Crossing Over
the boy
Talent Show
Soccer Walk
Tuesdays are long: first school, then chess club, then a rush to the soccer field to switch cars with K so she can give L my car for her to drive to volleyball while I wait with the Boy at soccer practice. I usually talk a walk and/or run. And since my knees have been troubling me again, it’s more likely the former than the latter.
As the last few soccer seasons have progressed, so has the area around the soccer complex.
The red line is the route of my walk.
The central shaded area is now apartments — it has been for a couple of years. The large shaded area to the right is now completely bare, stripped of all trees with sewage lines and curbs ready for a new housing or apartment development. The triangle to the left is the latest development victim: it’s only been cleared in the last few weeks.
But still on that walk/run, one can find views like this.
More from Chattanooga
Saturday
Climbing
Final Cub Scout Pack Meeting
The Boy is moving on: cross-over is in a couple of weeks, and the pinewood derby is in a couple of days. After that, he’ll no longer be a cub scout — he’ll move on to be a boy scout…
Chattanooga 2
Chattanooga
Painting the Car
The Boy is going on his first overnight field trip this week: Tuesday morning the fifth-grade class leaves for Chattanooga and they don’t return until Thursday evening. And the derby is on Saturday, so we had to get things finished up today.
Game 2
It was a close game, tied 0-0 at halftime and even throughout the vast majority of the second half. And then, with about one minute remaining, the opposing team scored.
It was disappointing, but the boys played well.
Re-stringing
Pinewood Derby Car
This will be the last year E participates in the pinewood derby. The first time was five years ago, with a pack that we left because the Boy never really felt like he fit in there.
I don’t even know how he did in that first derby, but he enjoyed it and was eager for the next derby.
The second pinewood derby was his last with that first pack. We took a year off from scouting and then returned in time for the first Covid-era pinewood derby:
I don’t remember how well we did, but I know one of E’s closest friends won that year. We tried our best, though, using all the tricks we could find:
- polishing the axels;
- bending the axles to make the wheels point outward at the bottom to minimize friction;
- mounting one front wheel high so that it didn’t touch the track;
- making sure we’d put the weight in the perfect location relative to the car’s center of gravity.
All that stuff is illegal now.
Last year, we went for a different strategy: amusement instead of performance. Our car was the Butter-mobile.
“I was hoping to win an originality award,” the Boy confessed afterward, but we didn’t even get that despite the laughs and positive comments from everyone.
This year we’re going back to a performance idea. But we’re trying to keep it simple as well.
Today we got the shape roughed in and the first bit of sanding done.
We’ll see how things go, I guess, but I’m trying to get him simply to appreciate and to enjoy the fact that this is the last time we do this.
That made it a bittersweet activity for me…
Saturday
Spring 2023 Soccer
New season, new coach, new team.
Hoping it will all turn out alright.
Curriculum Night
Tonight, I took the Boy to curriculum night at his zoned middle school. We’re still not sure if he’s going to the charter middle school L attended (he’s grandfathered in) or if he’s going to the zoned public school. Right now he’s leaning toward the latter: he’s interested in music, and he wants to play in band, which is not something the charter school offers.
We spoke to the band director for a while, talked to the strings teacher, looked at the instruments, talked about the advantages of each.
“I think I’m leaning to this school,” he said.
“My only concern,” I said, “is that the academics at this school won’t be at quite the level as the charter school.”
The Boy expressed that he’s okay with that, suggesting once again that he’s not such a smart guy as someone who needs those “high-level classes.”
K and I don’t know where this idea comes from. He gets great grades; he scores well on standardized tests — he just doesn’t see himself as a gifted person, certainly not as a thinker. He sees himself as perfectly academically average.
He couldn’t be more different than his sister…
Playoffs
Last Game of the Regular Season
The Boy had his final regular season game today. Coach had him in the entire first quarter, and he got a rebound that he put back up for a basket.
That’s one basket a game for the last three games.
Sunday Games
The Girl has slowly disappeared from this site though not for lack of interest on my part. She’s reticent to have photos taken; she is often not at home in the evenings, either at practice, the gym, the library, or just going to visit friends; the things we talk about don’t result in cute exchanges anymore but just honest sharing with each other — when she’s willing to share. She is, in short, a typical sixteen-year-old, and her withdrawal from this site mirrors a bit of a withdrawal from family life into her own, growing life.
So when she accepted an invitation this evening to come downstairs and play a board game with E and me, the temptation to take a picture was great, but I knew it would ruin the moment. K probably did, too, and didn’t even try a stealth shot. Instead, the three of us sat and played Sequence, chatting about nothing of any significance, just spending some time together. I played without a care, randomly placing my pieces with only the occasional intent — usually to block L’s pending sequence. She won anyway (she always wins board games), and though I would have played another, neither child was interested.
“Are they both just humoring me?” I thought as they walked away.
Toppled
The Boy’s basketball team took down an undefeated team in today’s game. K and I didn’t know that they were undefeated until the end, but I suspected: with about half of the third quarter remaining, down 14-8, a boy from the opposing team seemed like it was all he could do to keep back the tears, and he continued in this state until the end of the game. The Boy’s team lost their first game just a couple of weeks ago, so we know how that stings.
As for pictures — only one. From long ago.
