August 11
Fíli and Kíli found an old dirty and torn tent in the dumpster at the campground – and when they pulled it out and looked it over, they declared that it is in good enough condition to "rescue". So now they are planning on cleaning and fixing it up (with a lot of duct tape, I assume!) in order to make it useable again. They'll have to do most of the work in their back bedroom because of the heat, I think; but the tent really isn't all that large, so it shouldn't get in the way or anything. At any rate, it gives them something to do!
Boredom has been a bit of a problem lately, to be sure. You'd think that being in Florida in the summer would offer more opportunities for fun; but really, it is too hot and humid to do much of anything outside. So what are we supposed to do? We spend more "together" time inside the trailer. Unfortunately, though we packed a lot of outside toys before we left Connecticut, we didn't think we'd be needing as much inside entertainment as we do.
That means we're stuck playing games (Gimli is getting really good at chess!), making food that doesn't require heat (pickles!), watching movies on the PS3 (though most of our discs are scratched at this point, and the PS3 heats up the trailer even more), reading (the same books over and over), and making things with Play-Doh (I've gotten good at making little replica food items!). The younger kids tried to play hide-and-seek, but there aren't many paces to hide in here!
And, well, since he had little else to do, Thorin at least got the broken cupboard door fixed. Well, not fixed, really. It used to have a mirror on the front, and now it is plain plywood. It isn't pretty, but it works. He also tried to do something with the stubborn water heater, but that was not so easily taken care of. Not that cold showers bother us lately.
Gimli, for his part, is seldom bored. Since he can't brings his frogs in the trailer, if he sees even one fly in there he grabs two swatters and stalks around as "a dual-wielding mighty hunter of bugs"! And when all the insects are disposed of (except for Kili's moths), he celebrates a job well done with a snack, then he pulls out his iPad and plays whatever it is he has on there.
Oh, and Frodo got a bit upset when he got pinched on the finger by an ant today. But it was just a carpenter ant, and it was likely that it just nipped him because he'd just eaten cherries and his fingers were still covered in the juice!