Chattanooga 2
the boy
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
