Mike Befeler's Blog, page 22

End of Summer

As the end of summer approaches, I have mixed emotions. I’ve enjoyed the many summer activities with our 6-year-old grandson, but now anticipate hearing about his experiences in first grade, which begins Aug. 31. This was supposed to be the summer to make significant gains against the pandemic, but unfortunately that was not to be. Still, I look forward to fall as things cool off, and hopefully more people will get vaccinated to protect everyone.

Author Presentations

After a long hiatus from giving in-person author presentations, I now have two speeches scheduled. I enjoy speaking to organizations such as Rotary, Kiwanis, Optimist as well as book clubs and other groups seeking speakers. Over the course of my writing career, I’ve come up with a new speech each time a book has been published. Since I only published one book during the pandemic, my current talk is titled “Lessons Learned During the Pandemic.” It features the variety of experiences both positive and negative I had over the last two years.

Relying on Electronic Devices

If nothing else, the pandemic demonstrated our reliance on electronic devices. I went from not knowing what Zoom was to using it every weekday as my grandson’s Zoom assistant for kindergarten. As we isolated and stayed home, more communications went electronic rather than in person. In our household, we also had a battle over the last six months to get our streaming service working. We spent many hours trying to diagnose streaming problems between our Internet provider, the TV, Roku, electronic connections in our house and phases of the moon. It would work, then die, then work for a while, then die again. Finally, the combination of our two sons and one grandson resolved the problem for us. It has been working for almost a month now Along the way my laptop started acting up, so I replaced it. My smartphone has a cracked screen, a battery that requires constant recharging and often thinks it’s in Gerlach, Nevada, instead of Lakewood, California. All part of the wonderful world of electronic devices.

Reading Patterns

Have your reading patterns changed over the years? For me, I read mainly thrillers for many years. Once I got hooked on writing at the age of 56, I began reading more mysteries because that was the genre I became interested in writing. Now I am going through a non-fiction phase. Although I’ve written one non-fiction book (the biography of a WWII veteran), my other 17 published books have been fiction. The book I most recently finished reading is Sapiens, A Brief History of Mankind by Yuval Noah Harari. I highly recommend it as an insightful analysis of the history of humans, which also poses interesting questions about our future.

Ways to Read Books

I’ve always enjoyed having a print book in my hands to read. I’ll occasionally read in e-book format, but since I’m on devices enough, I still prefer print editions. Back when I was driving by myself a great deal, I always listened to an audio book. Lately, I haven’t been driving by myself much, mainly taking my wife and grandson places so this habit has fallen away. How do you prefer to read books?

Family Gathering

For the first time in over 2 years, we got together with all of our grandkids. We hadn’t seen 2 of them in that period of time, and they had grown like weeds. We also had a chance to go to the beach, the Long Beach aquarium, La Brea tar pits, many good restaurants, parks and playgrounds.

T-Ball

Our grandson has started playing T-Ball. For those of you not familiar with T-Ball, it’s the introduction to baseball. The ball is hit off a tee (an adjustable post). Practice is twice a week with a game on Saturday. In the games, score is not kept, and the kids play for an hour. Each team bats all its players and then the other team is up. This continues to rotate until the hour is up. At the first game last Saturday, each side got to hit twice. It’s fun to watch the kids learn the basic skills of fielding, throwing and hitting. Last Saturday, when a ball was hit, the fielders swarmed toward the ball and sometimes jumped on each other. There is a lot to learn about fielding a ball and throwing it to first base. It’s a great way to start learning a new sport.

End of a School Year

This has been quite a kindergarten school year for our grandson and for me. We started out in September with Zoom school. I was his Zoom assistant and helped keep the computer running and assisted with craft projects. All I can say is that his teacher did an amazing job in preparation, engaging 14 squirming kids and keeping her sense of humor. In April in-person school opened up to the joy of teachers, students and parents. We had one glitch, when there was a COVID case in our grandson’s class and we had to switch back to Zoom school for a week, but other than that it went well. He made new friends and came running out of school each day when I picked him up with a smile on his face as he and his buddies chased each other around the grass in front of the school. I know some parents worried that Zoom school deprived the kids of socialization and there is truth in that, but I think kindergarteners suffered less than older students because they hadn’t experienced in-person elementary school before. Our grandson received a good start with kindergarten supplemented by two afternoons a week in an extension of his preschool program and my wife, an ex-teacher, doing workbooks with him every day. On to first grade.

Summer Activities

Compared to last summer, we have more activities planned this year. After not having seen our son and grandsons from Iowa for over a year, we look forward to a visit from them later this month with trips to the beach. Our 5-year-old grandson is participating in sports programs and having play dates with friends for the first time in over a year. My wife and I have no plans to travel this summer but expect to do that next summer.

Back to Normal — Sort Of

With the COVID infection rates declining, more things are opening up. Our grandson has been enjoying in-person kindergarten and will be starting T-ball this week. Last week, my wife and I went out for our first restaurant dinner in over a year. All of our kids and grandkids except for the 5-year-old have been vaccinated. I feel comfortable taking walks without a mask and have to remind myself to take my mask when going to locations that require masks. Progress.