Category: Daily Life

When I was 9 and a half or so we moved from Cary, North Carolina to Kenner, Lousiana and we lived there until I was 13 and a half. We always made our moves during the summer so that it didn’t interfere with school. My birthday falls in October. Moves are always halves.

For my 10th, 11th, 12th or 13th birthday, my folks thrilled me with a birthday party at the local go-cart track and arcade. The track was shaped like:



We were given instructions to run the track as such:



It was hinted to us that we could make better time by “cutting the corners” as indicated by the blue marks here:



My interpretation and execution:



This execution of course included jumping the go-cart over concrete curbs, red-neck driving it through mud and grass, and culminating with my father’s consideration of executing me, and the track owner wanting to have us all removed. Some apologies, clarifications and promises kept us having a good time but I felt miserable that my innocent misinterpretation had caused so much trouble and the internal punishment and agony dwelled for a long time. I also felt like a failure in my father’s eyes.

Tommy is not so much different than the rest of us. He is just a bigger target on the radar.

Today I watched the bus blow past the stop again. Fortunately I had begun calling transportation before that time so I had already been through 10 minutes of busy signals when it happened. As the kids clambered into the car distressed that they were going to be counted tardy, transportation answered the phone. As I read the person on the other end a firm but not over the top riot act the kids cheered me on and volunteered their commentary. Noah, “Yeah!” Ashley, “Who are you calling?” Alex, “Why won’t our bus pick us up?”

When the lady on the end of the phone suggested that we may not be standing close enough to the stop (a terribly busy road with many accidents) I started in with an excited series of questions like “do you mean you want me to have my kids stand closer to Northshore? What do you want me to do, have them in the middle of the street?” It wasn’t until she said, “I just answer the phones” and I replied with, “good. Now I want you to stop ‘just answering the phones’ and figure out a way to get this bus to pick up my kids!” that she decided to hangup on me.

30 minutes later the phone quit ringing busy and I had the pleasure of speaking with another person. By this time, the school secretary and I already had a discussion with the bus driver. Of course a few sentences into the conversation Cingular drops my cellular connection so I was right back to busy signals but this time for only about 4 minutes.

The discussion with the bus driver, a nice guy, went like this: Driver and secretary talking. I walk up and the secretary says, “oh! Here he is!” Greetings. Nicities. Me, “So what can I do to get you to stop and pick up my kids?” Driver, “I’ve never this stop before and I can’t be stopping and having those kids cross Northshore. Can you get them on the other side of the road?” The other side of the road is a 3 foot section of grass between the busy road and a privacy fence. “[I can’t have my kids stand on that dangerous road.]” Secretary, “Perhaps we need to have transportation move the stop.” My thoughts of course this means ‘put them on the other side of the road with the middle schoolers’ which as far as I’m concerned works for me. Me, “In the meantime, if I step out into Northshore, stop the cars, and act as a crossing guard, will you stop?” Driver, “Sure.”

Back to transportation. The next call gets me back to the person that hung up on me. After getting her name, I ask, “What can I do to get you to not hang up on me?” She replies, “Be nice. Don’t yell at me.” My reply, “First off, I didn’t yell. I’m an aggrivated father that has watched the bus blow past his kids stop 3 out of 4 days and 1 day it didn’t even show up. And you were suggesting that my kids need to stand on a dangerous road to get it to stop.” Next I make apologies and agree to not yell if she agrees to hear me out. I compliment the driver as being nice, explain the situation, suggest 3 alternative solutions as well as pointing out the numerous other students that would ride the bus if it wasn’t on Northshore, and she explains she will look into it and get back to me.

For those of you that have never been poor, let me give you an example of the daily trials and tribulations. Today, if I don’t come up with $260.40 cash our electricity gets cut off. Now, the last time I waited until the day of the cut off to pay it we still got cut off. Cash? Why not call it in over the phone? Oh, that’s because of 2 bounced checks in my history that cause me to have to pay at the office in person (roughly a 1 hour round trip waste of my day that could have been spent generating money to pay the bills). They won’t accept credit cards from me either.

Noah, “Dad can I save the newspapers that we get?”

Dad, “Why?”

Noah, “Because I want to collect them.”

Dad, “Um, I am going to have to say ‘no’ since you don’t even read the paper.”

Noah, “But one day I might want to read a funny from last year.”

Dad, “The library collects them for you. They have really old papers too. If you wanted to see what was happening on this day in 1942 you could. Alright?”

Noah, “Alight.”

Now I sit before the computer, unable to focus on anything but bustling kids (except for Tommy who moans and stretches then rolls over and sleeps again). This is my opportunity to blog, read blogs, read news and plan my day.

I’ve now got the dog trained so that immediately after walking it outside it poops in the house. I know how to fix this but I don’t have the time.

A New Day!

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This Morning

Tommy came down at 11pm to explain that he could not sleep. At 1:15 in the morning I jumped awake probably due to something Tommy was doing but when I checked on him he was pretending pretty good or he was actually asleep. At 4:15am Noah’s alarm clock went off and I had to encourage him to get back to sleep. At 5am my biological clock said, “get up.” and at 5:15 I rose.

The bank is now charging me $6 per day plus $32 on any transaction that tries to go through (which should be none) until I get the account positive again. So, let me see if I understand this right. You are broke so we are going to charge you more money. Keep ’em down! Soon they will threaten to close the account and lecture me on how I will be unable to re-establish myself with any bank.

I used to wonder wonder what kind of person buys glasses at the check out of convenience stores. Now I know. It’s those working, uninsured blind people like myself that lose their glasses and have no other options but to squint or use something “close.”

So I have noticed that occasionally I get this strange fibrillation in my chest as if my heart instead of going “da thump da thump da thump” instead goes “da thump pause thump thump thump pause da thump.” I have always found it interested that toward the base of my sternum I can effectively watch my pulse. Now the pattern I described I actually feel slightly in my chest but mostly can feel with my hand at the base of my ribs on my right side. If I place a business card on my stomach there I can watch the card jump like a Mexican jumping bean or a metronome.

Cathy says it is anxiety but I think I am handling my stress fine. I’m not concerned about it but its one of those times where if I had insurance I’d consider consulting my gp. It is a little annoying because it’s one of those unnatural things your body decides to do that you have no control over. Like a water torture or an eye twitch.

Student: Am I weak?

Master: You were before you asked.

The tea pot whistles with my hot water for my oat meal. Amy looks at me perplexed and says, “Wht’s that noise?” with emphasis on ‘what’ and ‘that’. So its rythmic like “Wht’s! *pause* ThAT *andante* nooiise?”

Knox County Transportation (594-1550) rings busy thing morning.

We showed up for the bus at 7:20. The bell rings at 7:45. 7:46 the kids are officially late. So I drop Noah with the other parent that comes to the stop then I rush Sarah and her friend to their bus stop since I really don’t approve of them crossing Northshore. Traffic on Northshore today going east bound was beyond bad. After dropping the older girls I return to find Noah and friends still at their stop. 7:45 comes and goes and I check to make sure I can’t see the bus stuck in traffic. We load the car up and I use the backroads by going west bound so that I am not 20 minutes in traffic to drive 1 mile (1.5 km). On the backroads I pass the bus going the other direction. I still beat it to school and negotiate no tardies for the children that have been told “if you are late on Monday you will be counted tardy regardless.” The new principal is very nice! At 8:00 I am returning home and I pass the bus in traffic on Northshore still unarrived at the school. (or had it already been to the school and was now doing its middle school route?)

1 hour until the M-Team at the high school. Just enough time to get ready to go and maybe review the Jobs section of the news paper. I like how it has been switched from “Careers” to “Jobs.” The concept of a career is dying.

A New Day!

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This Morning

I am completely wigged out this morning but working hard to stay calm. I woke naturally at 5am and Molly encouraged me to get out of bed by 5:30 which was good. I really like getting up early.

Yesterday

The day started calm and then I became tense when I found out we had to leave earlier than planned. Some adjustments and a brief fight with Tommy. He was calling his brother a “dummy” and his brother was participating by calling Tommy a “dummy” but became frustrated and hit Tommy. When I asked Tommy to come talk to me he started yelling. We arrived at the meeting location to hand Amy off to the grandparents 30 minutes late. I made good time getting to Severville and we arrived at the barn before the crowds. We had a one hour ride with the guide in the lead, then Noah, Sarah, Cathy, Tommy and myself. I got horse that I swear the guy called it “Dog” but back at the barn they told me it was “Dot” so the entire trip I’m talking to my horse saying “Good dog!” I bet the guide was laughing his tail off. Probably an intential joke on the dad as when you return to the barn if you can’t remember your horse’s name you are suppose to either kiss the lady in the barn or the pig. Dog had one speed and twice Dog and I had some difference of opinion about who was in control. For the most part, it was a responsive horse without needing to use the harsh steering techniques and kicking that the guide taught to us.

Noah during the ride was so excited that he refused to be quiet. “Hour many hours do you work?” “How many horses do you have?” This. That. More. Chatter. As two skunks crossed the trail right in front of Noah (Noah saw only 1) the guide tried to get him to shut his mouth because a startled skunk is a smelly skunk. Afterwards at the petting zoo Noah seemed afraid of all the animals. I have to get him around critters more often so that he becomes more comfortable with them. He is even very timid around Molly that demands attention and I’m not sure if he ever pets Lucy or the cats unprompted. He had a great day of it. His best quote from the ride, “Ewww! My horse pooted!” Noah was a great help with the two year olds.

Sarah was in hog heaven. I think she enjoyed the day more than anyone else. She took the riding in stride and seemed totally at ease and completely enjoying it. In addition to the skunks she saw a wild deer. Her quote came just before Noah’s as she was riding behind Noah, “EEEEW!” Her one moment of clumsiness came when her horse walked her into a low hanging thick vine and she struggled to push it around her without falling off the horse. I thought the vine was going to come down instead branches fell just barely missing Tommy’s horse. Sarah was last to leave from the petting zoo and would have spent the night there if permitted.

Tommy seemed to really have a good time. At STAR he is never without someone beside him to help. As we started the ride, all the lead horses went down the path and Tommy’s horse got a mind to go down a steep incline shortcut to the path. Tommy’s best quote came then with a shaky, “Whooooaaaaa!” This Western riding certainly had to have a different feel than the English riding to which he is accustomed. He had a great time but toward the end I think he became bored as he started grabbing for every branch he could reach from which to pull leaves. I was certain he was going to over extend and fall so I brought a quick halt to it. In the end he was getting sweaty and repeatedly put down his raines to tuck his shirt under his arms. Looks like he is doing the chicken dance whenever he does that. Back at the petting zoo Tommy found a baby goat and just sat on the ground caressing it over and over. It was very sweet. He enjoyed the petting zoo very much. Tommy, unlike Noah, is really into animals.

The rest of the family had a great time. Amy was incredibly happy and talkative having spent much time with her cousins and as an animal person ate up the petting zoo. Cathy and I really enjoyed seeing the kids have such a great time.

A New Day!

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This Morning

Started this morning by stepping in a puddle of urine that an over excited puppy put on the floor to tell me how happy she was that I was getting out of bed to walk her.

Noah just revealed to me that Amy’s sometimes early rising is not due to her needing to be let out of the room but due to his need to have a playmate. Amy sleeps now but Noah was on his way back to “get her out.” Funny.

Today we take Tommy horseback riding. Noah says, “Since I’m not training I won’t be doing any jumping. Maybe some hopping but not jumping.” The riders will be Tommy, Sarah, Noah, Cathy and myself (maybe Amy).

Uncle Matt says to his son, “Gabriel, let’s go see cousin Tommy, cousin Sarah, cousin Noah and Cousin Amy.”

Gabriel (2 years old), “Amen!”

Matt, at this point I am told to prompt you to start blogging as you could tell these stories!