Zoom!

Yeah. 2020. The year the world was taken over by COVID-19. Or, at least taken over by ... uh ... the idea of COVID-19. I have mixed feelings about the whole mess. How much of the danger is real? How much is exagerated? How many problems have been caused by the handling of this year's virus? Where are we headed? I don't know. I don't even have much of an opinion about it. I am happy to stay at home with my wife, connecting to others through technology. I do not connect with people very much anyway, and in fact, even before the pandemic was declared most of my connecting with people was done online. Granted, we did have to cancel our trip to see Raymond and fam due to the state of affairs. And we chose not to visit Rory and fam too. So some important connections have been disrupted. What to do? Mope? Sink into depression? No!!!! We Zoom! We have been connecting with our grandkids 6 mornings a week. We visit and I read. When our children were small I read aloud a lot to them. We still have most of the books. Now I am reading to the kiddos every day. It is fantastic! One of these days maybe I will make a list of the books we've read this summer.

Piece Of Cake

I was looking for something puzzle related and stumbled upon this video. Had to share. 

Thanking God for Past and Present

Today when I was splitting some firewood and bringing it to the porch it dawned on me that this must be "the last hole." When the boys were all home (before they grew up and moved away—far far away) we played a lot of frisbee golf in the front yard. Trees, rocks, bushes, the swing set, and the little ditch beside the porch—these were the holes. Over the years the course has changed somewhat. The rosemary grew over the rocks. The swingset is now on the south side of the house holding a bird feeder instead of swings. The big oak fell down one storm. We had the oak that was the last hole and the driveway pine tree cut down during the winter of 2019.

I brought some of the last hole oak to add to the fire and said a prayer of thanks. Thanks for all the fun times the four of us had together playing frisbee golf, and thanks for the firewood to warm the house on this cold spring day.

Today I also found by the shed an old flattened chewed up water bottle and gave thanks for the great fun Molly our dog was. She loved to grab a plastic water bottle and race back and forth across the hill with it, tossing it up and catching it as she went. And when she was close enough for me to make a move for it, it was a fun game of keep away that she always won. Such energy. Such enthusiasm.

Cubing With The CZ Kiddos

All three kiddos have joined in the cubing fun this summer. I remember when I taught Roark how to solve a cube and Roriana had fun exploring on her own with patterns. Here I am teaching 7-year old Annie how to solve the cube and Alex and David enjoy exploring patterns. Alex is also getting into solving a little as he has learned UFDG, which I will explain shortly. Even David can put a short scramble on the cube and get it back to solved.

I have made a page about our cubing and included it in the menu bar. Go to page.

Trees, Rocks, and a Park

We have been here a little over a week now. A couple days ago I left the house for the first time. The kiddos wanted to take me on a walk to the climbing tree.

Eventually we made our way to the rocks nearby.

After playing on the rocks we went back to the trees where we were greeted by a friendly little dog. We also ran around in the field and saw a fun tree.

Can you see the child in the tree in the picture above?

Can you see the child in the tree in the picture above?

Finally we walked to the park.

Bishop's Pumpkin Farm

We went to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm today. Met Lani and Lora and Summer and Zoey and Mason there. We had a fun day together. Dan and Alyce even showed up later and we gave them a tour.

Summer and Zoey enjoyed playing with my 2x2x2 cubes. Summer is good at getting one side a solid color.

L' F2 L D' B U' R F' L' F2 R U' R2 B' L2 U' L' U' L U' F' R' D' B' R' U2
Lenny	passed	short	cake	2	Vic
Oscar	didn't	always	cycle 13	grapes
Choose	any	1	please
cycle	Four	Hundred	3
U F' R' F2 L' D R D B2 U' L2 F' D L' F' U' L D' L F L' U2 B D F
Flip	Eats	Green	veggies	known	as
IO	peas
Steve	fries	eggs-x
Henry	eats-x	2	doughnuts	Lenny	stole
PRO clock

No. I did not attempt to solve two cubes with my eyes closed. Maybe someday, but not soon. Annie wanted to do a scramble and story with me after nap time but I didn't want to wait so had two going at once, but then she went shopping and I ended up doing both stories anyway. I don't think I solved the second one start to finish. I forgot corner 2, so when I opened my eyes I was one swap short of a complete solve.

The top one was one I tried earlier with a more complicated story and never got. This morning I nailed it. Sometimes commutators make it quicker and easier, like today. Sometimes I get really confused. I guess I should just use them when they are straightforward without any complicated setup moves.

Picking Up Speed

Annie helped me make the story for this solve. It didn't take long at all to memorize. Like a minute or so. Then the solve took 10.5 minutes. I used the Rubik's Cube this time. It is not as smooth as the Dreampark cube I got with carbon stickers.

D B' L2 U' B' D' L D' F' U L B U' F' L F U R U L' B' D' R' D' R'
Vic's	1	duck	squirts	on	frogs
4	2	pigs	in	an	instant
Steve	jumps	home	from
under	Vic's	giant	eggs

Back to Zero. Back to One. Back to Zero.

I messed up on my attempt to get 3 in a row. At the end I had 2 corners twisted. I think I messed up in the analysis stage. Anyway, I decided to just move on to a new scramble instead of trying and trying to get the solve on the one I messed up on.

Here is my new story. And I solved it on the first try.

F L' D B' R' U2 B U' F' L B' R D2 L' F R' B' R' U2 L
U	1	cookies	Fred-[W]
Doughnuts	4	you	Bob
H	2	H
JE1 edge 3-cycle
Twist A and B
Falling	4	Christ
Kevin	gives	praise-[R]

I was sitting upstairs with the door open. The kids were having fun downstairs making lots of noise.

I tried another scramble this evening. It seems to me I am still in the learning stages of this method and perhaps I should not worry about how many I get in a row. Just keep learning, honing, and having fun with it. On tonight's edges there was a 3-cycle, then 5 placed one-by-one, then another 3-cycle, then flip two. On the corners there were 4 one-by-one swaps and then twist 3.

On my first attempt I mixed up two letters, and didn't flip the right ones, and twisted the wrong way. It would help if I could tell clockwise from anti-clockwise! I think I will try it again before moving on. On my second try I corrected all of the mistakes of the first attempt, but left out one of the corner swaps. Doh!

[July 27] I'm not so sure about that. I am going to include the scramble and plan here in case I decide to go back to it.

U' L F D2 U R2 U' L' U' F' U L' R2 B' U2 B L' B' L U
Red down Blue front L2 then cycle with R U2 and E2
Food	gives	her	upset	stomach	diarrhea
L2 then cycle with R Di and Ei
Flip O and R
Forgive
Oh	Holy	Christ
123 anti

Tonight we had yogurt offered with our meal. And there were some left-over beans. David eats plain yogurt. He insisted on mixing beans in with his yogurt. He ate quite a few. I tried it. Not bad. We eat sour cream with refried beans. This wasn't that much different. :D

One Down. Again. Wait—Make That Two!

OK, I am back to 1 in a row. It happened with this scramble and story. You can see my stories are branching out into other things besides just food, and besides just three-word sentences.

D F' U L' B' U R2 F U' L' D2 L B U F' D B2 L F2 L U' B2 D' L' D'
Kevin	gets	lost	always	in	July	Bob
Vic	raises	praises	Flip D
David	cleans	underwear	Henry
Twist 1 2 3	anti

Time for a new scramble. I wonder if I could get two solves in one day. That would be a first.

By the way, Annie is getting to be quite the pattern master. Not as good as Roark yet of course as he has years of experience, but she is starting. And of course Roriana is quite the budding pattern master too. In fact she is the one who inspired me to show Annie patterns.

F2 D B2 D F2 D2 F' D R' B' D B' D L' R F' U B' L' R U2 B F2 D' L' R' D2 L2 U B'
Flip F and H
Kings	4	Yahweh	include	Hezekiah
David	reigned	before	Uzziah	entertained
Christ	died	with	sinners	Vic
But	1	understood

How about that? Two scrambles and solves with my eyes closed in one day. 

Commutator Solves are Much Faster!

6 minutes 20 seconds. Really less than that because I had to wake the iPhone and tap stop on the clock app. In this solve 2 of the edges started solved. 6 were solved with a couple commutators. And the other 4 with a quick easy double swap. Then 2 of the corners just needed twisted. The others were done with the one-by-one swapper. By the way, I did not mess up on this solve, but since I am not real comfortable with the commutator solves yet I practiced the edges on another cube before doing the whole thing.

F2 D2 L' D2 U' B' D B2 R' U2 F2 D U' B L F2 L D L' R' U2 L' F L' R2 U R2 D B L
Red to front	R2 Di M D R2 Di Mi D				Solves A and B
R then Blue up and Orange to front			R U Ri E R Ui Ri Ei		Solves D and G and R
L2 R2 B	M2 U2 M2 U2	Bi R2 L2			Solves I J K L
Flip I and J	Twist C and B
24 Indians-	value	life	eternal

David just solved the white cross with his eyes closed on the bandage kit cube and announced that he was doing so. :D

It has been a cold stormy July 24. I wish I could bring this weather home with me to California! 

Fun Times

I brought a Fire, a Flip, and an iPhone with me on this trip. And a new bigger Fire to Raymond. He gave me one of his old ones. I will probably leave it here as I don't really need two, but am enjoying it for now. I have loaded some kid stuff on it that all three children enjoy. This morning Annie had a turn on it then Alex and David were enjoying it together.

The kids have some really cool magnet toys that they can build and design with. I made a wheel this morning. It is a fun toy.





Here they are enjoying music on Grammy's iPad.


During nap time I went out back to see if I could solve the Cube with my eyes closed. This is the view of the yard from the comfy camp chair I was sitting in.


The cube started like this.

And ended like this.

And it was my first attempt on this scramble. It involved the one-by-one swapper on the edges, finishing the edges up with a 3-cycle. Then the one-by-one swapper was used to do all of the corners. I didn't have any trouble remembering the edges, but when I got to the corners my mind went blank. It took a bit of just sitting there with my eyes closed thinking about it to remember how the corners started. Then once I had the first sentence done, I had trouble remembering the second one. But I finally did and it was great to mentally work through it and get it solved on my first try.

David, Daddy and Papa Go Out

We had a nice trip to the mall. One of the stores is Globus, and that is the family name for the whole place.


When we got there I saw some birds in the parking lot that caught my attention. A little research reveal they were Rooks.



First stop, a little car ride. Of all the things David rode, I think this was his favorite.


It definitely had the most to it.

Next stop the little train.



There was a big locomotive in Sparky.





Going into the tunnel of the locomotive.






There was a display in Sparky for Rubik's Cube Brand puzzles, including keychains, 2x2x2, 3x3x3, 4x4x4, Magics, Snakes, and some electronicky thing. There was a QJ Skewb Ultimate there too. Raymond says the cost is around $7. Wow! I doubt I could find a price that good online. I looked a little and this was by far the best price and available here and now. I have one at home and I think it is too complex for the kiddos otherwise I would have jumped at the chance to get it.


Life is like QJ Magic Cube—
Made in China
???
no no no. Lots but not all.

Life is like QJ Magic Cube—
Choking Hazard!
???
no no no. That is not what it means.

After Sparky we went back to the train. Notice the guy in the background. He did not look like he was enjoying life at all.

One more ride before dinner.


The juice seemed to be the highlight of the day! He relished every last drop.


And of course the special day out would not have been complete without a new toy.