June 2020 Recap

Since I joined back with worship team at church, and was on the schedule three times in June, which required some practice, and I kept working out with weights in the evenings, my blog and other things didn't get done to the same degree.    I don't really want to fall behind on things again, so maybe I'll skip working out when I get that busy in the future.

New music that I heard

I didn't listen to much music since I used my dish washing time to listen to podcasts. And even though the library opened up holds at some locations, they got flooded with so many requests, that it took a while for me to receive the holds.  I did hear this nice classical piece on the radio though.  Antonin Dvorak  - Scherzo Capriccioso, Op. 66  (This exact performance is not the one from the radio, but this one is still well done)

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Best Photo


This is from our family water activities day at YouthFront Camp West.  Photo credit: Our friends, the Ryans.

  
New movie recap
I did not watch any movies for the first time for the second straight month!   This was partly because the library opened up for holds, but they had like 40,000 requests, and mine didn't get fulfilled until halfway through the month.

TV/Streaming Show/YouTube recap

I thought this popular comedian's comments about McDonalds were the best thing I watched on YouTube this last month.

Book recap

I finished Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, audio book.   I thought the book was really slow until the end, when the plot got interesting.  Overall, due to the ending, I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

I read another children's book named Awesome Dog 5000.  It as not bad enough to rank 1 star, but I did rank it 2 stars.   The characters were good, but the plot left a lot to be desired, and there was some potty humor to keep kids laughing.  Actually, I'm not sure why I read it.

I also bought a new book called Five Minutes to Impact, by David F. Osborne.  This is a family friend who had to crash land his plane several years ago, and wrote this book to tell the tale.   I thought it was pretty interesting, and it's a good one day read. I plan to send it off to a pilot friend when my family is done reading it.

I also enjoyed reading more children's books.  Since I've mostly read serious nonfiction throughout my adult life, I have really loved these easy-to-read and entertaining books:

• I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912 (I Survived, #1), by Lauren Tarshis
• The Twits, by Roald Dahl
• Frindle, by Andrew Clements
• Danny, the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl
• I Survived the American Revolution, 1776  (I Survived, #15), by Lauren Tarshis

These were all very good books, and the best one of the group I'd have to say was Danny, the Champion of the World, by Roald Dahl.  The second best was I Survived the American Revolution, 1776. The third best was Frindle.

My Music Playing

Used MacBook driven sounds in church for the first time.  And second time. And third time.

It was a challenge to receive the songs 2 days before we played and filmed them at church.  Since I took such a long break from worship team, these were all new songs for me on keyboards - 9 songs total! And I am also still learning the software that generates the sounds.  I really enjoyed it overall though.  The challenge is that I can't practice because my children are very interested in the keyboard when I am playing with it.   I could tell them gently to go away, but I am very interested in cultivating their musical interest as well.

Good moments

6/1: I took a certification exam for Azure Database Administrator.  But since it was a beta exam, I haven't received my score yet.  It was uncomfortable to wear a mask during the exam.  I wore it even though I was the only person in the room, because I understood that to be a requirement.   

6/6: Younger daughter's dance recital, outside.   It actually turned out to be good that her dance recital was outside, rather than in Lawrence, 45 minutes away.   In Lawrence it would have been an all day event, because of rehearsals and staying for the entire performance.  In this COVID-caused outdoor recital, we just stuck around for her performance.  And it was awesome!  She and her group danced to I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away, by Randy Newman.  I zoomed in to take pictures, and that ended up causing them to blur.  But the important thing is, I enjoyed watching her with my own eyes, and seeing her big smile as she performed.

6/7: Kids were interested in controlling the Wii for the first time, rather than just watching their parents play!

6/12: They finished painting the house.  The siding on the house looks really good!  I still deal with fears of worst case scenarios, but by all indications, they did a great job with the installation and painting!

6/18: We saw a baby squirrel stuck on a roof, and we waiting for the parent to rescue it by carrying it in its mouth, and we eventually saw that happen.

6/22:  We went to YouthFront Camp West for water activities day, and our friends, the Ryans went as well.  It was a beautiful day.  And later, I found that the last time we had gone there as a family was exactly 7 years before!

Negative moments
We've all had some emotional moments, realizing that the kids will be spending all summer at home, with very few activities.   And summer break essentially just started, even though they've been home since Spring Break.

Parenting moments

We implemented a behavior reward/punishment system, or economy, where the children earn small stones for good behavior and pay for the privilege of bad behavior.  They can also pay for things like screen time with the stones.   We have already had this system for a while, but this is amping it up, and formalizing it by putting prices next to each item.    The kids have bought into it so far, and it is helping.   The challenge will be the adjustment to keep the economy in balance, and keeping everyone bought into the system.

Work moments

I patched 100 SQL Servers in 20 minutes with some automation that I discovered/tweaked.  This automation is one of my best accomplishments of 2020 at work.  However, it is exhausting to keep up with patching on our 1,600 SQL Servers, and I'm afraid this task will become really tedious, even though we the aforementioned automation.

I worked physically in the office in June, and not everyone has come back yet.   It's good overall, because it allows me to stay focused on work, and not keep going to the kitchen to have snacks!   I do miss connecting with my family though throughout the day.

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