Weekend Recap

Friday evening after work, I took Đạo and Đán to their Scout meeting. I spotted some new parents taking their kids to join the Cub Scout. At the hour-long parent-leader meeting, most parents who had been with the Scout for a year or more helped out with something. One parent handled the logistics. One volunteered to teach Vietnamese. One took charge of outreach, which included designing the website. The leaders asked me to run the lion dance group, but I turned them down. I can’t take on anymore responsibility. The Scout ended at 8:30 pm. There went my Friday evening.

Saturday morning, I woke up early to take Đán to ice hockey. I also made him practice for half an hour. We didn’t get home until noon. At home, I went up to the attic to check on the fan. My wife kept complaining that her room was too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter; therefore, she thought the fan was broken. I worried and couldn’t sleep for a couple of nights just the thought of having to replace the fan. I avoided going into the attic if I could. I didn’t realize that I needed to walk on the beams. As I stepped on the dry ceiling, I heard a crack. I quickly stepped onto the beam. Luckily I didn’t break the ceiling yet. I walked around the dark- and-hot-as-hell attic trying to find a fan and we don’t have one. I was relieved. I went back down, cleaned up, and vacuumed all the rooms. After lunch, I went rollerblading at the school’s parking lot near our house. I practiced the 180 jump on and off the sidewalk. It was a great exercise. I sweat profusely. An hour later, I was exhausted and took a quick nap on the coach. I woke up and my legs were soaring. My wife complained again. I was supposed to feel better after exercise, not more tired. I am old and I used too much energy. My body couldn’t keep up. I felt tired, but I also felt great that I made myself active.

Sunday morning, my sister-in-law dropped her boys off at our house so she and her husband can fix their own fan in the attic. I took the older kids to ice skating from 12 pm to 3 pm. For three hours, I got a lot of practice in. I improved my backward edges and my waltz jumps. I reviewed my half-flip and ballet jumps. I did some one-foot spins and learned the new half-lutz jump. I felt productive and eager to get back to ice skating, which I hadn’t done much when I injured my knee. After ice skating I took the kids to High Side for some snacks and some craft beer for me. We ordered tornado fries, sweet potato fries, chicken baos, and beef teriyaki skewers to share among the four of us. I had two glasses of sour ale with Magdalena River Mango, Tangerine, Pineapple and Calamansi. The bill came out to almost $100. Nothing is cheap anymore. After our overpriced street food and craft beer, I went over to my sister-in-law’s house to help her husband replace the motor fan in the attic. I went to the roof to unscrew the fan while he was in the attic holding on to the motor. The process took 15 minutes. We went to our house and had a hotpot my wife made for dinner. It was delicious. I always loved hotpot.

Those are the highlights of my boring weekend. The lawn still needed to be mowed. The HVAC still needed to be opened up and vacuumed. The basement still needed to be reorganized. The list of home maintenance goes on and on. My weekends are either filled with stress or guilt. I get stressed out because I could not get the things done around the house. I feel guilty if I push off the housework and go out ice skating or spending time with the kids. The struggles never seem to end.