Weeknotes 23:25

August 13, 2023

Week of August 6–12

Springer-Franklin Residence Hall where my son lives at Murray State. His room is the second window from the right on the second floor.

Moving my son back to Murray State

The big event of the week was moving my son back to Murray State. I took off the whole week (love that unlimited PTO policy of LGND). We packed up on Monday (the first year I didn’t take a picture of our packed van) and then pulled out late Tuesday morning to head up to Kentucky.

We had a nice sunny day of travel. I listened to Eric Meyer and Estelle Weyl talk about the 5th edition of their book, CSS: The Definitive Guide on the ShopTalk Show podcast. I also listened to some CDs my wife left in the car from her recent road trip to Nashville.

We pulled into Murray around 3:00 PM CDT. We checked into the hotel and then visited the storage unit I rented for the summer to add some boxes to our load in the van. Then we stopped at Culver’s (my new favorite fast food place) and I got a mushroom and Swiss butter burger to go.

We hung out at the hotel for the rest of the afternoon and then enjoyed dinner at Don Sol Mexican Grill before retiring back to the hotel for the night. We had a great conversation at dinner about what my son was looking forward to in the upcoming school year. We also gratefully reflected on what he had gained from his summer internship.

We were a little bit concerned about the forecast as thunderstorms were predicted to start around the time that we were slotted to move him into his residence hall. We were excited when the forecast had been updated in the morning predicting that the rain would come later in the day. But an hour later, the forecast was updated again for the rain to start sooner.

My son, Ryan, with a load of his stuff in a Walmart shopping cart. All of the big bins were checked out.

Armed with a tarp and a Walmart shopping cart, we were able to move him in over the course of two and a half hours. We managed to keep all of his stuff dry. I made several trips carrying items that were wrapped in garbage bags as my son waited his turn to use one of two elevators.

Everyone was in pretty good spirits despite the foul weather. It was a steady rain but never a torrential downpour. That came later after we had retrieved everything from the van and grabbed a late lunch. Slowly, my son’s room came back together to how it was three months ago when we were last here and packing it up.

We unpacked and waited out the rain to move in his refrigerator and shelving unit. About an hour later we got the break we were waiting for and we didn’t have to compete with anyone to use the elevator.

I finally got to the point where my exhaustion outweighed my desire to stay with him and help out. I was not looking forward to saying goodbye and it helped that we decided to meet up the next day before I left town. I gave him a big hug and left campus.

I stopped at Culver’s to get another mushroom and Swiss butter burger and a small turtle sundae. Then I retired to the hotel where I watched The Amazing Spiderman 2 and The Last Dance.

I met up with my son on Thursday morning and we looked around the bookstore and ate lunch at Chick-Fil-A at the Curris Center. After we said our last goodbyes, I took a walk around campus before heading to Nashville to visit my daughter. I spent time praying for my son and for God’s blessing on his studies this year.

Nashville

My daughter from behind her desk in her classroom at Strive Collegiate Academy. She is starting her second year of teaching at her first at this school.

One of the blessings I have is that I can visit both of my kids that live away from home on the same trip. Nashville is about halfway between Chattanooga and Murray. I spent the night in Nashville on the way back from Murray so that I could enjoy some time with my daughter.

I met her at her school and got a tour of her classroom. Being a visual person, I like being able to visit these places and then visualize them later when I am thinking about both of them. After visiting her school, we went to dinner at Chili’s. She caught me up on her day and her first week of school. I was encouraged by how much support she has at her new school. It makes a big difference in dealing with all the other things that come with middle school.

After dinner, I got to be the dad by helping her by changing out a burned-out headlight and helping her set up a new printer. We had a really good conversation and I enjoyed getting to connect with her on a deeper level than I have in a while. We also had some goofy moments like we had many times while she was growing up in our home. I am really glad that we got to spend some quality time together (my primary love language).

Articles I read

Taking time off this week afforded me more time to catch up on articles that I had saved in Pocket. Sitting around a hotel room in Murray the night before we moved in my son also gave me the space.

What I watched

What I listened to

Books I am reading

What I played

  • MLB The Show 23 (Rays) – I played two games on Sunday. I won the first one and lost the second one. I played about 6 innings of a game on Monday and decided to quit after being down 7-0. I was getting frustrated and decided it was best to turn it off.

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