Month: June 2013

Categories
Misc

On Getting Your Lawnmower Repaired

It’s probably been about 3 weeks since I mowed our lawn. Not for lack of trying mind you. I started a couple weeks ago when the mower completely flaked out on me, culminating in an inability to pull the starter cord. Unfortunately, not being a motor guy, it was beyond my abilities to heal, so I brought the mower to a repair shop.

That was a week-and-a-half ago.

Yesterday, I got the call and went to pick it up. The grass is probably 7 or eight inches long now. The recent weather has been absolutely perfect grass growing weather- 70’s with cool nights and soaking rains. We’re getting another soaking rain right now. Small woodland creatures can hide in my yard now without being noticed. Point being, I’ve been looking forward to getting the mowing done for a change and was relieved to finally have the mower back.

When I got it out of the car, I decided to experience the satisfaction of a smoothly running machine. I reached down for the starter cord handle and started to pull.

And was met with way too much resistance.

Startled, I released it and stupidly looked at the mower. Perhaps they had put some kind of safety thing on the mower. I lifted it up to check the blade, and then heard the guzzling noise. I peered around to the muffler area and gas was dripping out of the muffler. I set the mower back to rights and tried giving the starter cord another pull. Nothing. Couldn’t pull it.

So this morning, I returned the mower to the repair shop where I got the platitudinous “Sorry ’bout that.” When the clerk offered me the claim ticket, I told him “I’m not so sure I’ll want to claim it.” He laughed. I left.

Wiser.

Categories
Family

To The Bitter End

I get that we’re finally coming down to the final few weeks of school. In fact, I think we’re coming up on 2 weeks to go. Naturally, effort levels are starting to tail off a bit, even if the homework load is not.

We’ve fought the boy for most of the year where his writing assignments are concerned. His priority is getting them done. Our priority is trying to teach him some good habits now while getting him to do the work as well. Those habits include spelling, grammar and punctuation. The ability to write well about a subject comes with time, reading and practice.

Per his usual, tonight the boy just wanted to complete his homework, which involved writing 2 paragraphs about some reading he’d chosen. He needed to write a summary paragraph about the reading and then write a paragraph to answer one of five potential questions. He wasn’t sure how to proceed with answering the question, so I was helping him by asking him questions to get him thinking about what he needed to write.

Except the boy wasn’t trying. I’d ask him a question, he’d mumble a reply. I’d try another angle, he’d mumble another reply. I’d finally get him to answer a question, then he’d just sit there doing nothing. This went on for the better part of 30 minutes. It was getting close to his bed time.

Most importantly, I was getting frustrated. Mostly, at his gross lack of effort. So I started yelling.

He almost immediately teared up. I didn’t have, nor did I want to, yell for very long. I was mad at myself for yelling, but internally I was shrugging because what else could I have done? He simply wasn’t even trying to do the work well. I was trying harder than he was, and it wasn’t my homework!

We finally finished working through the assignment. Mostly because his effort level improved so dramatically. He’ll have to write a final draft in the morning, but the hard part is all done.

After he brushed his teeth, but before he went to bed, I pulled him aside and hugged him and said “Don’t make me yell at you anymore.”

He hugged me back, “I don’t like it when you yell at me.”

“I don’t like yelling at you,” I replied.

“I try to not make you yell at me, but I keep slipping up.” I didn’t answer him back.

In a couple more weeks, we’ll all get a break from homework. It will be welcome.

Categories
DIY Notweet Patio

The Weekly Patio Update

I’ve actually managed quite a bit of progress in the past week or so. I completed the excavation, over the course of the 3 hottest days no less. Additionally, all of the base stone has been filled and I’ve laid the first course of the wall. I’ve even started filling in behind the wall as well.

Worthy of note, I’ve added a catch basin to handle the our curtain drain. The original pipe posed a problem- the height of the pipe was going to interfere with the finished height of our patio. After speaking about it with a landscape guy, I basically had 3 choices: one, to cut and cap the pipe; two, to re-route the pipe; and three, change the height of the pipe using a catch basin.

The easiest was just to cut and cap the pipe. I also ruled it out almost immediately. Even though I’ve never seen water coming out of this pipe, I didn’t want to tempt fate. No, I wanted water to have some place to go. So, of the remaining two options, the catch basin was the simplest. The way it’s designed, I can even use a smaller pipe to make sure I don’t run into any problems with clearances.

If you’re wondering if I’m worried about the post on the far right, the answer is “a little”. I didn’t originally dig that close it it, but the dirt kept falling off. Luckily, with the wall going in now I’m less worried than I was since the back filling will shore things up.

As for wall features, it’s obvious this one is much longer but much shorter. Hmmm, that last sentence reads funny. What I mean is it won’t need to be as tall as the other wall, but it is much longer with the ‘S’-curve design. The height will gradually fade from about three-and-a-half feet at the house to about 18 inches at the other end. I’ll be following the same basic build process- build up the wall, then back fill with large stone and the three-quarter inch stone, cover with the landscape cloth and complete the back filling with sand and top soil.

One quick observation about this wall versus the other is I’ve been able to use larger stone more consistently on this first course. Looking at how the other wall came out, I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. On the one hand, the larger stone on the bottom theoretically makes the wall stronger. On the other, I think the randomness of rock size makes for a better overall look. That said, it’s early days for this wall. I seem to remember not knowing what to think of the first one and it ended up better than I’d hoped for. Perhaps the medium is the key and as long as I build it solidly, the appearance will take care of itself.

Categories
Misc

Unfortunately He Couldn’t Save the School from the Administrators

So a kid saves a fellow student from a bully and is then told he ought not to have done that by his elders. Rather, he should have informed the loafing teacher across the room that a) there was a fight in progress and b) the aggressor was wielding some sort of stab implement and things might get ugly. No word on what he should have done while the teacher was reporting the incident to the vice-principal. Also, no word on whether the teacher was disciplined or given a “stern lecture” about doing their job when monitoring students.

Categories
Misc

Red Wedding Reactions

Perusing the internet today, it was hard to miss the strong reactions to one of the most brutal moments in the Game of Thrones story. The thing of it is, I can’t really blame the viewers. It was just as shocking to read. I remember reading the scene twice because after the first time I felt like I’d misread it. Having verified it, I went back and read it a third time.

The thing was, reading the story I think Martin gives readers a sense that not everything will work out for Robb Stark. Really, in the books, the only thing he does well is win on the battlefield. Everything else he jumbles. There was even some foreshadowing in the dream sequence of Daenerys’ during her visit with the warlock.

Still, the scene is a jolt to the system. A testament to Martin’s storytelling capabilities I daresay.

For those that happen by here, I’ll say they shouldn’t abandon all hope yet. The story isn’t really about the Starks, and Martin starts running out of good guys for bad things to happen to. And bad things continue to happen, so who does that leave?

Categories
Family

A Little Too Hard on the Kids

Perhaps it was because I had dug out about 7 yards of dirt by hand, so I was tired and a bit edgy. Perhaps it was because temps hit around 90 yesterday while I was doing all that digging. Perhaps it was because the digging was particularly difficult since the earth I was digging in was a devilish mixture of clay, sand and rock. Perhaps it was because while all this was going on, the kids were climbing around the 2 massive dirt piles I’d built up, getting ridiculously dirty and having fun.

Perhaps it was a bit of all of the above.

I made the kids help me dig for a bit yesterday. I knew they would have difficulty doing it, but I made them do it anyway. When I first told them to start helping, they both probably thought it was one of those one-off threat-request parents make and never follow-up with.

But I did this time. If I’d cared to look, I might have seen the surprised look on their faces when I insisted they pick up shovels and start digging. “Hey,” I told myself, “I’m giving them the easiest part of the digging.”

So they struggled with it for about 5 minutes, while I continued to labor away. I glanced over and they were displaying all the classic signs of boredom: not doing what had been asked, drawing pictures in the dirt, sitting where they should have been digging and generally getting distracted by every little thing.

It annoyed me (see the first paragraph). I’d compelled asked them to help and they could barely do it for more than a few minutes. I’d been out there for several hours already. I made my displeasure with their efforts known.

They tried again to get something done, but they ran into difficulty quickly again and were clearly stalling and looking for an excuse to bolt.

I took a moment. I was sweating, hot, exhausted and not done. The work was difficult for me. What, exactly, was I proving making them do this? Sure, on the one hand they’d dug many a hole under the deck prior to all this work- but that was in the context of play. I wasn’t playing a game. At least, not the kind of game they were ready to participate in.

So what was my point making them do this work? Give them a chance to prove to themselves they could do it? Give them perspective so they’d appreciate the work I was doing? Was this a lesson worth spending my, severely depleted, energy on now?

What could only have been my more rational side convinced me this wasn’t the time or place. I was making them do work they weren’t capable of performing, in conditions they weren’t really ready for, for reasons I could barely articulate to myself. In reality, I figured, I would only make them hate working with me on big projects.

I finally relented and let them go back to playing. There was still a part of me that didn’t agree with the choice. That felt they needed to be made to do this. If not now, when? They need to learn how to be able to knuckle down and do work. If I don’t stick to my guns, they’ll always bail on projects that are too hard, or not fun.

True as those things might be, I slowly came to realize, it wasn’t going to happen on a too-hot Saturday afternoon under our deck.

Categories
Misc

An Udderly Ridiculous Post

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You know why this post is “udderly” ridiculous? Because that’s a BEEF cow! Not a milking cow! No BS. Literally- nothing on the road.

If you hit it with a car, do you stop and start grilling?

Where is a cow going on a Saturday morning? Greener pastures?

I could do this “for-heifer.”