Tag: Summer

  • The Bored Days of Summer (Unedited)

    We got three days into Summer Vacation, and the kid announced that she was bored.

    “There’s nothing to do”

    “No one to talk to”

    “Nothing to watch”

    “Nothing to read”

    “Nothing to listen to”

    I think you get the idea.

    Not surprised to hear her say this. All kids get bored when they have too much time on their hands. When the get too much freedom, it becomes repressive. As I am the stay at home dad, I get the brunt of the kid’s complaints, and she looks to me to solve this problem of hers.

    My first reaction was to tell her that it’s not my job to eliminate her boredom.

    But as soon as I said that, it dawned on me that it really is my job to end her boredom. Look, if I don’t get involved then she will want to zombie out on the iPad, and that is the worst thing that could happen.

    I’m not saying that she won’t get on the iPad this Summer, but I want to limit that as much as possible.

    Now, I don’t want to create mindless things for her to do, such as dumping a bunch of chores on her. There is no joy or magical memories that come from that. No, what I want to do is encourage healthy habits while also spending time together. (She will help me paint the livingroom this Summer, so she does have one huge chore, but we’ve been talking about that for months now.) I want her to stay active, so we are going to go running, and work on her soccer skills. I also want to keep her reading up, so we need to set time aside for that. She’s brought up that she wants to go to a museum, so that will take care of the art side of things. And I want to encourage her to think about the food she wants to learn how to make, and then we can work on recipe testing.

    IN the end, what I know to be true is that you only get to have so many Summers as a kid. When the days are hot but not too hot, and the Summer feels like it stretches on forever. In two or three years, I really won’t see her over the Summer, as she’ll be involved in something, or will be hanging out with her friends. Until then, I want to make sure she has some memories of enjoying time with her dad. Doing stupid stuff while trying to avoid being bored.

  • The Air Conditioners

    The Air Conditioners

    The Summer heat is coming. It’s supposed to be 80 today, 85 on Wednesday, and 90 on Thursday. And then there is also the humidity that will come along as well. The hot, sticky, and smelly New York Summer is just around the corner.

    We are ready for it.

    We’ve had our A/C’s in the windows since early May. Those machines have been cleaned from top to bottom, and we even tested them on a day that was a very comfortable 80. It’s just a matter of time before we shut the windows, and turn them on.

    And when those windows get shut, they won’t open back up until September. It is like battening the hatches around here. The apartment will become this self-contained island of artificial air. It’s like being in a submarine, or a spaceship.

    When I was a kid growing up in Texas, our house had central A/C, as do almost all houses down there. It seems like the air ran non-stop, but I know that’s not true. There is a specific sound from my childhood that takes me back, and it’s the sound of the A/C unit clicking on, and the slow drone of the air moving through the vents. I can almost touch that sounds, it’s so tactile to me. I can feel that air blowing on me as a little kid playing in my room.

    Having lived in Texas, there really is a line of demarcation for Texans. There are the Texans like lived in the state before air conditioning, and then there are the Texans who lived with air conditioning. If you’ve experienced a Texas Summer, then you know that the Pre-A/C Texans were pretty tough people.

  • Summer Summer Summer

    My kid has started counting down the days until Summer vacation. (She has 17 days left.) Schools about to be out forever, and the sweaters and coats are being packed away for another season. She is talking about swimming and vacations, and going to the beach all the time now. The start of Summer is so close, yet still far away for her, but the idea of Summer seems infinite – long hot days, and then cool evenings sitting on the couch in air conditioning.

    I try not plan too much of her Summer. We’ll do some trips to museums, and we’ll hit up the local community pool. The kid has told me that she wants to work on her soccer skills, and I think I can convince her to go hiking. What I would really like to do is put her to work on a few home improvement projects around here. I would like to paint the living room, and I think I could make that a life lesson that she needs to learn.

    You know, I enjoyed my time as a kid, and to be honest, if I had a choice of going back and being a kid again, I would not take it. I like being an adult. BUT! If there is one feeling I could relive one more time, it would be that feeling on the last day of school, when the bell rings for the final time, and you are free to go forth on your Summer vacation. That felling of weight being lifted, of freedom, excitement, possibility… That! If I could just grasp that feeling once more.

    I do get the next best thing, which is seeing my daughter live it.

  • Another Rainy Monday

    Another Rainy Monday

    You know, exactly two weeks ago, I was sitting at home on a rainy Monday, writing about it being a rainy Monday.

    And it’s another rainy Monday.

    Just like I did two weeks ago, I pushed through the wet weather, and did the family laundry. It’s a chore that I agreed to; my part of the deal in being the stay-at-home dad. It’s not my favorite thing to do, but needs to be done. I folded laundry while watching MST3k on PlutoTV. The act made me want to take a nap, and gave me pause to reevaluate my conclusion on the latest season of the show. Perhaps I was too critical.

    The sky is still gray, but the rain has subsided. The temp is mid-forties, and I have a sweater on. I should be reading a book.

    Or I should be contemplating about the coming of Spring?

    Or I should contemplate the strange desire I have to put on shorts, but still wear a sweatshirt? That look, it makes me think of New England Summers. It warm and cool at the same time. It might get up to 76, but when the sun sets, it drops down into the 50’s. That sounds like an ideal summer to me.

    Yet, to get there, Summer that is, I have to make it through this Spring. And it is Spring around here. All the trees have started to bud, and the daffodils have popped out in the parks. It even feels a little more upbeat around the neighborhood. Like a slightly better mood, or maybe people are being optimistic to the change in season.

    For now, I have a gray sky and an under-construction condo-tower to look at. I would like that nap, but I have to get the kid from school, so no rest for the lazy.

  • ODDS and ENDS: School’s Starting , Bigger Pants, and Goodbye Summer

    (It’s just a kiss away…)

    It just feels like Summer started, but next week, the kid starts up school again. These two months flew by, and though it still feels like Summer out there, the signs have started to show that we are slipping toward Autumn. At the start of the week, the kid refused to speak about the coming school year. Now, today, she told me she is excited and nervous to get back; Excited to see her friends, nervous about what the year could bring. I have been trying to remember what that felt like. The feeling of possibility, of the excitement of learning, the joy of friendships. Out of all of it, it is that feeling of excitement and wonder of learning rings the most true. Boy, if I could get that feeling back – maybe just for a few minutes, to experience looking at the world as brand new. That would be great.

    I had a good time this Summer. There was a big family wedding, and the kid went away for camp. As such, I lived it up. Drank a little too much, ate way too much, but I went to the gym once – you know, balance. When I think back on this season, I will refer to it as my “Sloth Summer.” As such, my pants and shorts have become rather snug around my belly. I don’t like this development, and I know what I need to do. Well, what I should do…not that I want to do it. Which brings me to why I am contemplating buying larger pants and shorts. NO, no, no… I need to watch what I eat, work out, cut down on alcohol, sleep better… But… you know… at some point the weight won’t come back off. At some point, I will need to buy the bigger pants, right? Am I just fight the tide?

    My least favorite season has started her exit from the stage. I said that up above, but it is true – Get Outta Here, Summer! It’s still sticky out, and will be for the rest of August, but it’s starting to get a little cooler at night. We had one day, though it was raining all day, that was in the low 70’s and it was like the best feeling in the world – it just not being really hot out. There are other signs too, like the “back to school” commercials on tv, and crossing guards are back out. Also, I look at empty store fronts, and I can imagine a Spirit Halloween store being there. Soon it will be cooler, and sweaters will be out, and leaves will change. Just one more month to go.