Dispatch #44 (October 2026)

Rough start to the month: new school year started (Nev’s last before kindergarten 😭), but within the first two weeks we had a hospital visit (Nev scratched her eye in a way that presented as a potential brain injury) then both kids caught COVID. We recovered in time to make it down to Lake Norman for Labor Day, then celebrated my 44th birthday with a sitter (rare for us) and a night out at Red Phone Booth and Little Bull (delicious). Construction on our new deck started in earnest. The old, rotted deck is gone, and the concrete footings are in place. Framing work should start in the next few days. Exciting stuff! Throughout the process, I’ve been a bit too concerned with the price, but as the various crews have started showing up, it’s been cool to think that we’re not just exchanging some amount of money for an addition to our house, but instead providing work for all these different people with all these different skills, investing in our house and our community. At the end of the…