Friday, July 23, 2021:
Sumas, Washington – Ferndale, Washington – Bellingham, Washington
Another day, another dollar. Oisin is very stressed about making rent for August. Originally he wanted to hit Gnome Dome at the end of July in Colorado, but the two suspensions experienced by fault of algorithms on Grubhub – his only dependable go-to income as a single parent, witnessed a loss of 15 days of income. This pretty much destroyed all hopes of the Colorado trip and making rent harder to obtain. Playing catch up and trying to keep it together … he’s doing what he can. They slept in a bit, then after making breakfast for the kiddo – Fruity pebbles, orange juice, milk, and fresh fruit from the local farms – strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries … meal complete. Organizing the warehouse, client work, then prepping to head into town for gig work.
Hoping for a priority package from his roomie in Colorado, it wasn’t yet at the post office. They did get a new Kindle cable so now Cian is able to charge up his kindle more reliably. The Cascadian summer heat of the mid-80s welcomed them for the day. Burgers grilled up on their patio for lunch, the duo was off on the road to Ferndale. They pit stopped at Starbucks in Ferndale to use up free points for a Venti Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino that is Oisin’s addiction. A little bit into a cup for Cian, the duo was off to the Old Settlers Picnic while awaiting orders/deliveries from Grubhub. The Ferndale Pioneer Village is quaint, but the picnic is not what he had imagined. Nice that it was free. On Monday he inquired if he could vend it last minute, and he could – but he thought it would have to be all period-based “old settlers” type merchandise, and he didn’t have enough in stock. Plus, his festival tent was in disrepair. So he emailed them he couldn’t due on Thursday afternoon. Figured he’d check it out first this year to contemplate for next year. He didn’t spy the vendors doing any business the few times they walked through but asked one how it was going, and she said really good. King Cian spied the blow-up alien doll he wanted that he saw at the Blaine 4th July fair, and so dad spotted him the extra delivery cut to get it. He danced and pranced with it throughout the fair. They watched a concert, but it was abhorrently country to dad’s ears, yet Cian liked the music and appears to be a fan of “country”. Dad bit his tongue not to influence the natural attraction to his son’s own tastes, although anything “country” is ear-splitting to Oisin. Within a half-hour, they were off to do a delivery. They had some busy times, then got a chance to pop into the fair again towards its tail end. They tried “rez dogs” for dinner – Indian fry bread wrapped hot dogs and raspberry lemonade. No word from Cian’s mom if she’ll be joining them on Saturday as she’s been quite ill since her return from Ireland.
Run time: 8 min, 0 sec.
Soundtrack: Concrete Fantasies by Rain Jewels
Day on Magisto, Youtube, or Vimeo.
They did deliveries until about 9:30 pm, struggling to meet their basic income for the day. That stressed dad out substantially as Fridays usually average around 30-40/hour, and this Friday it was about 17-18/hour. At least they had fun doing the Old Settler’s weekend in the interim and Cian had a blast. When in Bellingham, they pitstopped between deliveries at Bloedel Beach – Cian grabbed a swim, dad had to stay dry as he was doing deliveries. Cian had a blast swimming with his Alien. They headed home, passing through Lynden to try to pick up Doordash orders, but it was completely dead, and couldn’t even sign in. Lynden is such a beautiful quaint Americana town. They got home just around 10:15 pm, Cian playing with his blow-up Alien, and his Fortnight baller.
After Cian settled into sleep, Oisin watched the Netflix Original Blood Red Sky which he was impressed with. With insomnia, he continued online streaming onto Amazon prime watching its original film “Jolt“. Another good late-night attention keeper. Dad eventually passed out as financial stress caused much insomnia for him this date.
Run Time: 8 min, 32 sec.
Soundtrack: Brighton Break by BDBs.
Day on Magisto, Youtube, or Vimeo.
In the News: Friday is the end of the week for some, but not Oisin and Cian. It’s a daily thing. But intermingled within their gig work and web development, they got to experience the Old Settlers Picnic in Ferndale and catch up with news on NPR, Axios Denver, and the New York Times. Accordingly, “in the news” weather is warming up with threats of another heatwave – this time striking the Canadian/US border areas with highs near the ’90s and climbing through the week. In Colorado, it’s in the 90s with threats of afternoon storms, but the mountains experiencing the 70s. The Olympics began its opening ceremonies in Tokyo. Colorado is paying out to over 120 influencers on Instagram, TikTok, and other social media upwards of $1,000 to encourage people to get vaccinated. These influencers are doctors, teachers, Democratic strategists, restaurateurs, musicians, and mothers according to Axios thru Denver-based “Idea Marketing” with an $8.8 million contract lasting until September 30th. It was released that Northwest Arkansas is a new place to buy up real estate as its cost of living is 70% lower than the U.S.A’s top 5 cities. It’s been determined to be amongst the top 10 Best Places to Live in the United States. Vaccine mandates are back on the table with great controversy, but overall effective in saving lives. France has decided that people must show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test to eat at restaurants, use public transport, attend movies or events. They also will require the unvaccinated to pay for their own covid tests out of pocket. Accordingly, vaccination appointments apparently surged. Over 100,000 protested in a March against Macron’s policy. Mandates have been deemed not to be 100 percent effective, as some will receive exemptions, and forged vaccine records explode. As usual, breakthrough cases amongst the vaccinated are expected. Mandates however will reduce the spread and save lives, which is especially important since the Delta variant is surging in the United States. It’s creating quite a controversy as in the United States, a national mandate may be unconstitutional according to New York Times. It has also been reported that as the citizens of the U.S. have ditched the mask, drippy noses, coughs, and sneezes have returned at a heavy rate. Mississippi attempted again to urge the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs. Wade. Biden administration imposed new Cuban sanctions since the officials have been cracking down on protestors.
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