Dear Miles,

I write this nine days after your actual month birthday, which is possibly the latest I’ve ever been.  This time I have a good excuse: last Monday, a rare storm called a derecho ripped through Iowa.  It was like a tornado in its strength, but rather than moving in a rotating fashion, the winds were straight.  It was also much more wide-spread in its damage than a tornado, with almost all of Iowa and parts of surrounded states suffering the effects.  We’re still at Mubby and Skitter’s house in Ames, and the damage was serious here, but it was even worse in eastern Iowa.  The Cedar Rapids area bore the worst of it.  Our neighbors and contractor assure us that our house wasn’t damaged, though we did lose a big tree limb and the electrical line going to our house was torn off.  Here in Ames, we lost the ash tree I planted as a third-grader.  That made me sad, but luckily the house is fine, no one was hurt, and there was only minimal damage to the property.  You and Tobin did a great job helping Skitter clean up the tree detritus in the yard.

We got power back in Ames after a little over 72 hours, which was torturous enough in August in Iowa, but many of our friends back in Iowa City suffered longer.  We’re not sure if our street has power yet, and our house probably doesn’t due to the torn power line.  I’m glad we’re safe and comfortable here, and we’ll pour some out for the lost contents of the fridge and freezers when we get back.  I’m most sad to see my entire garlic crop go.  The last time I was in Iowa City, I trimmed it and put it all in our basement freezer, which is surely thawed and disgusting by now.  I hope I can rescue enough tomatoes from the garden to make some sauce for you.  Fortunately, we were on our last freezer container here in Ames, so we didn’t have to throw much out, and after we regained power I was able to make a big batch from Skitter’s crop.  I bet I’ll be able to make more to take home, too.  Since homemade tomato sauce is one of your major sources of nutrients, I really like to feed it to you as much as I can.

We still don’t have Internet service here, which is challenging for you, but having the power back at least means you can play Switch and WiiU.  You and your brothers have been doing a lot of that, and during the days without power, you did a lot of reading.  We all got a little off-schedule.  Time is blurry enough during these COVID days, but getting take-out on a days other than take-out Sunday was confusing, and your dad couldn’t do a lot of work without reliable Internet.  Skitter did a lot of cooking on the grill.  His biggest triumph was boiling water on the grill, which led to coffee for him and me, tea for your dad, and pasta for you.  The whole family even had grill-boiled pasta for dinner one night, and I think we all felt like we understood you a little better because of it.

Another result of the blurring of time was a delay in the weekly publication of the Clarke-Crall times, but you got that up yesterday.  I always get a kick out of reading your spin on the week’s events.  You have a sharp wit, and I legitimately look forward to seeing what you have to say.

The start of school has been delayed until September 8, which doesn’t seem to make a lot of difference to you since we’ll be doing the online option.  The last I heard, about 40% of families in our district have chosen that option, and pretty much all your friends are in that 40%.  I know you’re disappointed not to be able to go back to school, but if few of your friends would have been there anyway, it probably wouldn’t have been much fun.

It will be an interesting and unusual start to the school year.  I’m not optimistic that our community’s COVID-19 caseload will drop any time soon, since the university students are coming back to town.  Based on photographic evidence, many of them are not being even a little bit careful about wearing masks and social distancing, and they’re partying in big groups as if everything is normal.  I would have been pretty disappointed if the COVID pandemic had happened during my college years, because I did plenty of socializing in big groups too, but it’s so disheartening to see people ignoring the pleas of doctors and scientists.  I really feel for the professors and instructors who will have to share classroom space with them soon.

Your FilmScene animation camp was all-online. and you seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.  I think you missed the social side of it, especially playing Werewolf with your classmates during lunch break, but you still had a good time and did some creative work.  It wasn’t as collaborative as usual, but you had a houseful of interesting things to animate.  You made some innovative choices with stuffed animals and decorative turtles.  I hope it served as a good introduction to online learning, since you’re going to have to do a lot of that soon.  I’m really not too concerned about you; you’ve always been focused and self-motivated, and sitting in front of a screen all day is not something you consider a burden.  I hope you can continue to hang out, whether virtually or carefully in person, with your Bro Train friends and eventually go to school in a traditional way.  Seventh grade is such an important time for social development, and I thank you for keeping a mostly-good attitude as we make uncomfortable but necessary adjustments.

Your current favorites: Beavis & Butthead books from Uncle Tyler’s collection, ice cream breaks in the afternoon, Super Mario Brothers (the original, which I played as a kid too), Mario Maker, Chex Mix (which you made yesterday with only minimal guidance from Mubby), sleeping with your feet hanging off the bed, chatting online with the Bro Train when technology allows, and pasta.

This has been, perhaps, the weirdest week of the weirdest summer of the weirdest year.  I appreciate your patience, which is not bottomless but is still pretty good most of the time.  I appreciate your sense of humor and the improvements in your maturity and self-control.  You’re a good guy to have around.

Love,
Mom