My kid has been humming this for three days.
THREE DAYS!!!
And you know the part that she’s been humming.
Totally stuck in my head…
Category: Parenting
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Magic of a Pool
I don’t know if you heard but the public pools are open in New York City! My kid is over the moon at this development.
For my kid, when it comes to ranking the best Summer Events; First is always the last day of school, and second is when the pools open!
And I get it, pools are great, especially when you are a kid. Pools are magical! They are indulgent, and refreshing, and an aquatic playground! When you were a kid, and you had to stay at a hotel, weren’t you more excited to do it if it had a pool? Of course, you were! Pools, even crappy motel pools, are the best thing on a vacation. Again, for a kid.
I remember when I was a kid, and asking a friend that when he’s gone on vacation, would be okay if I hopped the fence and swam in their pool while they were away. As an eleven-year-old boy living in stupidly hot Texas, this seemed like a reasonable request. My friend ratted me out to his patents and I had to promise that I would swim in their pool while they were away. AND his parents made me tell my parents to ensure I wouldn’t do it. (Now that I am a parent, I can see why they were concerned about a strange kid swimming in their pool while they were away, but at the same time – C’mon man!) For the record, I didn’t swim at their place while they were gone.
Swimming Pool!
A magical words.
Sounds like freedom, and endless days of adventure and excitement.
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No Real Blog Today
Yeah…. I spent this last day of June with my kid. No opportunity to write anything. I’ll try again tomorrow; something about pools and Summer.
Now, I’m off for reading time with the kid.
Have a good night and see you tomorrow.
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ODDS and ENDS: Painting, Soccer Workouts, and Summer Playlists/Albums
(Saw it written and I saw it say…)
I may have mentioned it before, but the plan this Summer, before the kid goes away to camp, is to get the living room painted. And I am one who believes that one of the best lessons we can teach our kids is that sometimes you have to do things for your family that aren’t fun; such as painting the living room. It needs to be done because the last time we painted was ten years ago, right before the kid was born. So… it’s time. There will be patching and sanding, and taping and painting. When me and the wife did it, we completed everything in two days. My guess with the kid is that it will take us four. I don’t want to rush it, because we will make some mistakes and have to go back and clean them up, and I also need to occupy as much time as possible. These summer days can be boring.
And one of the other ways I am trying to kill time with the kid is having her work on her soccer skills. She had a very good first year playing soccer for her school team, but she didn’t start, which annoyed her. Truth of the matter is that there were girls on the team that were better players than her, simple because these girls had been playing for a couple of years already. As I explained to my kid, if she wants to start, she has to work harder, and up her skills. To my relief and happiness, the kid accepted this challenge – she likes competing and winning. I do want her to getting a starting position on the team, but I am more proud of the fact that she likes working hard to achieve something that she wants.
And as we are now in Summer, and family road trips are coming, the pressure to build a playlist is growing. The wife has one that she has been working, and has been teasing us with selections while around the home. Even the kid has shown off her growing list of all the different artist that she’s found. That leaves me. I have yet to start, but I already have a bit of dread in me about this. Mainly because I seem to really only pick the same twenty songs, over and over. I can admit that my range of music hasn’t not grown and expanded as I have gotten older. But really, what I really want to do is just listen to albums. I used to take road trips and bring all of my Beatles CDs, or Led Zeppelin, and just go from start to finish – listening to how the band progressed. I used to do that with Oasis and Soundgarden, too. Since iPods and smart phones, I don’t listen to albums anymore, and I miss that. But, the game is about making playlists for these road trips, so I need to go and search out some deep cuts.
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ODDS and ENDS: Club World Cup, Mowing Grass, and JAWS
(When you’re on a holiday…)
Having trouble getting into it. That pretty much sums up my attitude with the Club World Cup. Sure, you could say that some of the matches have been rather uneven, and you could also argue that the turn out for these matches hasn’t been the best. (Scores of empty seats.) But I’m trying to hang with it. I have watched as much as I can, and even made the kid sit with me. But, I just can’t get over the fact that there isn’t any excitement or passion for this thing. I want to say that this is due to the Group Stage, and that when we get to the Knock Out Round, things will pick up. I sure do hope so. With that having been said, I will put my money on Bayern Munich. Just a feeling and nothing more, but it’s what I am going with.
When I was in junior high and high school, I was responsible for mowing the yard, both front and back. It’s how I earned some of my allowance, and I had it down to where I could knock it out in a half hour, so it didn’t eat into my weekends. So, it was never a chore I dreaded, as it was very manageable. This morning as I was sitting in the car, doing the Alt Side Parking, The City Park service was out mowing the grass in the local park and sidewalks, and just at the right moment, the smell of cut grass wafted and waifed into my car. Smells can trigger strong memories like nothing else, and that was what came over me. It was if I could feel the rumble and rattle of the lawnmowers handlebar as I pushed it across our lawn. The speed at which I could accomplish the pattern I followed, creating the nice orderly lines in the grass. It made me miss the chore a little, and even made want to own a home just so I could mow that yard.
JAWS is 50 this year. What a great movie. I don’t need to tell you that. About a million other people can tell you why much better than I could. I will just say this; it’s my favorite Summer movie – not only is it a Summer Blockbuster, but it actually takes place in Summer. And the mother, Mrs Kintner played by Lee Fierro, who loses her kid; she’s the linchpin of the whole movie. Her two scenes brought a level of realism and emotional weight to the movie, and if she didn’t nail it, then the story never would have worked. Just sayin’…
