Couples are jigsaw puzzles that hang together by touching in just enough points. They’re never total fits or misfits.
Month: August 2013
Watching the Rain
A rainy morning, so the Boy made frequent trips to the back door to observe.
Train
More discoveries in the basement.
Readying
All furniture cleaned, books back on the shelves, tennis balls back on desk legs, computers set up — and the first teacher work day isn’t for another week…
Eric Sevareid
One asks not only for the courage of his convictions, but for the courage of his doubts, in a world of dangerously passionate certainties.
Off-road
The Girl has a new bike, with gears and hand-brakes. It’s a lot to get used to. Today, she lost control, ran into a ditch, and like a champ, didn’t panic but merely let the bike coast to a stop.
Watering
Lost Treasure
“Daddy, we found this but we can’t open it.” I recognized it immediately: my mother’s old jewelry box that had long ago become storage for toys. “We can’t get in it, so we don’t know what’s there.” And neither did I, but I was curious.
Nana and Papa had saved some of my old toys and books from my childhood, and now that K and I have children of our own, we’ve pulled some of the toys out and re-issued them. The Boy has gone simply crazy over my old Matchbox cars, and L has incorporated some of my old books into her favorites rotation, but this old box was a mystery. There was no use searching for a key, and the thought of picking a lock — even a simple mechanism like this — was laughable. A straight-slot screwdriver and a quick twist of the wrist did the trick, though.
“Oh, some of my old G.I. Joe toys!” And I was instantly transported back thirty years to the time when these simple bits of plastic were the world to me. I pulled the figures out, remembering how I’d discovered the fact that unscrewing the small screw in the figure’s back opened a new world of creative possibilities: this figure’s legs could be attached to that figure’s torso.
Some of the figures exited the O.R. in worse repair than they entered. “What happened to that fellows arm?” I pondered before realize that it must have been a battle wound. The same with that fellow’s melted-off hand.
My collection was always modest. I had a few figures, a few vehicles. Several in my collection were from mail-in offers, including two of my four bad guys. It was a long time before I realized how utterly laughable the idea of Cobra — a secret army plotting to take over the world — was, but at the time, it seemed a more realistic alternative to Star Wars figures.
And besides, G.I. Joe figures articulated at the elbows and knees, far more realistic than the Star Wars figures that had to look like they were eternally goose-stepping imitators of Frankenstein. Later figures even added a second plane of motion: the elbows rotated.
None in my collection sported that awesomeness, though: they were old-school, bend-at-the-elbow figures.
I took them out, lined them up, and explained to L who were the good guys and who the bad.
“Can we play with them tomorrow?” she asked.
“Sure,” I replied, wondering what schemes and stories a girl used to playing with princesses and Barbies might come up with for a pile of old G.I. Joe figures.
How to Fall Asleep
Note to the Little Man: If you’re really serious about falling asleep easily, there are a number of things you have to do. Many of them don’t impact you: lower stress, get some exercise, eat well, etc. However, there is one basic step you could do that would dramatic increase your chances of falling asleep quickly: stop moving around!!!
Crackers and Blocks
Having a one-year-old means finding a plastic block at the bottom of the animal crackers’ box…
Fitting the Pieces
Dear E,
I wish I could tell you that life is like the puzzle you struggled with today, that there are a few missing parts and with a little trial and error, you can figure out where they fit. Life is a puzzle, but it’s more like the puzzle “Dalmatains,” with a mass of similarly patterened pieces that seem almost impossibly random.
You’ll struggle at times to make the slightest bit of progress, only to find yourself wondering if perhaps you didn’t force a piece here or there after all. “Maybe they don’t fit quite that snuggly,” you’ll say to yourself as you plod off to bed one night.
But rest assured, there is a bigger picture, it is accessible (if not difficult), and it is beautiful.
Your Dad
Leaving
One thing I dislike about the Catholic church: you get a really good priest in your parish, one who gives thought-provoking homilies and is a fantastic confessor, and then the diocese transfers him…
Saturday at the Pool
Our first day at the pool this year as a family, but alas, the Boy, still recovering from some upper respitory infection, cannot get into the water.
Instead, he stays with Nana and Papa, forever pointing to the pool, forever needing distracting. It’s so unfair, so inexplicable: everyone else takes turns in the water, and the poor Boy is stuck.
For the Girl, it’s a continuation from last year: more development, more courage — diving, diving, forever diving. With a new set of flippers, she’s able to get deeper faster.
“But Tata, it hurts my ears to go that deep.”
She also adds a new trick or two, like diving into the water through the ring.
“Perhaps I could try that,” I suggest.
“I’ve got to get the camera for that,” K replies.
“I didn’t think you’d make it,” she replies with a smile.
Views from the Pool
Lipnica Sunset
Theme Changes
Switched to the new Twenty-Thirteen default theme. Not sure I like it, but with the various post-types, it makes me think of content in a new way, as a potential design element, and I like that fresh thinking.
Peep
L’s favorite cartoon of late, Peep and the Big Wide World. I have to say, I enjoy it too: simple animation that focuses on the story, with real-life applications afterward.
Watching Cartoons Together
Monopolies
“Daddy, will you play with me?” It’s a common refrain from the Girl when we’re home alone, just the three of us, and the Boy is down for his nap. And lately, the answer to my question “What would you like to play?” is itself a question: “Can we play a board game?”
It’s an opportunity to see how much the Girl has really matured in the last year. We play Sorry; she loses — no tears. We play Monopoly Junior; she wins — no hysterics.
I find my own attitudes towards these games are vastly different, though. Sorry depends a great deal on chance, but there’s a bit of strategy involved. You draw a seven and you have to think of how best to split those seven moves between two pawns. You draw a “Sorry!” card and you have to determine which is the best piece of your opponent to replace, and it has to be a balance between what helps you the most and what hurts your opponent the most.
Monolopy Junior, though, is pure chance. Roll the dice; move the piece; buy the property (which in Junior involves merely buying a ticket booth — looks like a regular Monolopy house — and putting it on the square) or pay the owner. Mixed among the typical Chance cards are cards that allow a player to get a free ticket booth, which can entitle the player in some instances to confiscate the opponent’s existing booth. It’s a frustratingly random game, and I often find myself relieved as I start hemorrhaging money and the end approaches.
Yet boring as it is for me, I play with the Girl whenever she asks. As a husband and father, I no longer have a monopoly on my own time or interests.