yeah! We usually leave at this time and get there right on time. We gotta go! Let's go guys!" Soccer club starts at 10 a.m. The boys know that when the long hand on the clock gets to the 8 (9:40) it's time to go to the bathroom and get our socks and shoes on and head down to the car. The big hand was on 8. The problem that Eri saw was the short hand. It was 8:40, not 9:40. I'm going nuts. Slowly . Rapidly. An hour later, after I slowly enjoyed my coffee and disposed of the last beetle (yes, all four beetles have now gone back to the earth) and cleaned his bug box to make room for new bug acquisitions and the boys chilled out on the sofa watching TV, we set off. While the boys played soccer I headed across the parking lot to grab them some juice boxes for a job well done. This is not standard procedure, but Kenzo made his comeback today after ...

They don't have pumpkin patches here, so the boys' very first Halloween pumpkin arrived in the mail. It was forty bucks, free shipping. The thing probably weighs five or six kilograms, but it'll do. Eri is rightfully concerned about this over-priced gourd.  We're enjoying it in the living room for the next couple of weeks and then we're gonna carve it up, stick a candle in it, and set it out on the 31st and hopefully freak out all of our neighbors who think Halloween is just some gimmick that Daiso and the Aeon Mall use to offload weird overstocked autumn themed merchandise. Little do they know, Halloween is a much more complex gimmick than that. The boys were so excited to discover the pumpkin when they got home. They know what a jack-o-lantern is and they've been asking me how we're gonna make it. I told them about cleaning the inside of the pumpkin and they are very curious and full of anticipation. I am too, since I haven't done it in a while.  There...

I pulled the cover off my motorcycle this morning and this little green guy was waiting to greet me. The boys were already off to kindergarten after being sick for five days. Kenzo had a field trip to pick potatoes and was super excited. Osamu told me he didn't need his security towel anymore but right as I was shutting the car door and fixin' to marshal Eri and the car out onto the road, he mumbles "towel". He four. I gave him the stink eye and marched into the house, grabbed a towel, marched back out, handed it to him, and said, "This is the last time." He's done this before and I've said that before and it isn't the last time. I had kinda planned it, but kinda not. Today was gonna be a day off. The thing is, I'm not good at taking days off. I used to be. First things first, though. I grabbed Kenzo's bug catching net and got that nice grasshopper in the bug box. He didn't resist. I set the box on the porch, not knowing what time I...

I rubbed Vicks VapoRub on Kenzo and Osamu again tonight while tucking them in. The smell or the vapors or whatever were making me pretty nostalgic. Also cleared my head quite nicely. After consulting with Eri this afternoon while boys were napping I tried to work downstairs at the kitchen table. It was a disaster. I'm trying to write performance reviews for my team while Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is comin' in strong just two meters from where I'm sitting and Osamu is doing his usual running commentary which includes asking me what I think every forty seconds. It was a good try. With Eri gone at her career class most weekdays and me working, the boys have a solid three-hour stretch where they need to fend for themselves existentially. They watch their favorite Netflix shows, they build railroads, they argue and make up. After dinner the boys have to take their cold medicine. They had to take the day off kindergarten today, but tomorrow they can probably go. Kenzo has his class ...

Kenzo sure delivers when it comes to giving papa the panic. He's been sick with a high fever for three days, all through the holiday weekend. Osamu was catching it, too, apparently. So Eri took them to the doctor first thing this morning. Kenzo was not down with that idea. He crawled behind the bunk bed to hide and was sobbing and kept saying he didn't want to go. Between Eri and I we somehow pried him out and got him in the car. It was like that cartoon image of trying to get a cat in a bathtub when they put all their legs out to keep from going in. I was at home working while Eri dealt with having to wait in the car with two sick, restless boys because they don't let people into places, especially the doctor's office, with elevated body temperatures. You have to be escorted in specially to get Covid tested as part of any treatment. Eri used up all her energy, as well as her patience.  When they got back I ran downstairs and hugged the boys and noticed that Osamu was p...

Today was National Sports Day , a Japanese holiday celebrating moving your body with skill and endurance. I celebrated by sleeping particularly late, past 8:30, after falling asleep at my desk last night for a good several hours. Kenzo was still feverish and not doing great this morning, so I told Osamu we're headin' out. I got ready as fast as could be and Osamu played with toys and annoyed Kenzo until at last he got his socks on and mask pocketed.  At some point I need to get a sidecar for my motorcycle. Osamu would make a great sidecar buddy. We started off our adventure at Matsumoto Kiyoshi , where papa took his time carefully choosing a new toothbrush. Then it was off to Costco to battle with the three-day-weekend crowds of Japanese people who behave badly possibly because the American-ness of the place rubs off on them. Osamu is the best partner for these adventures. He's always up for anything, he mostly doesn't complain, he's the center of attention because ...

Kenzo was still holding onto a solid 38.5 degree fever this morning, so kindergarten father's open house was out. We were both bummed out for kind of the same reason. Dads' open house day includes lunch; specifically, hamburgers, hot dogs, and potato chips. I was sad about missing out on overeating hamburgers and hot dogs and Kenzo was sad about missing potato chips. We made the best of it. Kenzo got his potato chips at home for snack time. Papa had a frozen Thai noodle thing for lunch and is gonna have to wait until his next chance for hamburgers and hot dogs. He spent the morning with me watching Netflix and playing halfheartedly in the living room with the energy he could muster up. We did a video call with grandma and Auntie Misty, and even though he wasn't his usual energetic self, he told me afterward that he was really happy to see them. It had been a while (too long a while) since we did family Facetime calls. We (I) have to be better about that. Osamu, on the othe...