Day One Hundred Fifty-Two

Phipps has absolutely taken the lead in the contest to win over the girls. They both REALLY like spending a few hours wandering around there, which works out well as Phipps continues to do a great job of ensuring visitor and employee safety.

Frankly, they've always liked Phipps. But, I strongly suspect that in the past, it had as much to do with the other things we did while we were there as it did with Phipps itself. For years, we've had a little Oakland routine - Phipps, Carnegie Library, Waffallonia, and Dippy. Sadly, Wafflallonia left us a year or so ago, but we managed to make do with the remaining fun stops.

And then came COVID.

The library was one of our last stops before quarantine, and HOOBOY do the girls miss it. A trip to Phipps means a trip to stare at the not-open library. For what it's worth, the books are the cherry on top of the library. The girls are there for the actual building, the atmosphere, and the sense of wonder. Walking through the doors of the Carnegie Library is walking through the doors of possibility. Will you end up finding a compelling mystery? A romantic love story? A wonderful adventure? Anything could happen.

They miss it. A lot.

We all miss Waffalonia. I know there is a location on Murray Ave, but the Oakland one had a very special place in our hearts. It was part of the whole big adventure. We've since decided bubble tea from Fuku will help fill that void, but it's not the same.

And then there is Dippy. We have been to Oakland twice since COVID started and not visited Dippy because could we not touch stuff, Mila? I knew she couldn't keep her hands to herself. Besides, it's just a giant dinosaur statue. It's not THAT great.

Mila hugged Dippy. It looked like something out of a sappy Hallmark movie. She ran to him in slow motion, with her arms held wide open. She gave him the biggest hug ever as a grin spread across her mask-covered face. And then she ran a few laps around him before settling in for more dinosaur hugs.

Sooo apparently I was right and Mila can't keep her hands to herself, but also I probably need to let her see her favorite giant dinosaur more often because that sort of reunion is pretty darn crazy. Who would have guessed that a global pandemic would make Mila miss a statue more than anything?

Day One Hundred Fifty-One

Is "2020" a swear word yet? Because it seems like it should be a swear word by now. It's waaaay worse than any previous swear words, too. It basically means, "Everything is stupid and then some."

So stupid.

I mentioned in passing that the pond has returned to being a source of much aggravation. AND HOW. Let's rewind and go through all the ways 2020 has 2020'd this situation, shall we?

The pond has leaked for a few years. It was absolutely my fault and very fixable, but I never seemed to find time to fix it. There was a seam from when I decided to make it bigger, and I just never got that seam all sealed up correctly. And then came this year and I was all MOAR POND. I wanted to make it even bigger and fix a few basic design flaws (like that there wasn't a good place for pond plants). The easiest way from point A to point B was to put in a whole new liner after digging out the new shape.

So we did that.

And let me tell you, that is an unpleasant project. Ten years of settling and muck and just general existing left the pond in a state of gross and cleaning it out was muy unpleasant. Still, it got done. Thirty or so fish somehow survived existing in big plastic tubs for a day, plants got put where i wanted them, and all was good.

For like a day.

The first disaster to fall upon the pond was a mass die-off. I have no idea what happened, but after a week of being Kool and the Gang in the bigger better pond, we lost all but two koi overnight. We're talking about very big fish, two of which were at least ten years old. The wild thing was that the comets (aka goldfish) were all fine. Whether bigger or smaller than some of the koi, they survived. Only the koi died.

Except for two of them. There are two hideous black koi that were born in the pond and have refused to make themselves scarce. They are so ugly and I really don't like them, but of course they survived. OF COURSE.

Whatever. Some fish died. The wrong ones didn't. I lost sleep over it, but life did go on for the rest of us.

And then it started. The damn comets. They are apparently REAL happy with their bigger space and possibly with the fact that the koi are gone? Maybe they murdered them? I DON'T KNOW. All I know is that the comets have been spawning every damn day for over a week. There are THOUSANDS of baby fish in the pond. Tons of them will die off no matter what I do, but still. We went from being at capacity, to not being at capacity, to AWWW CRAP instantly.

It won't last. AND THAT IS THE PART THAT REALLY PISSES ME OFF.

The pond is leaking. The brand new, fully replaced liner is apparently defective. The dumb thing gets holes in it if you look at it wrong. I'm only barely exaggerating. The water level falls about 4 inches every 24 hours, which is A LOT. It takes over half an hour to fill it back up with the hose on high. We've patched probably five holes already and there are obviously still more and ... I'm going to have to replace the liner again. Which means I'm going to have to catch however many babies I can catch. And I have to move all of the dumb rocks again. And ... and ... and. SO MUCH WORK.

Basically, 2020 has handed me an awful project, a bunch of dead fish, and a pond that leaks like a sieve. Oh, and there's that whole pandemic thing.

2020 is stupid.

Day One Hundred Fifty