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3:32 PM, Friday, August 13th, 2021:   Well, we officially handed in the paperwork for Independent Study. The unadulterated truth of the matter is that we're privileged. We can easily do independent study with the kids, still pay all of our bills, still have a happy homelife and simply wait a couple months until the vaccine is ready... at which point? We're off and running... because here's my feeling on all of this: we're all gonna get a variant of COVID at some point in the next few years: just make sure you're vaccinated with up-to-date boosters.   It's just that simple. With the vaccine first? Your body knows how to deal with it. Without it? Anything is possible. Yes, statistically a 7 year old is gonna breeze through it with or without a vaccine. But Cam doesn't breeze through the common cold. A common cold for him is 10+ of coughing all night. It's uncanny. He simply doesn't breathe like us and when that kid is out of breath? He can't walk. It's real, it's baseline asthma and clearly some undiagnosed shit (BECAUSE WE HAVEN'T TAKEN HIM TO THE DOCTOR for nearly two years.) and there is simply no reasonable reason to let them go to school when the first shot of their vaccine is probably 2 months away. What is 2 months after we've waited 17??? Yes, their fully vaccinated moment will most likely come right before the end of the year and that just sucks... however... we're fine at home. We really do play all the time and just laugh and giggle.   Like, here's what Vienna and I did yesterday in what is our new favorite VR game:     This sort of technology REALLY WORKS on your brain feeling like you're not confined. It's like an amusement park in your house.   The other good thing is that we have been honest with our kids every second. We absolutely told them they were going back to school for months and then when the situation changed we explained to them every step of the way what our thought process was. There was no "BUT YOU PROMISED!!!" because we're including them in the actual thought process of how we stay safe as a family. They know we DESPERATELY want them to go to school. We know that the idea that now THREE of their school years are going to be interrupted because of this virus is just awful... but the alternative is very serious.   Basically we've treated them like adults throughout all of this and in a bittersweet realization... they're kind of acting like it. Whenever I've had people over at the GolfKon bar, Cam has walked right up to them and said "ARE YOU VACCINATED" with a dead-eye look of outright incredulity. He takes it serious, he thinks about it often... and not one part of that is what a 7 year old should think about. So, I'm really fucking proud of him... but I'm also extremely heartbroken that real life hit these fuckers THIS hard at 6 and 7 last year and it will not let up the rest of their lives.   But this is the world. The kids are far more capable of adapting then we accept sometimes and there's tons of ways to keep them young at heart. Cookout VR on the Quest is one of the ways. And Cam is still too scared to play it because of the werewolf in it. So... he's still got some kid in him.   ;-)   Adam