Took our little family to Whitetail today. I was expecting the resort to be packed, but I didn’t expect it to be super packed. The lines to the lifts were long. I could only manage to get Vương on the magic carpet once. He was tired and sleepy so I had to hand him over to my wife.

Đạo, Đán, Xuân and I went on a blue slope. Xuân was a bit intimidated and a ski patrol taught him side-slipping down the steep hills. As I was waiting for him to go down, I saw two snowboarders crashing into each other. One of them had to be transported down on a stretcher.

I took Xuân to the green slope, but the lift line took 40 minutes. He zoomed down the slope and went in with his mom. I joined Đạo on the blue slopes. We did two runs. They were fantastic. We’re planning on going back on Monday since the kids will still be off from school. The lines won’t be too crowded then.

A parent as our kids’ Scout uses Youngkin’s executive order ending mask mandates in public schools to attract attention. I am not posting his email because I don’t have permission. I am just going to post my responses. Here’s my first reply:

According to the state law, FCPS must adhere to the CDC guidelines; therefore, universal masking is still in place—at least until August 1, 2022.

From what I had observed, the kids didn’t seem to mind wearing masks at Scout meetings. The Cubs seemed to enjoy the activities the leaders had created.

Masking is not a political issue. Masking is a safety issue. We all have family members who had been infected with Covid or had died of Covid. I am sure some of us had been infected ourselves. If you think masking is a communist tactic then you must not have lived under the communist regime. You need to check your privilege.

In his reply, the president of our pack wrote:

If you and your kids follow the rule to wear mask then you and your kids are more than welcome to join us at our scouting events. If you refuse to do so then this lien doan will not be the right place for you.

Knowing his calm personality, it must be very difficult for him to write those words, but I support and respect his firmness and leadership. He puts our Liên Đoàn’s safety first. Since we started Scouting again, we hadn’t had a single case of Covid in our Liên Đoàn. Masking must have worked; therefore, I strongly encourage everyone to continue to make it a safe environment for all of us.

Sincerely yours,

Donny Truong

Here’s my follow-up respond:

As I said, Covid touched all of us one way or another. The members of this Liên Đoàn weren’t Covid-proof, but we did our part to keep this community safe. If we got sick, we stayed home. If we gathered indoors, we masked up. The members didn’t have to report their case and I didn’t need to know about their private health information. All I knew was that there was zero case in which Liên Đoàn had to cancel an in-person meeting due to Covid. There was zero case in which we spread the virus to each other during meetings. This is one of the reasons I have chosen to stay with this Liên Đoàn and dropped other activities where masks were recommended and not required.

As anyone who had fled Vietnam, which is all of us here, knew a thing or two about the communist. Accusing Liên Đoàn of using the communist tactics is low blow. We understand the difference between common sense and communism. Don’t let your hatred cloud your judgment.

I am not here to discuss your political agenda. I frankly don’t care. I am deeply concerned about the health and the safety of our Liên Đoàn, particularly our kids. Call it “fear-mongering” all you want, but I feel safe that the leaders have reaffirmed the mask mandate is still in place. When this policy changes, however, I would appreciate it if Liên Đoàn would let us know ahead of time before any future meeting.

Thanks for your time.

Regards,

Donny Truong

Today only my oldest son, Đạo, and I went skiing at Liberty Resort. My wife thought it was too cold, but the weather turned out perfect. The sunshine made the temperature felt warmer. Since today is still a weekday, the resort was not too crowded. We were able to get on the lifts quickly.

We skied down all the green and blue slopes. They were fun. We skied down the black slope twice. I could control my speed much better with short turns. I attempted to try the double black, but it looked too steep. I backed out.

I am still trying to learn carvings. They were trickier than I thought, but I’ll get them. I just need more practice. We skied for about four hours and were exhausted. We headed home early before the sun went down. We had a great time together. I rarely got to spend time alone with one of my kids; therefore, I treasured every moment. Đạo is just a wonderful kid, especially when his siblings weren’t around. He acted much more mature.

I wish Đán, Xuân, and Vương joined us, but we’ll go again tomorrow. I bet Saturday will be extremely crowded though. We’ll see.

For the backstory, read this post first. Because many people had experience the same leaking issue from their dishwasher, which includes the Whirpool brand, there are a handful of YouTube video showing how to fix it. I followed this one.

Replacing the dishwasher diverter valve seal grommet was straightforward. I just needed to wait for the product to arrive from Amazon. The first time I replaced it, the water still leaked in tiny drops. My wife read somewhere that applying sealing tape around the grommet would stop the leak. I did that and voila: no more leak.

The grommet cost $5.

In his book of poetry collection, Spring Rain, Tâm Minh translated 50 classic works from poets including William Henry Davies, William Butler Yeats, Robert Frost, Christina Rossetti, and Thomas Hardy. I chose a few pieces that dealt with life and death to create a sample page for Vietnamese Typography. For typesetting, I chose Loretta, designed by Abel Martins and Joana Correia, for text, Mea Culpa, designed by Robert Leuschke, for titles, and Albula Pro, designed by Silvio Meier, for authors. Take a look.

As the man in the house, I am responsible for my family’s livelihood. As a result, I am constantly worried about every little thing and it has increasingly become an emotional stress for me. Even though I know everything will be fine, I still put my mind into stress cases.

When we drove 14 hours from Virginia to New Hampshire and back, I constantly worried that the cargo carrier on top of our minivan would pop open. All of our skis and helmets would fly out and would cause massive collisions, or worse, would kill other people. I slowed down my speed and prayed that we would make it to our destinations safely. Even though we had never experienced anything like that all these time we had traveled, and yet, the worry never left my mind.

As we were driving home last Sunday from skiing, my wife called and asked if I closed the outdoor faucet because she couldn’t turn it and the hose was frozen. Although I knew I had shut off the water, I didn’t disconnect the hose. I became a nervous wreck during the drive home. Thankfully the rain washed away the snow and the temperature increased; therefore, I was able to disconnect the hose from the faucet with some warm water.

On Monday, I found some water on the cover of the toilet seat in our basement and we hardly used that bathroom. I looked up at the ceiling and spotted a small hole. I touched the ceiling and it was wet. I broke off the drywall and found the water running along the beam. I tore off more drywall to see where the leak was coming from. It seemed to start from the outside. I suspect when the snow melted, the water seeped into our foundation and entered our basement. A leaking foundation would be a nightmare and I became extremely worried. I checked the outside foundation, but didn’t find any cracks or holes. I looked up YouTube videos to see how I could seal the foundation.

Yesterday, I went back down to check the leak area and the water was dripping. This time, the water seemed to come directly from the top floor because there was no snow or rain outside. I went upstairs and the dishwasher was running. I looked at the bottom of the Whirlpool dishwasher and spotted water dripping. I placed a small plate underneath to catch the water. I searched up YouTube and found several videos that showed similar issues. The worn-out dishwasher diverter seal grommet caused the leak. My wife placed an order on Amazon and it will arrive tomorrow. I hope that is the only issue. We’ll see what will happen when I replace that piece.

On one hand, I am increasingly feeling more comfortable with fixing things around the house. We don’t need professionals for these small issues. I also understand that they have overheads to pay; therefore, they would charge an arm and leg for something like these. On the other hand, the increase of constant worries is not good for my mental health. I am afraid that I will get a nervous breakdown over things that are unnecessary. I am just hoping that I can hold myself together.

I am doing my best to leave all my worries behind and just deal with issues as they come. Life is too short to worry about mundane things. I hope that my sons will be a better handyman than their father or they will make enough money to hire professional services to take care of everything so I won’t have to worry anymore and just live a peaceful life. Until then, I am just going to be a nervous wreck.

Đán has been struggling with math and I wanted to help him, but I am not sure what methods they taught him in school. I taught him the methods of long multiplication and long division, which I learned when I was a kid in Vietnam. Although he didn’t pay much attention at the beginning, he seemed to catch on. He just needed some hints.

I also incorporated word problems into his math so he can practice his reading comprehension. I tried to come up with scenarios that would align with interests. Here’s an example:

Đán would like to buy a brand new PC, which costs $1,950. If he gets paid $50 each week to clean up the house, how many weeks does he need to work and to save up in order for him to buy his PC?

Then I went a bit complicated:

Our family went to Red Lobster to celebrate Đán’s birthday. Grandma ordered a dish of fish that cost $24. Mom and dad ordered steaks and shrimps, which cost $49, to share. Đạo, Đán, and Xuân ordered mac-and-cheese bowls, which cost $12 each. Đán, the birthday boy, ordered a whole lobster, which weighed in at 4.9 pounds. The lobster cost $15 a pound. Find the total cost for the food then add 20% gratitude for the service. What is the total of the final bill?

He didn’t seem to enjoy the math problem as much as the food, but at least he learned something.

My cousin, Duy, who was a snowboarding instructor, insisted that I should give snowboarding another shot. Yesterday, we went back to Roundtop to take some snowboarding lessons from him.

Đán had already mastered his snowboarding skills and he could do the black slope at Roundtop. Đạo, Xuân, and I were still new. Duy taught us to keep our knees bent and our body constant in a strong position. We just needed to turn our shoulders from left to right to turn. Unfortunately, it was more difficult and it sounded. I kept falling. Đạo and I didn’t make it too far before switching back to skiing. Xuân stuck to snowboarding and did quite well. He liked taking one-on-one lessons with Duy; therefore, I left them on the bunny slope and went on the black slope with Đán.

I loved the thrill of skiing down the black slopes. My parallel turns and hockey stops allowed me to navigate around the steep slopes and moguls. My next goal is to learn carvings. The kids will have a four-day weekend this week. I can’t wait to get back to skiing, which is my focus for now. I might get back to snowboarding one day, but not this season.

Yesterday, we went back to the Liberty resort for the second time. The first time we skied at Liberty was two years ago and we didn’t have Epic passes. We bought packages that included lift tickets, rentals, and group lessons. Đạo and Đán didn’t want to take their lessons; therefore, I used them. I took three lessons on the same day. The instructors knew me. One of them took me on the green terrain and I was scared. Now it feels so easy.

Today I spent half a day skiing with Vương. Using a harness, I took him on the ski lift. The harness also allowed me to help him turn. He enjoyed the “magic seat” as well as skiing with me. It took us almost two hour to stand in line for the lift. It was super crowded.

After Vương didn’t want to ski anymore, I went alone on the blue terrain. The single line moved much faster. I went down three times and it was time to go home. I tried carving and fell on the green slope. I guess I was leaning too far to the side. I need more practice.

Last November, I received a misprinted copy of this little book. Although Oh No had provided me the PDF version, I didn’t read it until I received the corrected print copy. It’s a short book with lots of illustrations and funny explanations to give readers some insights into the world of type design. For type design students, the details and nuances of each letter will serve as an invaluable reference. For typographers, the structure of the letterforms will help them make better type selections. James Edmondson should continue with numbers, punctuations, and diacritics. Just make sure the copies printed correctly before sending them out.