Hinton, Day 3: Explosion of Epic Proportions!

This caption references not disaster, but the joy of being in close quarters with teenagers for a week. They, mostly, like each other, and I completely love them. We are all working quite well together. They are developing their own language for this trip, and, for the most part I get it (or pretend to).

This week has given me the chance to work on a theory that teenagers actually make *one another* moody and disinterested in their parents. I base this theory completely on my own children, who have suddenly turned into folks who are so over me and my whole way of being. I am a tremendous embarrassment to them and they kind of want me to wander off into the wilderness, until, that is they fall down and scrape their knee. Then, I become relevant and useful again as a dispenser of band aids and hugs. It's a little window into the future, and I'm praying that they revert back to semidependent little boys, if only for a little while.

We had another good day. The snag came with the plumbing, but we made great progress on other projects. Tori and Perry got the dressers sanded and painted, and we did a little more demo and clearing of space to make room for new things. Keeping an existing structure is definitely more cost efficient, but it dratically increases the amount of labor. Thank goodness for willing hands!

Wednesdays are lovley, as we are all given the night off. Since it's happened twice, it's fair to call it tradition now: our second annual trip to Asiano (yes. You're reading that correctly.) was tonight. Asiano is a sushi/Chinese buffet/Mongolian/hibachi/Thai restaurant just on the other side of the state line. With that ambitious of a menu, you would think that they might want to simplify. But, it's delicious and we had a great time. As a bonus, we passed a sign advertising: "Epic Laser Touchless Carwash!" i don't think I've ever seen four words that have less to do with one another on the same sign, and we took pictures to document the absurdity.

As the sun set, a four-piece band (including melodica) joined together on the front porch and we muddled tentatively through some songs we knew and harmonies we invented. Some played frisbee, and we all stopped for a bit to do something we love.

Until tomorrow, we remain
The team of Epic Humpback Whales