Year: 2004

The little things that eat away my day have begun. I forgot my glasses so I’ll have to walk upstairs to get them and something will have to get done, I have to call Cingular and find out why the phones aren’t working (don’t I pay them $130 per month so that I don’t have to do this?), the basement is freezing so I need to chop wood, and I have to call around and find these Valentine’s for the 7 yr old.

Oops! Time flies around me. Must run the 13 yr old to school. Still no bus!

A New Day!

Let’s start the day off with a PayPal donation link:

This Morning

* I just want to sleep but the 13 yr old won’t allow it. He has homework that did not get done and needs to be hovered over.

* 6:08 got up and got the kids moving, put wood on the fire.

* 6:20 went back to bed until 6:50 when I got up, checked on the kids, and brewed coffee

* Took the 7 yr old, his friend, and the 10 yr old to school. The friend was ready to go when we pulled up (7:08)–a first!

* 7:12 dropped the kids at school then went and fueled the car. Today’s gas prices: 14.667 gallons at $1.539 per gallon = $22.57 (that the cheap 87 octane)

* Returned home and the 13 yr old was on his “2nd” bowl of cereal but for all I know it was his 4th. I reminded him he had homework then I laid down for 7 minutes until he started making noises to draw me back upstairs.

Last Night

* Had a beer and watched history channel until 12:50am

– Deep Sea Detectives – B29 “In 1948, a B-29 Superfortress bomber took off from California on a research mission carrying a strange piece of scientific equipment–the Suntracker. But when the plane crashed into Lake Mead, Nevada, the Suntracker was lost. And all records saying what it was or what the plane was studying were also lost.

For decades, the bomber was a local legend around the Canyon, but its location was unknown…”

Late afternoon spent talking on phone to people about a job

Evening spent feeding kids, changing diapers and chopping wood.

Late evening spent searching for Wonka Valentine’s cards.

Left undone: resume and cover letter for another job possibility (one that sounds promising!) and php

Considering it was a pretty day outside and calm winds, I had a brillant idea and thought that I could pull the three hollow headed 7 year olds from the Playstation 2 and the Gameboy SPs (note: this is significant, my boy has the Cobalt Gameboy SP but as the child with the Flame Gameboy SP explained, the Cobalt Gameboy SP does not have as much power because red means more power. My child accepts this at face value.) At the same time I figure I could make my boy a hero amongst his friends. I pulled out his Christmas present, a Tyco X.F.O. (Extreme Flying Object)! Basically its a styrofoam helicopter. The boys reply “we were going outside anyway.”

It takes 4 minutes to charge so friend 1 and friend 2 are outside on the porch, their thumbs never ceased to be pushing keys on the Gameboy SPs. Their eyes never left the screens and my boy was looking over their shoulders. As the XFO became charged my boy and I take it out the the street followed by 2 zombies clicking away on little plastic boxes. My son turns on the propellers and immediately launches from the street up to the height of the power lines. I cringe waiting for the inevitable and the wind shifts sending it towards the trees in our yard and the lines that connect the telephone phone to our house. This flying thing is about 25 to 30 feet in the air and somehow he gets it over the lines and brings it psuedo-gently to the ground where it flops around like a fish out of water as he learns to turn it off. This display actually brings the zombies out of their gameboy stupor for a portion of the flight. After several other exciting flights my son and I rush back to recharge.

During the recharge I ask, “Do you want to let your friends try?” He replies “yes” I say “ok. But the first flight from the recharge is yours.” I say this for a reason and that is the first flight is extra high and extra strong. He immediately offers the first flight to his friend. I respectively intervene and give the first flight to my son and it goes very well. He almost hit the power lines and in maneuvering about the lines he managed to get some exciting action on the flying machine sending in a large, controlled circle. After that flight he allows his neighborhood friend to try (immediately grabbing the Gameboy SP his friend had and losing all interest in the flying machine) and I give him his instructions on safety and how to land. Allow me to remind you that these creatures at 7 years old have removed their brains so the instructions are specific. This child launches the flying machine. It goes up 20-25 feet and exercising great judgement he turns it off at the peak of the flight dropping it straight to the ground shattering one stablizing wing in the process. My boy looks up and says “I don’t want to fly it anymore.”

In a matter of minutes, both Gameboy SPs and 3 children were back in the house near the Playstation 2.

Note: I forgot to include this all important comment on the original post.

        

I’m home alone with 3 7 yr old boys. I think I’ll hide somewhere. 3 capable brains all failing to think at once is entirely too much. How does a 2nd grade teacher manage!

My mother-in-law referred me to a job that pays $7/hr. My father-in-law referred me to a job that pays $55k/yr. So, which one holds me in higher regard? 🙂

* Ok. So I went and voted in the preliminaries. I would feel good about myself if it wasn’t for the fact that every time I step into a voting booth I realize there is so much more about politics that I really should understand. It makes me wonder that knowing what I know, how many people vote with no knowledge at all? “That names sounds similar to my uncle; he must be a good guy.” “I saw him on tv the most. He’s the guy!” It’s frustrating because I’d like to run out there and shake everyone and say “Do you know what you are doing?!” By pushing those buttons in the voting booth, we are deciding the future of our children’s lives, their education needs, our whole way of life; and they expect only 17% of registered voters to even bother showing up. It’s scary when you think about it because at some point it becomes an issue of economics and buying the right percentage of voters.

Wow! Makes you appreciate what we pay for a computer now-a-days. Let me re-iterated: 1989, 2 MB RAM, 256,000 Colors (wow! 18 bit)!

Spent the morning blogging, surfing, setting up Act, composing a letter to a friend in hopes that he can help me find a job and taking phone calls.