Month: August 2009

Saturday was a long day.  We went to the mall to take care of eyeglasses for the Wife and then I had a trip to my alma mater for a retirement party for my former track coach.  The mall was sort of on the way, so we took separate cars to get there and out first stop was LensCrafters.

The kids were barely controllable.  The boy in particular was difficult.  Climbing under tables, competing for the same empty chair (when there were other empty chairs to steps away), running through the store dipping and dodging other patrons- these were the order of the moment.  Tensions began building quickly as a number of countermeasures were employed attempting to arrest the obnoxiousness.  Multiple trips into the main mall area and to the bathroom, as well as distraction techniques and threats of punishment provided only temporary respites.  The problem is that getting new eye glasses takes a long time and the kids patience level is not that long.  Not even close.

When things get busy around here, clearly something has to give and writing to the blog is one of them.  The irony is that when things are busy- there’s lots of potential material for blogging topics.  So now that I have a little time, I get to play catch-up from memory.  The flipside is perhaps the delay is a good thing.  It acts as a sort of filter where the impulse to write about every little thing gets dulled so that every little thing doesn’t end up enshrined on a webpage.

Friday was a busy day, it was the lad’s 3rd day of school, and the lass had an ice cream social at her soon to be school that night.  Personally, I had the excitement of a pending reunion of sorts along with a guaranteed Whale siting.  More on that in another post.

The bus showed up at about 10 to 12 to pick him up.  No tearful goodbyes, no running away.  He just got up on the bus and he was off to school.  No muss, no fuss.  I spent the rest of the afternoon with the lass.  We played Candyland, ran the dogs a little, played with dinosaurs, then went to the park.  When we came home, the Wife was already waiting for the bus.

When the bus finally did go by, the Wife laughed and said “I think he was sleeping!”  Sure enough, the bus pulled up, and the driver informed us that someone would have to wake him up- he was out like a light.  The Wife took care of it and to his credit, he got up and walked off the bus himself.  He wasn’t too happy about falling asleep but by the end of the day I think we’d convinced him it wasn’t something to be ashamed of.

After he unwound for a little we went into the pool and played there for awhile.  After dinner, he talked to both sets of Grandparents to tell them about his first day and the bus trip.  And that was the day.  Just 180 or so more to go…

And now the countdown starts for the lass, whom will start her pre-K next week.

This is it- the last day before school starts for the boy.  It’ll be punctuated tonight with a little teacher-to-be sponsored ice cream party at the school.  Not sure how we’ll spend it but the weather is nice right now.  It’s almost like a taunt- “Ha ha- this is what summer weather is really like, too bad your summer is over.”

The countdown starts…

Today the kids achieved another first.  I left a store before I was ready to because I couldn’t deal with their antics anymore.  Not exactly a first to brag about, but there it is.

I decided to stop in at a Bernie’s today to investigate new TV sets.  I went to look at the first few LCD’s, and the urchins laid down on the floor.  Minor annoyance, but manageable.  So I moved on to look at some other sets and the kids come tearing after me.  The daughter jumped in front of me and in the process almost trips a sales guy.  Little Miss Oblivious.  The salesman was good natured about it- “I’ve got big ones now but I remember…” sort of stuff.  In retrospect, it was only a matter of time from here.

The kids have one habit in particular that drives me crazy. It’s one of those kid things that I remember doing and only now can I appreciate the patience my parents must have practiced with me and my siblings. The worst part is that you are captive to them in this situation because you’re all in the car together. And they are bored.

And then the “potty” language starts.

Today was the kind of day where your sweat sweats. The kind of day where you walk around with a coat of grime and you deal with it because well- what else can you do?

Find some A/C, that’s what.  Of course, with the kids I also needed a way to keep them busy. Bored kids are a difficult beast to deal with. Leave them alone for too long and they will almost certainly get into trouble of some sort. Creativity knows no bounds. So it was off to the Children’s Museum- where there is plenty to keep them going for the afternoon. Most importantly, though, they have A/C.

We have a pellet stove to heat our basement. Of course, you need to fuel the stove with pellets. This year we purchased a couple of tons of pellets which, as of earlier today, were still sitting in our driveway. Not a good situation for the pellets, even though they are covered with a couple of layers of plastic. I know from past experience that the only way to keep the pellets dry is to keep them in something that keeps the water outside, and plastic wrap doesn’t do that.