2025 - How it's going thus far

Father's Day Gift from my family

 
Well, my writing has not been very consistent since I thought I might get back into it last year. Whelp, looking back, I have been consistently silent, so there is that! So, while I wait for my student to get online for an English lesson, I find time on my hands and no excuses. So let's write something!

What excuses you might be thinking? Housework? Well, not really. I tend to spend most of my spare time doing my WORDLE and Duolingo. I have not one language I am currently studying, but four. And I am lousy at all of them. Spanish is the one I need the most, so I try to get at least one or two lessons a week. Japanese I am the best at, so I do that one everyday to maintain my streak. French is the third, and I am OK at that. Korean, that is the one kicking my butt each time I try. To paraphrase Dave Barry, the best way to learn Korean is to be born in Korea. 

Well, no more excuses. It's August 6th and a lot has changed since I last wrote. We have a new administration that is constantly making my job harder. We still have a little less than 3.5 years, so maybe it gets better? MAYBE? It would be nice if we could get both parents to be able to WFH some days each week. We had to make a huge change to our daily life when Nohora had to start going back to the office five days a week. Luckily the boys are older and can be at home alone for a couple of hours, but it's been a rough transition. Something we didn't each have before COVID now seems less like a luxury, but more of a necessity. Sadly. this is how we make a living, working for the federal government, so we will keep doing the best we can. I hope it changes back to a more flexible schedule, and I also hope we don't have to wait 3.5 years. 

This year the boys are doing a lot of sports. Baseball for Sam, soccer for Logan. Logan finished his first year of travel soccer, and Sam leveled up and has been playing with the 15U league (as the only 12 year-old). They are both much more talented at sports than their father, but their mother played collegiate basketball, so they have some time before they catch her. 

We have been saving our dimes due to the uncertainty of our employment, but still managed to get in the car and drive to Canada this past April We drove all the way to Québec City, Québec, Canada. We visited Niagara Falls and Philadelphia as well. Fun spring-break trip. We still have a trip to OBX and Bogota this year, so the traveling isn't done yet. 

That's enough of an update. My student didn't show, so I am heading to bed. 

The Saffles Do Japan

Saffles Went To Japan - Summer 2024

A shrine in Kyoto near our hotel

 

We decided that Japan would be our destination for summer 2024 about a week after we got back from Hawaii in 2023. Being able to fly that long, the reasoning went, we can handle just about anything. And we did! Next might be New Zealand and then the Mars. 

Japan was exciting, wild, but more than anything, HOT. It was so hot. Like, 100 degrees most days, hot. Like the main news story each day on local Tokyo TV was how many people had to go to the hospital for heat related issues, hot. Most of our pictures we are drinking something cool, sweating, fanning, or doing all three. 

Nohora and two Canadian ladies we ran into more than once in Kyoto. 

The kids loved Japan. When asking them four months after the fact, the hotels and Anime was their highlights. And seeing Godzilla pop-up everywhere. We stayed for the most part in Tokyo, though we did take two days in Kyoto. 

"Peek-a-boo!"

For me, it was the chance to get back to a country that is near and dear to my heart, after having lived there for two years as an English teacher. Pre-digital cameras, I only had the old click-and-wind disposable options. I didn't even own a proper SLR. In two years, I took about 700 photos in all. I think between the four of us this summer, we took 700 pictures each day!

Tokyo Disney Sea

Kyoto was fun, but I think the kids had the most fun at Tokyo Disney Land. Specifically, Tokyo Disney Sea. We had never been to one of the Disney theme parks and this one was nice. Also very affordable. I think all together, the day for the four of us to visit with food and souvenirs was under $400. Not bad at all. Sure, you need to fly half-way around the world to get here, but if you were already here? It's a bargain!

the family tried to beat the heat with shaved ice!

All in all it was a great trip, even with the heat and super long travel days to get there and back. We will go again, but maybe not for a few years. We have more adventures and more countries we have yet to travel to on our list! 

I did a thing on Substack

What would it be like to start writing again after 24 years? by Michael Scott Saffle

Likely terribly frightening and exhilarating at the same time.

Read on Substack

Hawaii is all that and more

 
The family went to Hawaii last year for our big summer trip. And it was epic! I have more photos here, but photos of course do not do this state justice. This might be the least surprising thing you have read, but I always thought the cost of going, the time in the plane, all that, would not be worth it. Whelp, I was dead wrong.

Highlights of the trip, the weather, the beaches, and the people. Interestingly, most of those we met who lived on the islands, we not Hawaiians or folks born in the state. 

Most of them were transplants who came to Hawaii for either work (military) or vacation and just kinda stayed there. I was worried we would lose Nohora! There is that worry in the back of your head that tourists are making life on the island worse for those who live there, but most of what we saw is not that black and white. Sure, tourists are an issue. We are loud, we buy up property and drive up home prices and then don't even live in the houses for most of the year, we drink all the fresh water, things like that. On the other side of that coin, tourism is their number one way the island makes money. ABC stores alone got like $1,000 from us while we were there. 

The big fire on Maui happened less than a month after we left. While we were there a fire started next to our hotel. The wind is amazing and the smallest flame can spread in no-time. We were heartbroken but not shocked. 

Well, not that you needed someone to tell you this, but go to Hawaii. Don't worry about the cost, it's likely the same as going to Disney World or something like that. Just less standing in line and more laying on a beach chair and sipping on Mai Tais. 

Back to the Grind - Commuting post-COVID

Heading back to the office after a nice 3-4 month break. We were moving locations within D.C. and we were able to work from home 100% since Halloween but Valentine's Day week we had to go back. Two days a week isn't bad, but I rather come in once or twice a month, if I am honest. I don't dislike being in the office. I actually love the office. I enjoy interacting with my co-workers, collaborating and all the fun things about being in the city. I don't like the three hours I lose to the commute. I don't love missing my kids get on and off the bus. I don't love getting up at 5:30 in the morning to make my bus.

I do get sweet pictures like this one when I am walking in the early hours of the morning. I have a whole bunch of these I should make a coffee table book out of. 

Colombia 2021

We got our butts back to Colombia for the first time in over two years. You can check out some of our photos here. We are already heading back this summer. Maybe I will have a better camera? 

What Makes a Great Jingle?

What Makes a Great Jingle?

Fukushima 2001