Think I’m going to have to do a day-by-day here.  A lot happened since this was the first week that my son and I didn’t have school.  In fact, Monday was the first day since late February that we had nothing more than having fun.  So, we tried to get a bunch of things in, which oddly enough didn’t include video games. I’ll just do a break down for the father/son time.

Sunday/Father’s Day

I picked my son up in time for lunch since he was at his mom’s.  Figured I would let him be there for the morning for a certain reason that I don’t think I can say here.  Pretty sure one can figure it out.  Once we got back and had lunch, it was into the inflatable pool for the little guy.  Grandpa had bought two pump water gun things that aren’t shaped like guns.  You put one end in, pull back the pump to suck in the water, and then push it back to fire it out.  Needless to say, we all got drenched because my son simply stayed in the pool and blasted away.  Of course, he hit grandpa who was resting, which meant the garden hose came into play.  After that, it was drawing using YouTube videos.  We did a few pictures every day he was with me and I plan on making a Sunday post to show them off in about 2-3 weeks.

Monday

A lot of places are either closed or I’m not comfortable taking my son there.  So, we decided that the afternoon would be cleaning all of the cars.  Then, back to do some drawing and reading.  What did we do in the morning?  It was nice out, so we went to a small park that is on the coast.  Keep in mind that I’m on Long Island, which means the coast isn’t too far away.  It was a nice 1.5 hours where we saw plenty of animals and I realized that I need a point-and-shoot camera.  Cellphone doesn’t cut it when I’m trying to take a picture of these green monk parakeets that live in the area.  They aren’t native, so it’s weird seeing them.  Story is that the original birds escaped from a crate at JFK airport in the 60’s or 70’s.  Anyway, we also saw a bunny, horseshoe crabs, green heron, large heron, and a bunch of other birds.  It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday

With the weather being iffy on Wednesday, we agreed that the afternoon would be time to enjoy the pool.  We were going to have to deflate and clean it soon too.  With no other ideas, we went to another part, which used to be a garbage dump.  It’s much bigger than the previous one and it’s a lot of uphill walking to reach the top.  There are pygmy goats that they walk up to the top to take care of the grass too.  Tried and failed to get pictures of those damn parakeets too.  Not as many animals on this trip as we would have liked and it was very hot.  So, the trudge back to the car was met with a lot of complaining.  Little guy finally cheered up when we were buying ice cream toppings afterwards and I suggested we buy ice cream for lunch.  Very good decision.

Wednesday

I was burnt out and family were swinging by to say hello.  This meant that my son and I weren’t going to go on another adventure.  Instead, we worked on this all day:

We finished it just in time for us to have dinner, make our super sundaes, and watch some cartoons before he went to his mom’s.  This beast is still waiting on the living room table for him to add more characters to the inside.

And that’s really it for the father/son stuff, which is where the fun is.  I mean, we are watching the following cartoons at various times:

• Cardcaptor Sakura
• Kip and the Age of Wonderbeasts
• Yugioh
• Naruto
• Fairy Tail
• My Hero Academia
• One Piece

He’s loving all of it and I think he’s starting to get the idea of characters not being simply black/white mentalities.  Bakugo in ‘My Hero Academia’ really helps he see how characters, and people, can grow.  Yeah, it isn’t a traditional way to teach a kid about various morality and ethical questions, but it’s working a bit.  I think.  Mostly, my son likes spending time with me watching these.

The rest of the week wasn’t nearly as exciting.  Found out that I’m not going to be working over the summer, so I’ll be focusing more on writing and my son.  The overall schedule has been mucked up due to changes that we knew were coming.  So, my balancing act is going to be shakier than expected.  I’m already 4 chapters into War of Nytefall: Anarchy and am hoping to get through #6 by the time my son comes back.  Then, I’ll try to work a little on Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips), which will be the topic of tomorrow.  I’m going to be testing out the chapter titles.  Summer typically doesn’t have a lot of blog traffic, so we’ll see what happens.  If I can’t balance the two projects then I’ll finish the first one and save the other for August.

Aside from hanging out with some friends last night in a safe and distant manner, I got nothing else to report.  I’m tired and still a little anxious about life.  There were some incidents this week that I can’t go into here.  So, the weekend is going to be all about writing and resting.  Started watching an anime called ‘Rising of the Shield Hero’, which is pretty good.  Only two episodes in and it reminds me of similar stories, but I like a few of the characters.  Not the villain though.  Really hate her and she was only in the first episode, but she made an impact.

What are the goals?

1. Write more War of Nytefall: Anarchy
2. Prepare the file for Do I Need to Use a Dragon? (Fantasy Writing Tips)
3. Possibly start writing the above.
4. Help my son with summer school when he comes back.
5. Buy a point-and-shoot camera.
6. Buy more ‘Captain Underpants’ books, but that might wait until next weekend.
7. July 4th fun with the son
8. Charge the dust bunnies rent since they aren’t going away