Holiday number two of the Coronavirus era has come and gone. Memorial Day weekend was especially strange here in Indianapolis since there was no 500 mile race to dominate local events. The race has been pushed back to August, for now. But the month of May is the biggest month of the year in Indy, and the last three weeks have felt extra empty without all the race prep and coverage. Even as someone who is not a race enthusiast, my nearly two decades here has made the rhythms of May feel like an essential part of the beginning of summer.

It would have been a fine race day, too. Warm, humid, pop-up storms on the radar but which never threatened Speedway.


We spent much of the weekend in the pool. It has been warm enough so that the heater stays off and the water remains at the perfect temperature. A few friends of the girls rolled in and out over the past few days.

We also hosted a family gathering Saturday, which also served as a fourth birthday party for one of the nephews. We did get storms that afternoon, and had to rush everyone out of the pool and gather all our toys before the rains hit. Fortunately the boys all got to swim for an hour or so before they had to get out.


C and L are officially done with school for the year. I have to admit I wasn’t sure what day was their final day. There was a virtual field day built into the schedule, assignments for the last week were kind of sparse to begin with, and I think we had all checked out long before whatever the actual last day was. I would mock my parenting but I think most of us are in the same boat: let’s just get this year over with and, hopefully, find some normalcy in the fall.

We did get confirmation that Cathedral plans on beginning classes on time and in person in August. I would imagine days will not be the same as they were in early March, but the school has not shared any details about what protections/restrictions/requirements will be in place. M was excited to hear that she will be back on campus in three months, though.


We’ve had a mostly benign but annoying development over the past month at our house. Right above L’s room, where several sections of the roof come together, there are two small sheltered spaces. With the way that the roof falls, while they are outside our attic space, they are also above the ceiling of L’s room. Each of those spaces have become home to nests. One of them is full of baby birds. These birds wake up at about 5:30 every morning, squawking for their breakfast and rattling around in that space. L is an early riser, but 5:30 is a little early even for her. Worse, with the heat of the past week, we’re getting some odor into her room. A nest full of growing, shitting and pissing birds does not smell good.

The big issue is that the nests are beyond the reach of my extension ladder. There is a secondary roof about 10 feet up that, if I had the right equipment, I could get up to and place another ladder on to get at them. But I’m not about to hoist one ladder up another and then hope it remains in place while I fight off momma bird to stick my hand in and yank out the nest.

So looks like I’ll be having some critter control service out soon to both eliminate the nests and seal off those openings to avoid future issues.

We’ve also had a nest right outside our bedroom for over a year. It is wedged in between the gutter downspout and the siding, and actually bothers M more than us because of how her room and our room are positioned. We’ve had three sets of baby birds in it over the past year. I may go on a nest jihad and remove it once its babies have flown away.

Throw in some rabbits, lots of squirrels, a pair of ducks, bluejays, sparrows, robins, grackles, various finches, and as many as 20 geese at one time, and our property has quite the wildlife presence!