Things, Stuff & Such

(l-r)Scott, Me, Aaron

I found some old floppy disks with pictures from 1999-2000.  It’s nice to come across this stuff and remember.

Last night I got a call from Aaron’s mother telling me she was on her way to the hospital with Aaron.  From her tone I knew it wasn’t a life threatening emergency but still, the heart races at those words.  Aaron had called his mother asking her to come get him because he couldn’t walk.  He had tried to jump some stairs on his skateboard and landed on the side of his foot.  He said he heard a ’pop’ and that it hurt very badly. 

I talked to Aaron on the ride to the hospital and he was quite calm.  I was proud of him.  It didn’t seem that he broke anything.  I asked if his foot was swollen which is a sign of a sprain.  He said it was a little.

I talked to them a couple more times during the almost two hour wait at the emergency room.  Syria said Aaron’s cell phone was ringing like crazy with friends calling to find out how he was. 

When they were done Syria called me to let me know what had happened.  The doctor said he ended up spraining it on both sides.  Today he put up a fuss with his mother about using crutches in school but ultimately lost.  I figure once he’s in school he’s gonna dig the attention from his classmates.

Today is Scott’s 14th birthday.  I called him on my way to work this morning to wish him a happy birthday before he left for school.  I can’t wait to get up there next week.  One week from today is Aaron’s birthday and he is turning 13. 

Today is also my brother’s birthday.  He is 34 today.  His birthday sort of got hijacked when Scott was born.  I will have to call him this evening.

Thats all I have for now.  I will have more about the boys’ birthdays when I get back from MO.

A couple of days ago I got a $1 bill as change for my lunch at the Court House that had a www.wheresgeorge.com stamp on it.  Actually, it had the stamp on both sides, plus a different stamp from another website: www.TrackMyCash.com. This is at least the second time I have come across a ”Where’s George” bill.  I logged in to my account and added the bill.  You can see the progress of this specific bill here.  The bill originated in New Kensington, PA but the person who entered the bill before me was also in Naples.  It is fun to see the path of currency as it is passed along in the normal course of business. 

Last weekend the boys’ mother painted their bedroom.  While furniture and stuff was moved out of the way their cat knocked a birdcage off a dresser and on to their computer, spilling the birds water into the case.  Now the computer is dead. 

I tried a little troubleshooting with Scott over the phone but could not get it back up.  I will bring a power supply with me when I go at the end of the month to see if that is all that’s blown.  I have a feeling it is the board but, you don’t know until you try.

I talked to the boys over the weekend.  We talked about their birthday party when I visit at the end of the month.  The plan is a bowling party with a group of friends.  Scott and Aaron are each inviting four or five friends.  When I talked to Aaron he mentioned he was inviting Ricki, the girl he went to the school dance ‘with’. 

“Don’t embarass me.” he said to me.  That made me a little mad at first.  I did not say that to him though.  I wasn’t sure if he was joking with me or not.  He was in a happily-exited-fast-talking-high-energy mood so I assumed it was more that than anything.

“Hey, I’m on your side.  I won’t embarass you,” I said. 

The last few times we have talked he has mentioned that he was either expecting to recieve or planning to make a call to Ricki.  It is cute.

To a point.

He has not used the word ‘girlfriend’ yet.  I think he’s to young for that.  Well, I know he is.  His mother thinks it is all very innocent and maybe she is right.

Still to young to be this concerened with girls

Finally, some one has taken the time to codify an ‘official’ set of rules for Shotgun.  The days of “You can’t do that!” or “That’s not fair!” are over.  No more arbitrating disputes… just refer them to the official rules!

It’s a fun little site that has the theory, history and rules of shotgun.  They also sell a pocket reference guide to keep in your glove box or give as a gift.  At $5.95 with free shipping it’s not a bag gag gift for your teen or his friends.  I considered getting one for my car.  We’ve had shotgun arguments that last way past what I would consider an understandable amount of time.  Plus, who ever felt they were wronged or cheated at the last shotgun call will invariably be extra diligent in his next shotgun attempt.

When the boys were little it was a non-issue, they both sat in the back seat.  From baby carriers to child car seats to the little booster seats, all they knew was the back seat.  It wasn’t long after they were both old enough to ‘ride bareback’ that I heard “Can I sit up there with you?” from the back seat.  It was Aaron and he was eager to graduate to the front seat. 

I, on the other hand, was not ready for that just yet.  I felt they were safer back there.  I am always worried about being in a car accident – especially with the nutty drivers we have in SW FL.  Any time I imagine being in an accident I picture another car or Semi ramming me head on or in the driver’s side door (I always seem to imagine the most gruesome of outcomes for myself).  So, I associate the front seats has danger zones.  I always felt a little more at ease with my precious cargo in the back seats.  It may be unfounded but, it helps me get through the day.

“Sure, when you are a little older.”  I said, happy to have bought myself a little more time to get used to the idea. 

“Then can I?” Scott asked, never one to let something get by him.  He has quickly processed my statement and found himself a hole.  He is, in fact, older.  Fortunately, we were already under way.  He was, actually, old enough to sit up front.

“How about you sit up here on the way home?” I offered.

“Okay!” he replied with a very satisfied tone.  Aaron was disapointed and he made sure it was understood by all.  I explained to both of them my feelings about the front seat and their safety.  They seemed to reluctantly accept it.

By Aaron’s next birthday the front seat was fair game for either of them and so began “shotgun” which we use to this day.

Wednesday night I got an email from Syria saying that Scott will get five extra credit points if we write an essay describing him.  By ‘we’ she meant me.  I was happy to do it for him.  Yesterday I was thinking of ideas while at work but didn’t get to really start writing until the day was almost over.  I thought I had a good start on it when I left the office and figured it would flow pretty quickly when I got home.  At home I had all the points I wanted to hit in my head but could not come up with a way to articulate them logically in the essay.  So I sat there.  Thinking.  Typing fragments of thoughts and partial paragraphs in the hopes of incorporating them into a final essay.  Sitting, thinking.  Okay, maybe if I start like this…  Thinking, sitting.  I notice my Tivo is recording something.  Focus.  What time is it?  Seven o’clock.  Okay, just focus for a little bit and you can finish this.  Oh, I know, my tivo must be recording ”Everybody Loves Raymond”.  I wonder which episode it is?  Focus.  Finish the essay and you can watch anything you want.  I read over what I have – it only takes a few seconds.  I like that paragraph…  There is a good idea… That’s a clumsy transition… I should tell them this…  But they won’t understand unless I tell them about that…  Now you’re just being long winded.  “Brevity is the soul of Wit”… oh come on!  I don’t need Shakespeare in my head right now. 

Okay, I’m going to start over.

Um?

Well, I’ll use this part to start off.  Then Syria calls.

“Are you finished with the essay?”

“No.”

 She did offer some good ideas but my problem was forming the ideas in to an essay format.  I told her not to worry it would be finished and emailed to her in time to print it up for Scott to turn in.

The final format was a little choppy but it conveys what I wanted to about my son.  And almost as importantly it was turned in on time.  Can’t give my children lectures about finishing their homework on time if I failed to do it the first week of school.  Well, actually, I can but I would rather have the credibility.  It carries more weight than “Do as I say, not as I do.”  And Scott is intelligent enough to know the difference.  I emailed the finished essay and went to bed.

 This morning, as I am about to walk out the door, Syria calls me to say she didn’t get the email.  I knew I sent it… twice actually because I forgot to save the Word document in the 97-2003 Word format the first time so I resent it.  Now I have to restart my pc and pull up my gmail account to see if the email bounced back for some reason.

Nothing came back.  I checked my ‘sent’ folder to verify I sent it to her and there they were – two emails sent.  I don’t know what’s up.  Maybe Yahoo’s servers were down overnight.  I resent it and headed for work.

On the road she calls again.  Still no emails.  I tell her I will resend it from the office to her other email account first thing.  At the office I resend the email to both accounts and call her.  Now I’m a little worried.  They have to leave for school soon. 

Finally the emails show up for some reason.  I don’t know why the internet gods chose to mess with me today but I don’t appreciate it.  Scott is off to school with his extra credit essay in hand. 

Yesterday was the boys’ first day of school.  Neither of them was looking forward to the end of summer vacation, of course.  In addition to the usual first day of school stuff one has to deal with Aaron had his bike stolen.  He had to walk home and I don’t think he told anyone until his mother called from work to check on them.  I talked to him last night and he was bummed but over all in good spirits – he told me “I know what I want for my birthday now.”  (I had asked him what he wanted for his birthday last week in an effort to get a jump on it.  I will be going up there in October and was trying to decide if I should buy something and ship it, bring it or wait and buy it up there.)  Syria talked to the Principal who said she would make an announcement today about the missing bike.  Maybe there is a small chance he will get it back.

The boys have been back home for a while and are enjoying the rest of their summer vacation. I spoke to Scott last night and he was already 160+ pages into the new Harry Potter book. When he is done I think he will have read every one of the books. I asked him how he liked the latest Harry Potter movie they saw last weekend. He said it was good but the book was better. When is it not, right? I have only talked to Aaron a couple of times since they returned to MO. He is usually over at his best friend Alex’s house. They are both doing well and not looking forward to school restarting next month.

Last week I was watching a Woot-Off on woot.com. If you don’t know about Woot! it’s a site that sells one item a day, usually at a good price. About once a month they what they call a woot-off where when one item sells out another immediately replaces it. You can find more information her or at www.woot.com.

So, the Roomba arrived today. When I got home my mother had brought the box inside and left it on the kitchen table. I wasn’t sure if she would like the idea of the roomba scooting around the house but she is actully excited about the idea. Right now the roomba is charging and I plan to watch it’s first run tomorrow after work.

For Mother’s Day I bought Mom a new bird bath. We needed one because the original bath, while very cool looking, turned out to be quite the efficient fire starter (see previous blog). I had been looking online for a couple of weeks to find one I thought she would like. It had to be a non-porous with an easily removable top so it could be easily cleaned. Bird baths tend to get a build up of bird poop and algae, ya know. I found a what I thought was the perfect one in a catalog a week ago but when I hit the website it was out of stock. Last weekend I spent one afternoon hitting all the local places I could find a bird bath. The winner was at Lowes. It’s stand is made of four iron legs holding a porcelain bowl – you can see it in the picture. The iron stand matches a trellis and the bird feeder she already has in the yard so I thought I would look nice and bought it. I didn’t think it would look as good as the original bath with it’s blue glass and water reflecting the sunlight but once it was set up I was impressed with it. And Mom was too, so it turned out well. Kevin and Ethan came down Saturday night to surprise Mom and stayed the night. We all had breakfast together and hung around. She said it was a nice Mother’s Day.

I called the boys Sunday evening to see how their day went with their mother. Scott had bought his mother a dozen roses. Aaron, apparently, spent the day over at his friend Alex’s house. No card – I had suggested a week ago that they just each make a nice card for their mother. I know she doesn’t expect gifts or cards but atleast a “Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.” wouldn’t have been to much to expect. Syria said she had to ‘remind’ Aaron that it was Mother’s Day. While I was talking to her last night Aaron had come home for about ninety seconds. I heard him come in and say something to his mother. I asked if I could speak to him but he was already out the door and gone again. I know it’s coming – the point where we as parents barely rate a “Hello” as the kids fly from one thing to another. I did it to my parents and I’m about to get a big dose of it from my children. Oh well. As long as they are healthy and well adjusted, right? How, exactly, do you measure how “well adjusted’ a teenager is anyway?

Speaking of healthy, Scott has been on a diet for a few weeks now and is doing very well with it. He is sticking to it and has lost half of the weight the doctor recommended! I am very proud of him and looking forward to seeing the results next month. Syria said she is following the diet as well. I asked her to fax it to me. I know I need it and maybe being on it with Scott will help me stick to it and give us something to talk about with each other.