Woo hoo! That’s a good one! Just because I’m not going to use this post to whine doesn’t mean I’ve got no complaints. I promise you though – I won’t go there today. Today I want to cheer myself up as much as anything. I do this with full knowledge of the consequences: this will be a boring post. Ask the news director at your local television station. Misery, desperation and destruction sells! You show me a local news program that leads with a story about a local kid’s puppy finding his way home to Kansas, after being dog-napped in [...]
Adam
This one’s gonna be trouble
I know. It’s hard to believe for some of you, but Adam does get into trouble. This evening I had to take Adam’s TV privileges away. That’s what we parents like to say. I had to take the little devil’s TV. He had it coming and I had to deliver. Parents are like the post office that way. Neither tears nor sympathy nor full throttle tantrum shall keep us from our appointed role. Saying I “had to do it,” is anesthesia for the conscience. I take that back. Saying is not believing. You have to believe it. Your sanity depends [...]
Firsts
Today is the first day of school. Adam and Beth got out the uniforms this morning for the first time in almost three months, and started a new chapter in their lives. For Adam, it’s first grade. These days the jump from kindergarten to first grade isn’t much different from first to second. The era of standardized testing and school “accountability” has leached most of the fun from learning, as schools standardize curriculums, and reduce every moment between bells to drill English and math into childrens’ heads with the subtlety of a jack-hammer. It’s why Adam is in private school, [...]
That girl
I was working out at the Y this evening and Adam was spending the time in the play room. It’s a really big room. I thought you should know that, I don’t know why. I went to pick him up afterwards and he came storming out breathless, exclaiming “Man! There was this girl in there who was a beast and she was chasing me like I was her favorite food!” I laughed. He didn’t seem injured in any way, either mentally or physically, so I think it was defensible. Adam didn’t didn’t share my view on the subject.
Life and cream soda
My Lightning lost game seven to the team of my youth. I’d like to introduce Chara’s long stick to his large intestine as much as the next Lightning fan, because Florida is my home now. When I say I’m going home, I’m always referring to Dunedin, not Boston or Billerica. It took a long time for this place to become home. We moved from a neighborhood of young families and friends to a less than half developed, walled in compound in a remote corner of God’s waiting room. (In case you were wondering, compound is a term of affection, referring [...]
Plans change
Seventeen years ago today, on another Saturday afternoon, Cheryl and I got married. Unfortunately, I got sick the night after our wedding and we spent our honeymoon in the ER. I spent it doing unmentionable things with the contents of my stomach. Today, all these years later, we spent the day in a familiar spot – a hospital – this time with Adam as he had his ailing appendix out. I’d say the day is cursed, but I’d be exaggerating. Me? Exaggerate? I know! We’ve had many wonderful years in between, and we have no reason to believe we won’t [...]
I’ve got Santa on my mind
First of all I want to say, with all the humility and grace I can muster, we are WAY cooler than you are. We got a box filled with A TON of chocolate from Germany today. – Insert insane jealousy here – Sorry, I had to get that out of my system. I’ve got the mother of all sugar highs going. The kids are only sleeping because they rocketed right past sugar high to sugar coma. The issue of Santa came up today, or this evening I should say. Today I was embroiled in the mother of all court days. [...]
Blocked
I can’t imagine writing a book. I read authors’ blogs, both published and not. I see the frustrations and the rewards. I look at myself and I think, “Whoa, that is so not me.” There are days when I don’t have the patience to finish a single blog post. I’ve been tinkering with a post for a few weeks now and I’m not sure I’ll ever finish. It’s only a few scattered lines looking back at me from an unassuming text editor, but it fills me with dread. It wouldn’t bother me if I didn’t want to finish this one. [...]
The kids
What can I say? Both my kids continue their run of academic stardom. It feels like a source of (partial) absolution for my personal failings, seeing my DNA has some value. Beth continues to excel, outpacing all the other kids in her class. I just wish it brought her peace. While it was an asset when she was the oldest kid last year (her small school has mixed grade classrooms), there’s a different dynamic being the youngest. She still finishes before everyone else, and she still wants to help the other students who are having trouble. However, unlike the younger [...]
