Todd Blog
A place for parental observations, occasional wisdom, dry wit, clever analogies, and random musings on sports, music, religion, politics, and life in general; not to mention the fascinating lessons to be learned from my hometown, Buffalo, NY.
Jan 31, 2013
Barely Breathing
1. Every parent has a bad day.
2. In hindsight, many parental decisions just don't make sense.
3. Even bad parental decisions can teach us something good about our parents.
Despite possessing numerous allergies to every animal with fur, I've always lived in a house with cats. I grew up in a house that re-cycled cats one at a time...as soon as one cat died, we'd replace it with another. And the thing about cat deaths, at least in my experience, they were all pretty gruesome. I can't think of one cat that died gracefully or peacefully. Clearly, all the cats we ever owned had expended 8 of their previous 9 Lives elsewhere, because when they died at our house...they really died. They were done...there would be no comebacks.
My dad had allergies...my brothers had allergies. I have allergies. Yet we tortured ourselves with an endless cycle of cats. We all suffered from asthma and continuous running noses...and we never seemed to put it all together. In fact, we never even knew what "asthma" was...me and my brothers simply called it "The Breathing". So whenever one of us would slump over in a desperate search for one good deep breath, the other brothers would simply say, "Oh, he's got The Breathing...let's leave him alone". Yes, you know...that terrible affliction in which you need to fill your lungs with oxygen, known as "Breathing"...that's what we suffered from. In today's logical world, it all makes sense. We had allergies to animals...we owned cats continuously...of course we got asthma and sneezed a lot! But back then we were obviously too close to the situation to figure all that out.
Recently my dad, who just turned 70, confessed a story that I had only heard rumors of before. One snowy morning in the rural town of Griffins Mills, NY where I grew up, my brothers and I went to the school bus and saw a trail of blood through the snow. We learned later that our cat-of-the-month, "Stinky" had died. Obviously it was a bloody death, but the other details were sketchy. We never saw the body of the cat, only the curious trail of blood. Stinky's death was always a mystery to us. Until now.
Apparently Stinky had a bad day. Even my dad doesn't recall the nature of Stinky's initial injuries...it was either an unfortunate episode with a car on Mill Road or a bad run-in with a neighborhood dog...by far the #1 and #2 causes of cat deaths at our house. But all of that doesn't really matter to this story. Either way my dad found himself that morning dealing with a barely-breathing, near-fatally injured cat. So my dad weighed his options. We lived nowhere near an animal hospital. He was probably running late for work. He knew his 5 children would be waking up soon to get ready for school. The cat was obviously not going to make a miracle comeback...this was not Lazarus The Cat. So my dad reluctantly grabbed the heaviest snow shovel we owned in a merciful attempt to finish what the car or dog had started. It was the humane thing to do.
As a backdrop to this story, my dad was well aware of the cause of all his allergies in his own home. Unlike his kids, my dad had figured out that he was painfully allergic to cats. Yet he tolerated them...and always allowed us to own a cat. But make no mistake, he was never fond of the cats. To my dad, cats represented the reason he could barely breathe in his own home. Because of this, the cats and my dad formed unique relationships based on fear and disdain. Every cat we owned learned to hide from my dad the minute he walked in the door...lest they be tossed outside in a 4-foot snow drift. In fact, the cats got so smart, they learned to recognize the sound of my dad's car pulling into the driveway.
So now, back to Stinky. As my dad told us this story involving a shovel, we couldn't help but wonder how this all looked to poor Stinky. Here he is, lying in the snow, barely breathing, badly injured from either being run over by a car or mauled by a dog, and the last friendly face he sees, his last possible hope on earth, is his arch-rival, my dad, standing over him with 2 hands on a shovel. The man who could barely breathe in his own home because of cats, was now on the verge of taking the last breath away from poor Stinky. If cats could see irony, surely Stinky would have smiled whimsically at this strange twist of fate. Irony, however, is usually lost on cats. Stinky's heart must have sunk as he realized his bad day was about to get worse. But my dad has a heart of gold. And his attempts to put an end to Stinky's misery were half-hearted at best, which is not the way to complete a task like this. My dad is not sure how many half-hearted attempts he made with the shovel, but he does remember the anguish he felt with each one. It was at this lowest point that a neighbor whom we rarely dealt with came across the street, having noticed my dad's plight (exactly how long this neighbor had been entertained by my dad's plight is unknown). My dad knew very little about this neighbor, but he was about to learn that the neighbor was obviously a big 2nd Amendment kind of guy. The neighbor mercifully finished the job with a single shot, and Stinky's terrible, horrible day was finally put to rest. My dad was grateful for the neighbor...and for the 2nd Amendment for that matter.
Two weeks later we got a new cat...of course! And Stinky's bad day went down in history as the Worst Day Ever in local cat folklore. Cats in the neighborhood today must still meow with sadness about that fateful day...a day in which Stinky was run over by a car or mauled by a dog, knocked over the head several times with a shovel, and finally shot to death in cold blood. Whenever a local cat feels they're having a lousy day, other cats must surely say, "Remember Stinky!"
Today, with my wife and 3 sons, I live in a house that has cats. In fact, right now we have two of them...Jack and Ted. We were told they're brothers, but frankly I think that was just a line at the Animal Shelter to sell us 2 cats instead of one. Good ploy, I might add! Fortunately, because of the mild climate, these cats reside outside for the most part...in the garage for the other parts. Every now and then they sneak inside for a taste of the good life, but they understand my allergies, and they understand their role in our lives. I have developed a mutual working relationship with our cats over the years. I feed them and provide a somewhat warm shelter on really cold nights; and they catch mice and various critters for me and eat the food I buy for them. It's worked out well over the years...and they provide enjoyment for my kids.
Our first cat, "Blackie", was hit by a car shortly after all the kids had gone to school one day. I found myself in the exact position of my father...dealing with a barely-breathing, injured cat lying in the middle of the road. It broke my heart. I quickly ran and grabbed a small box and as gently as I could, picked up the broken cat and placed him in the box. A school bus full of middle schoolers stopped and waited for me to move the cat...I can still see their sad faces as they watched me move the cat. I placed the box in my car and raced to the animal hospital down the road. I knew it was a futile attempt. They quickly injected a shot into the cat to end the suffering and charged me $75 for it. Within 10 minutes I had a new box to take home and bury in the backyard. I cried on the way home thinking about how I would break the news to the kids.
Yes, it makes little to no sense for people with allergies to own a cat. Yes, indoor cats tend to live much longer lives than outdoor cats, and they tend to die relatively peaceful deaths too. Yes, there are many (PETA-friendly) options available when dealing with a fatally injured cat. All of this is true.
But even bad parental decisions can teach us a lot about the goodness of their intentions.
Mar 14, 2012
The Tornado Warning
It started for me with a drive home from work on a mild Spring night, and it ended with my family huddled together in an absurd yet touching family-bonding moment. As I was driving home from work the weathermen were already forecasting a stormy and turbulent night in Atlanta. By the time I got home, tornado warnings were scattered across the entire metro area. Our 2 older sons, Alex and Adam, were completely unworried and in full Big Brother Bully-mode, doing their best to further frighten their younger brother Christopher. They cruelly suggested watching the movie “Twister” or “Wizard of Oz” to get in the spirit of the moment. Christopher, who has loved maps since he was a toddler, wasn’t enjoying the maps he was seeing on this night. The weather maps on TV highlighted the areas in the path of a confirmed tornado…and our house was well within the boundaries of the deadly red-flashing trapezoid…along with the houses of just about all my friends and relatives in the area. It’s a strange and somewhat surreal thing to be able to watch with such accuracy the path of a potentially deadly tornado. They showed the projected path of the storm detailed to the exact minute of its expected arrival, and they’d say things like…”for those of you in the Dacula area, you have approximately 6 minutes to prepare for this storm”. Six minutes? How do you prepare for something like that in 6 minutes? Well, my curiosity got the best of me and I ended up wasting about 1-2 of those precious minutes outside observing the scene. The second I walked outside I could feel the potential hazard in the air. The winds swirled in odd directions. The rain was sporadic…light then heavy, heavy then light. The sky flashed with near-continuous lightning coming from the exact spot on the horizon I anticipated it would be coming from, churning closer and closer in our general direction. And most noticeable of all, in the distance in all directions, the persistent wail of air-raid sirens could be heard…a sound I had never experienced before.
So I went back in the house. A friend in an adjoining neighborhood called me on my cell phone and asked if were watching the weather. He was concerned because he knew my house had no basement, so he told me to keep an eye on the weather. I told him I would...not fully aware how that would help me in the slightest. Another friend texted me and told me to “be safe”…their family was huddling in a closet. The TV weathermen were now advising people in the path of the storm to hide in an interior closet on the lowest level of the house. Christopher moved from the living room couch to my bedroom, which we determined had the safest closet in the house. The people on TV recommended putting bicycle helmets and shoes on to fend off potential flying debris. Alex and Adam wanted nothing to do with that. Suddenly they were taking this storm seriously, and their focus was on protecting their collection of “Amazing Spiderman” comic books sitting in their bedrooms. They quickly started moving the boxes from their room on one side of the house to our closet on the opposite side of the house. I didn’t have the heart to tell them, but by the time they were done with that, the storm had already moved passed us and into another county.
Jan 15, 2012
Timing is Everything
Oct 4, 2011
Defragging My Childhood Hard Drive
Childhood memories are strange things, but parents who work tirelessly to forge those memories for their children might be even stranger.
It’s kind of sad when you look at that from the perspective of the parents. Here you are, trying your best to give your little pre-school kids memories that last a lifetime, yet in the end who knows what they’ll remember? Your legacy as a parent is really at the mercy of a few scattered moments. I recently searched the deepest recesses of my 40+ year old brain in an attempt to uncover my earliest memory...it was a long, painful process, equivalent to defragging a 40GB hard drive in search of missing or corrupt sectors. By my recollection, the earliest memory I can retrieve from my dusty old brain is a very vague remembrance of my grandfather's funeral when I was 5 years old in 1973. I'm pretty sure one of my crazy uncles allowed me to illegally sit on his lap and hold the steering wheel of the van while driving on a highway to the cemetery. That is definitely the farthest back my memory bank will go. Everything before that is a default. Maybe I had some good times with my family from ages 0-5, maybe my parents took me to some cool places and did some fun and exciting things with me, but really...who knows? All I can do is take their word for it. About all I know for sure is, I survived those years...that's about it.
Beyond my earliest memory of my grandfather’s funeral, I do have some kindergarten memories...but only of the strangest events. For instance, I remember a kid named Jerry Gray, who somehow managed to stab himself with a pencil somewhere near his eye. My classmates were screaming, my teacher was in panic mode...and blood was definitely a prominent part of that memory.
And then I remember nap time. I grew up in an era in which kindergarten teachers were allowed to take an extended coffee break for themselves and force their energetic students to take mandatory naps. I don't know how long these naps were, and I highly doubt any child ever actually fell asleep, but I do remember we each had a little rug to sleep on and we could lay it wherever we wanted to on the floor. I was apparently a frisky 5 year old because I definitely remember purposely positioning my little brown rug directly in front of my very attractive kindergarten teacher's desk so I could stare at her legs. Saddest day of my life was when I discovered that Miss McGinness wasn't going to be my teacher EVERY year. So those are my earliest memories...a little blood, a death, and some skin. Sounds more like a cheap B-movie than a childhood, if you ask me, but that's all the material I have to work with.
But then there are my earliest memories of my mom and dad. I'm not quite sure how to put this delicately, especially since they're both still alive and well, but if we were just going by the evidence saved in my earliest memories, my parents would either be locked up in prison somewhere serving life sentences as abusive parents, or at the very least they would have been stripped of custody of all 5 of their children by DEFAX. I'm sure both mom and dad had loving moments with me, after all, there are a few old picture slides which show me looking pretty happy, and the pictures look genuine enough...but the core of my earliest memories only seem to recall some horrible moments. For instance, there was the time my brothers and I got in big trouble for innocently walking a few miles down the creek in our backyard without telling anyone about it. What should have been a real brotherly-bonding, "Huck Finn" type adventure for us instead turned into one of the harshest parental yellings ever heaped upon unsuspecting children in the history of the world. I COULD tell you the punishment we received from that incident, because that I DO remember, but it would probably result in the FBI hunting down my father like he was some sort of war criminal...so I'll spare him that humiliation.
And finally, in very general terms, I'm fairly confident that my mom yelled at me or my siblings for something each and every day of my childhood, and only took a break from yelling at us when my dad pulled into the driveway, at which point she provided him with the daily report and a litany of all of our wrongdoings...and then HE resumed the yelling where she left off. Again, if we're just going by my vague early memories, this is the way it happened in my childhood.
As parents of 3 boys, while running ourselves completely ragged in ridiculous efforts to forge an endless stream of happy memories for our kids...my wife and I sure hope that's the way it works. Otherwise, we'll end up on an FBI "Most Wanted" list some time in the future as well.
Aug 15, 2011
'91 Braves Fulfilled the Promise of Pro Sports
Aug 9, 2011
The Great Outdoors
May 20, 2011
When A Sports Team Leaves You
It's something I've read about happening in other cities. It sounded about as unpleasant as I could have imagined, but from a distance I could never fully relate, could never fully appreciate the emotions involved. But now it is happening to my city...it's happening to me. A professional sports franchise that I've followed closely since it's inception is packing their bags, loading the trucks and relocating to another city. The NHL Atlanta Thrashers are moving to Canada. A sucker-punch to the gut is a lame cliche to describe how it feels, but it really is the best analogy for the moment.
Mar 14, 2011
When A Boyhood Sports Hero Dies
Jan 19, 2011
The Battle of Atlanta; The Siege of Dacula-burg
Snowstorms in Atlanta are prefaced by a week's worth of pregame hype, comparable to Super Bowls and Election Night. It's comical for my northern-bred wife and I to watch the buildup for a storm that wouldn't even register as a blip on local news in our native Buffalo, New York. We got caught up in the hype this time and on the Sunday morning before the storm was scheduled to arrive, we desperately ran out to find a sled. I was embarrassed to stoop to that level of desperation, but truthfully I was even more embarrassed that a family with Buffalo blood didn't have a legitimate sled somewhere in their attic. I refuse to allow my kids to even attempt sledding in a laundry basket or on top of a lid to some plastic tub. I have some pride.
Well, my pride went out the window when the clerk at the hardware store laughed and told me sleds have been sold out in the metro area since Wednesday. So we went home, emptied the laundry baskets, and waited for the snow to arrive...which it did, almost on cue with what the weatherman told us all week. The weathermen, by the way, have taken all the fun out of weather. I miss being surprised. Would it be so bad to be surprised by the weather?
Anyway, it started snowing around 10PM on Sunday, and by 11PM school's were closed. The kids ran outside in euphoria and played till after midnight. They awoke the next morning and played some more, but then realized playing in the snow when it's really cold, without proper winter clothing, is really not that much fun afterall. And with that realization, the Siege at home began.
This winter storm was legitimate, even by Buffalo standards. Many roads were treacherous and impassable. I weathered the Siege at home for two days. The purpose of a Siege is to surround a fortified place and isolate it from reinforcement. At one point, out of pure boredom, my son Adam and I contemplated walking a couple of miles to get food...even though we had plenty of food at home, and most likely the places we wanted to get food weren't open anyway. But that's what a Siege can do to you, those are the tricks a Siege will play with your mind!
By Wednesday I had had enough, and decided to flee the Siege at home and join the Battle on the streets of Atlanta. After two days of wathching the Battle unfold on all the local news channels, I just had to go out to see for myself how bad it was. My wife Laurie kissed me goodbye as I headed out to the Battlefield. And truth be told, it was bad. Cars driven by inexperienced drivers, on icy roads untouched by plows, contributed to an overall sense of chaos and lawlessness. Spinning tires from cars trying to climb uphill, skidding cars with wheels turned and locked in desperation going downhill. I drove to work with a full awareness of every car around me, fully expecting to get hit at any moment. That's what a Battle is all about.
As the week wore on, more and more soldiers joined the Battle, which of course only contributed to the mayhem. The new soldiers were like new recruits joining the frontlines with zero Battle experience. Driving on icy roads is an artform, but it became clear by Thursday and Friday that not all Atlanta drivers are art lovers. Meanwhile, the Siege at home was taking its toll. School was closed for the entire week, and the kids had lost all interest in the white stuff outside on the ground. They became bored with video games, and then they turned on eachother, becoming abusive and ill-tempered. Meals were becoming a daily challenge as we dipped into the canned soups that had been sitting in our pantry since 2006. The snow was winning, there was no doubt about it.
But then, just before waving the white flag, the sun came out and temperature's warmed. The Battle ended, the Siege lifted. And I finally figured out the difference between the two...and decided they're equally unpleasant.
Dec 7, 2010
Anger Management, 1st Grade Style
"Brilliant!", was my reaction. I never had an outlet like that when I was a kid. All I had for venting frustrations were my 3 brothers, and believe me, we vented our frustrations on eachother on a daily basis. Which occassionally led to our Mom or Dad venting their frustrations on us, but the system seemed to balance itself correctly. Thankfully, not one of us ever dealt with bouts of Depression.
I'm not too worried about our 2 older Middle School sons, Alex and Adam. I'm confident that if they're in a bad mood they'll find a way to let us know. They'll text us, or tweet us, or post it on FB for 200 friends to read, and one of our distant cousins who "friended" them will email my brother, who will tell his wife, who will call my wife, who will let me know the second it happens. That's a system I'm confident will work. It usually takes about 10 minutes for all those pieces to fall into place.
The good news is, we'll know for sure when Christopher comes home from school in a good mood. When we flip through his Friday Folder and see one of his old favorite drawings of the doomed Titanic sinking into the abyss of the deadly dark sea, we'll know he's in one of his usual great moods! Nothing to worry about.
Oct 7, 2010
Transitions
Our other sons complained of similar circumstances. Our 8th grader Alex proclaimed the first week of 8th grade was harder than all of 7th grade put together. And our 7th grader Adam was placed, not just in Honors Math, but in Honors Math Accelerated! That’s basically Math on Steroids. He’s in 7th grade and he’s already ventured well beyond the friendly confines of the math my wife and I ever retained. So he’s on his own.
When Christopher complained about how hard 1st grade is, I didn't have the heart to tell him that it'll only get worse...that kindergarten may have been his peak. Nobody likes to hear that their best days are behind them. I had a similar discovery myself recently. It started innocently enough. I was cleaning up some of the strewn cables behind our television. One of those projects that needs to be addressed once every decade or so. In the shuffling of cables, I accidentally unplugged some of the left/right audio cables from the back of the TV. So now I really had to commit to this project. I squirmed my way completely behind the television in the corner of our family room. The dust back there could choke you. I found a few random, long-forgotten toys and tossed them into the middle of the room, much to the joy of Christopher. It’s like Christmas again when lost toys are rediscovered. The Prodigal Toys returned! Lying on my side I grabbed the red and white audio cable and arched my neck to see where I needed to plug them back in. Our TV, like any TV, has about 75 input and output jacks on the back. Finding the right one to plug into needed a closer look. I didn’t have a flashlight on me, and the odds of me crawling back behind this TV anytime soon were highly unlikely, so I arched my neck even further to try to read the raised all-black text on our all-black TV (c’mon, don’t they have white paint in Taiwan?), hoping to make out the words “Audio In” or “Audio Out”. Five years ago this is a task I could have handled in my sleep. But something has happened to my eyes since then. Depending on the lighting, my eyes now require that awkward “backward/forward” shifting thing that you see elderly people do when reading small print. Well, because of the placement of my head and the immovable wall behind my head, I had no room to do the “backward/forward” shifting thing. I tried. I gave it some time for adjustment. But I couldn’t read the words on the back of my TV to save my life. Desperately, I tried to read the raised lettering like a blind man would read Braille, feeling with my fingers to see if I can tell the difference between IN and OUT. That didn’t work. Defeated, I crawled back out from behind the TV and resorted to sliding the TV away from the wall for a clearer view. Suspecting the worst, I calmly walked to the bathroom to look in the mirror. What I saw confirmed my fears. Wrinkles have formed around my eyes. I have some gray hairs on top of my head. It’s official, I’m aging.
From this point, there were 3 teachable lessons I could pass on to Christopher about his 1st Grade predicament: 1) Accept and embrace the challenges ahead of you because you’re capable of it; 2) No matter what, never admit your best days are behind you; or 3) Don’t bother cleaning behind your TV because no one will ever notice the difference and you may not like what you find. Christopher’s response to this: “But daddy, I liked the toys you found”. And that comforted me. Because really, a good parent is only as old as his youngest child.
Jun 21, 2010
Bring the Kleenex to TS3
Alex and Adam's attachment to Woody and Buzz always seemed manufactured to me. I mean, it was brilliant marketing by Disney and Pixar of course, to make a movie about fictional toys and then market those same toys to unsuspecting children around the world. But really, how attached could my boys possibly be to these made-up toys? Try as they might, they would never be able to duplicate the same emotional attachment to Woody and Buzz as the fictional lead CGI character Andy.
I went into Toy Story 3 with the bare minimum of story background. I had heard that Andy is now 17 and preparing to head off to college... that's about it. As you might expect, the central theme of the story revolves around growing up and saying goodbye to the symbolic "toys" of our youth. And from the toy's perspective, we're shown the sad and tragic fate of toys being relegated to the attic. Sticking with the nostalgic mood of the moment, we opted to not see the 3-D version of the movie since that seemed contrary to what Woody and Buzz were all about. Woody and Buzz never needed gimmicks to be entertaining (that sounds good, but actually the real reason, at 3 bucks per ticket, the silly looking glasses are a rip-off). The movie had exceptional humor and well-crafted plot throughout, and in my mind was well on its way to being the best of the trilogy. But then came the dramatic conclusion, which took the movie to a whole new and unexpected emotional level. Without giving away too much plot, let's just say it became very apparent in the final scenes of this movie that this is truly the last we will be seeing of these iconic toys on the big screen. The farewell scene at the end was as touching and poignant as a CGI movie about toys can possibly be. I found myself choking back tears watching these fictional toys pass into the memories of youth, knowing full well I have a tub full of these same toys up in the attic of my own house. Very rapidly the final scenes were becoming emotional for me and my wife. Slightly embarrassed to be wiping the corner of my eyes with my sleeve, I glanced over at Alex and Adam to make sure they weren't witnessing my moment of weakness. Most dads do not like to get caught crying. And for me, it takes a lot to induce tears at the movies. Not counting "Schindler's List", which was created intentionally to induce tears for 3 straight hours, I cried when Rocky got back on his feet in the 14th Round, despite Mickey's plea to "Stay down!"; I cried when the Apollo 13 capsule touched down safely in the ocean; I cried when Captain Miller bit the dust in "Saving Private Ryan"; I cried when Forrest Gump read little Forrest's letter at Jenny's gravesite; and I nearly cried when Chuck loses Wilson the Volleyball in "Cast Away". That's about it for me in terms of crying during movies. (If you're keeping score, that's 1 Sly Stallone movie and 5 Tom Hanks movies, counting Toy Story 3). But when I looked over at Alex and Adam, I was stunned to see both of them crying openly. I must admit, I was pleasantly shocked. Of course, at this point I think they were both wishing they had some 3-D glasses to hide their tears behind, but there was no denying the outpouring of tender emotion they were displaying. My 4 nieces were at the movie with us, and not one of them was the least bit emotional. They thought it was a "cute" movie. They were smiling, even laughing at the movie's conclusion. They each seemed stunned to witness their cousins reduced to tears over a Toy Story.
But like I said before, never under-estimate the special bond between a boy and his favorite toys. There's a loyalty factor which girls may never understand.
Post-script: 3 weeks later, our youngest son Christopher, who did not grow up raised on Toy Story but instead grew up on Nemo and Cars, and who also seemed cynically puzzled by Alex and Adam's strange emotional reaction to Toy Story 3, was found recently sleeping in bed clutching his very own brand new Woody doll. Here we go again.
Jun 1, 2010
Mr. Todd's Wild Ride!
Every good story has a good backdrop, and this backdrop involves the other scout dads who went on the trip, also known as "Adult Leaders". They're all great guys, and more importantly, great role models for my kids to hang around, but one thing I've noticed about the adult leadership in the Boy Scout community in Northeast Georgia: political affiliations are assumed to be Conservative, unless otherwise stated (and only the bravest Liberal would risk stating it otherwise). There's no hiding the fact that most of the dads in the Troop are card-carrying, red-blooded, right-minded Republicans...not that there's anything wrong with that. Now, I've always tried to teach my kids the value of keeping political views to yourself. I tell them that one day they'll have a political voice that they'll exercise on Election day each year, but otherwise, unless they're running for office, there's really no need to reveal their political leanings or rant about political happenings. That's how my dad taught me, and to this day I don't know if my Dad is a Democrat or Republican...I suspect he's neither, or more accurately, he's both. I've tried with my own sons to instill this same appreciation in regards to both spectrums of the American politcal landscape. After all, I'm a classic Middle Child, fully capable of appreciating the left and right side of any debate. I personally feel America works well with its Left-Right give-and-take. The 2-party system has an incredible track record here. I often tell my kids that when they're old enough to vote, they'll appreciate the fact that when they step into an election booth, only their conscience will go with them. I realize, however, not all dads or Adult Leaders would subscribe to this simplified rationale. The results of a mock-Presidential election we held with the Cub Scouts in 2008 (kids aged 7-11 years old) tells me Dads in this area are not shy about revealing their political affiliations at the dinner table. John McCain blew away Barack Obama in the most one-sided landslide in politcal history...according to the youths of Pack 597.
Needless to say, these scout outings can have some pretty opinionated, one-sided campfire chat sessions. I rarely contribute to these discussions, which leads me to sometimes imagine "suspicious" glances from some of the other dads. As you can imagine, the usual Left Wing stereotypes are tossed into the mix...you know, the whole "over-dependency" thing, the "free handouts" thing, the "bailouts", and the "lack of concrete planning" thing. At one point I thought Glen Beck was going to drop in on our campfire from a FOX helicopter and setup some remote wilderness broadcast. I feared the campfire was quickly turning into a tea party.
Why the long backdrop to this story? Well, it sets up my inevitable fall from grace, of course. I decided to go kayaking instead of mountain biking. It was going to be a 90 degree day...why would I want to do all that pedaling when I can instead allow a river current to gently whisk me away? My oldest son, Alex, qualified for kayaking based on his age. So, along with 9 other scouts and 2 other dads, off we went. Every scout trip should be a learning experience, or I should say a "teaching experience". That's really why we do these things. Well, I came back from this trip with a wealth of learning tips which I will now share.
Lesson 1: When the lady at the kayak rental place suggests at the last minute that it might be a good idea to leave your car keys at the rental place, that's a clue for potential hazards. Pay attention.
Lesson 2: Kayak rental places are generally built near a quiet part of a river, for good reason, it allows for easy drop-in's. This does not necessarily represent the nature of the entire river.
Lesson 3: Small electronics, like phones and cameras, have no place on a kayak trip. And you won't need your wallet either.
Lesson 4: When your son gets to his first set of rapids and is hung up on a rock and about to drift backwards, let him deal with it on his own. Really, he'll figure it out. Just like they tell you in case of an emergency on an airplane, take care of yourself first. You can't help others until you first help yourself...which leads to Lesson 5.
Lesson 5: When drifting down a river, pay attention to what's ahead of you. Don't look back and fruitlessly yell instructions to your son who is hung up on a rock and about to drift backwards down a river. That's his problem.
Lesson 6: When flipped over in rapids and ejected from your vessel, focus first on holding onto your paddle and then retrieving your vessel. Actually focus first on holding your breath and getting to the surface, then do the other things. Do not waste your time trying to salvage your phone, your camera, and your wallet. Most likely they're already ruined beyond repair and/or lost forever. Life will go on without those gadgets, but a kayaking trip in which you lose your kayak and your paddle with Republicans watching is something you may never recover from.
Less than a half mile into our 6 mile trip, I had flipped out of my boat, lost my paddle, flooded my vessel, ruined my Blackberry, and lost my camera. Luckily I wasn't alone. The baseball caps, t-shirts, and shoes floating downstream told me most of the scouts had tipped over as well. But among the adult leaders, who are technically supposed to be there as guides and mentors to the kids, I was all alone. The two dry Republicans downstream had already BAILED ME OUT and fetched my paddle. They brought cameras as well, but of course, because they are NATURALLY GOOD PLANNERS, they also brought these amazing things called Dry Bags to store them in. Looking for a FREE HANDOUT at this point, I asked to store my water-logged Blackberry and wallet in one of their Dry Bags. In no time at all, I had become the very thing they despised most: an OVER-DEPENDENT BURDEN, looking for a FREE HANDOUT while BAILING OUT my kayak.
Later that night, back at camp, news of my demise spread like wild-campfire. Adding insult to injury, the 2 Republicans described the rapids, which in my mind were Burt Reynolds-like, as "Class 0.5" at best. Tea anybody?
Note: The picture above is an artist's rendition of the actual event...since my camera was lost to the river.
Mar 25, 2010
All Burnt Out?
As you can see, it doesn’t take much for me to ponder deep thoughts. A simple light bulb swap in an effort to "Go Green" can lead to some sobering realizations. Everyone warns you that the child-raising years go by way too fast. And they do. Our three sons run us ragged with extra-curricular activities, and I would say we’re a relatively low-activity family by today’s standards. First of all, we’re living in an all-boy world, which means we don’t even worry about activities that involve dancing, singing, cheerleading, or looking attractive. That eliminates a lot of running around. And besides that, our boys are kind of old-school home-bodies compared to most other kids. I know people who have some sort of extra-curricular activity with their kids every single night of the week, quite often multiple activities that involve complicated, split-parenting “drop-off/pick-up” strategies, using cell phones like walkie-talkies. Like wartime generals, they're consumed with the logistics of getting the troops in place, all fed and nourished, ready for the next battle. Whereas, Laurie and I actually get an occasional night off from all the running around. We circle those nights on our calendar like major holidays and plan intimate movie date nights around them. Of course, these romantic “date nights” typically include 3 entertainingly noisy boys who require frequent feedings, help with homework, etc. Before we know it, "movie night" quickly dissolves into falling fast asleep on the couch to the soothing sound of the dishwasher churning away in the kitchen, all within minutes of the movie’s opening credits. We're often awoken by the not-so-soothing sound of late-night TV poker chips around 2AM, but hey, at least we’ve spent some quality time together snoozing on the sofa.
When it comes to the kids extra activities, I’ve tried not to be a “drop off” dad. If my kids are involved in something I strangely feel compelled to get involved with them. So this means when they sign up for cub scouts, even though I couldn’t tell a square knot from a slip knot if my life depended on it, I somehow end up the Pack Cubmaster . When they sign up for hockey, I put on my skates, grab a whistle and eraser board, and become the Head Coach. When they go to religious education classes, I suddenly turn into a theologist-in-training and become a catechist. Of course, all this really proves is how easy it is to volunteer for something. It seems they’ll take anybody. I credit (or blame) my own mom and dad for this desire to take on new challenges. They were the same way.
And so our lives are a blur of activity. A ton of taxi-cab driving all over town without the meters or fares or tips, while we live our lives vicariously through our children, who are either doing the things we loved to do as kids, or are doing the things we never got to do as kids. Either way, our lives are shaped by their lives. Our new friendships are formed through their circles of activities. We think we’re living our own lives, but in reality we’re living through our children’s lives. Every now and then, in the midst of all the shuttling, coaching, teaching, cheering, worrying, and lamenting, I try to stop, take a deep breath, and appreciate the insanity and joy of raising kids in the modern age. We take pictures like crazy. The advent of digital cameras means I’ve taken thousands upon thousands of pictures, deleted hundreds upon hundreds of bad ones, and saved the good ones to the great spinning scrapbooks on our desktops, also called a hard drive.
Someday, after these whirlwind rollercoaster years quiet down, after debates over household chores and cell phone usage have faded away, and probably after that new bulb in our living room burns out again, we’ll look back at the pictures, remember the details, and we’ll undoubtedly realize all the insanity was worth the joy, all the frustration was worth the fun. And hopefully we’ll agree we wouldn’t have done it any other way. At the very least I'm hoping that long-lasting light bulb is somehow saving our environment.