Mixed bag for you today-
Bus Rider- Revisited
This morning I finally ran out of excuses and got my sorry butt back on the bus.
Since getting back from Florida a week ago Wednesday I’ve been driving downtown every day, paying for parking, paying for gas, getting behind in my reading, on and on.
Some of the excuses I’ve employed of late:
- Too hot. When I’m wearing a suit the LAST thing I want to do is walk four blocks in 80 degrees with 70% humidity. Makes me a little moist by the time I get to my office where I find, more times than not, the office is hot and humid because they haven’t turned on the AC early enough in the morning to get the temps under control. I don’t like sweating in a suit. Nuff said.
- I need my car. Mrs S is out of town, she’s been out of town since last Thursday. When she’s gone I might get a call from the school or something and need to go pick up a sick kid. School is not currently in session so that argument is a little thin. Plus, two of the kids drive so in the unlikely event, or maybe the likely event since she complains about being ill 3:1 times over the two boys combined, they could in fact, pick her up.
- I’m late. Since returning I’ve been running late. Perpetually late as a matter of fact. I’ve been late to EVERYTHING, which is quite unlike me, except… I wasn’t late to last week’s Masons deal down in Montgomery MN, that would have a fine event to be a few minutes late, instead I turned up an hour early and sat around outside feeding mosquito’s, it was awesome.
- Road Construction- OK I’m not sure how this works, tilt in the universe of some kind, maybe I squashed a bug that was someone’s recently reincarnated great Auntie who always wanted the gift of flight I don’t know. Or maybe it’s just that I live in Minnesota and it’s summer. BUT, somehow some planners somewhere have managed to start serious long term road construction projects on just about every road that your kind loving writer here drives on in the course of the day, starting with the feeder road outside my neighborhood. Seriously. Everyone. Even the roads I use for a shortcut to get home when I’m driving myself, as I’ve been doing, my secret short cuts through South Minneapolis, torn up and some cases flat out closed. Roads the feed on-ramps, closed. The main road between my abode and the Park’n Ride- closed. Not conned off while they work, flat out closed. So I get in the car, late, hot and looking for an excuse and by the time I negotiate the endless construction projects.. I’m no where near the park and ride and give up and drive in to work. Where, BTW it costs me about $15.00 a day to park. Vs, a buck a day if I used the buss pass I PAY FOR. Stupid eh?
Today I got up early, negotiated the gauntlet of orange barrels and got to the bus stop. An move that was more than 3 minutes out of my way. Yeah.. shameful.
Can tutoring help when kids are slow as mine?
Interesting conversation with the Daughter. While Mrs S is out of town I’m responsible for getting to some of the many places she needs to be in a given day including Hunntington where she’s getting some tutoring in writing. Personally I think too much texting has impacted her ability to express herself in words longer than 2 letters and a character. In our discussions for some reason Phy Ed came. BTW, in Cali, Phy Ed is P.E. Phy Ed sounds to me like something from Leave it to Beaver, same goes for Pop. Never heard Pop used as slang for soft drink except in old Disney Movies until I moved here. Here, everyone thinks they’re Dean Jones or something with these terms from the 50’s. I digress.
Daughter announced that this last year in school in she was able to complete the 7th grade mile run in a stellar 21 minutes.
21 minutes.
That doesn’t feel very fast. Middle kid announced that he was able break the 17 minute barrier pretty easy. Did it with 8 seconds to spare.
16:52 for a mile run, if that can be described as running.
Doesn’t feel too much better. Sprinters can complete a there own mile in the difference between these two.
Oldest kid. He was the family athlete, years of hockey in his past. Mile? 15 minutes. Explains why he was a goalie I think.
Back to 21.. “dear” I said in my most loving voice “that’s barely walking, did you sit down half way through and take a rest?” apparently not. Chatted with her friends while walking I’m sure. At that speed they could easily maintain a conversation with no worry about being outta breath.
I’m now wondering if the fine folks at Huntington Learning Centers have a tutoring program for PE. I think we have some candidates.
I should talk, at least I’m smart enough to get in a car when I need to travel a mile or so.
Parenting Sank Style.. or How not to do it.
Interesting discussion with some youths this weekend, made me wonder if we have the whole thing wrong. In conversation with other kids I learned that other families have things called uh, what’s the word, “limits” or “rules” or something like that. Apparently there are parents who monitor what their kids are watching on TV. Saturday Night Live for example. Some of the kids haddn’t seen it before because A) they’re not allowed to watch it and B) they’re in bed when it comes on.
I struggled thinking about our kids and wondering of we’re just total failures at this parenting thing. Our daughter has never missed an episode of SNL. Matter of fact she wrote up her 6th Grade presentation project on SNL. She also watched Criminal Minds, all the assorted CSI’s and any R rated movies that I happen to be watching. When something saucy comes up I tell her to “cover up” and she does.
Hmm. Bed times are strange to me as well, we’ve never really had one for the kids. Really only a problem for the middle kid, he’s a night owl and can stay up really late. Problem with bedtimes of 10 or 11 or later on weekend, the old man probably won’t be up to enforce it.
I, am going to bed early these days. Street light early some nights.
I suppose it’s too late for us now, the kids are almost grown and the damage of being raised by yours truly has been done. We’ll have to see how it works out in the end.
College- Two in better than one.
Speaking of the end- college application season is here. Middle kid is cranking out the apps now. So far
- Auburn. He’s hot on the Tigers and has reconciled spending four years of his life in Alabama. Good for him.
- St. Thomas. Safety school. He can get in but it’s inside my 300 mile exclusion zone for college. I like the idea of kids really going away, but that getting to school trumps exclusions. Then again, at St. Thomas we could still go to Timberwolves games.
- Oregon. He’s applying to the University of Oregon. Didn’t see this coming. “Son, is this because they were also in the National Championship game?” Apparently not. He’s very interested in Biology/Pre-Med or something, I have to listen better (See the above on parenting skills) and he’s read that Oregon is a top school for that sort of thing. Hadn’t thought of that one, but I’m supportive if that’s where he wants to go. Feels like we should do a visit. Feels like I should go on that one, Oregon is one of those places I love even though I’ve never been there.
Authors note- You can develop feelings for places you’ve never been good and bad. I don’t have to visit Port Arthur TX or Pierre SD to know I don’t like them. I’ve never been to San Simeon and I know, if offered a house and chance to move there I would jump at it.
Since the Middle Kid is doing college, Oldest Kid, not wanting to feel left out, has declared his intention to go from Michigan Tech straight to Grad School. Which makes me happy. We knew that in his field a BS wasn’t good enough. “BTW father, I intend to apply to Stanford”
Stanford? Gulp. “Is there a Stanford other than the one in Palo Alto CA?” “No Dad, that’s the one. They’re top in my field.”
“super” I said, with a quaver in my voice.
Stanford.. we’ll see how that goes, but should he get in, and his grades at Tech are certainly good enough, well looks like I’ll be getting my last Starbucks Latte for a few years. Looks like the limits I was hoping to impose on my kids are going to imposed on me, right in the pocket book.
Hey, if “16:52 for a mile run, if that can be described as running,” then I must be running my 2 miles every morning. At age 66, that’s not bad.
Oregon in Eugene is a great place. If the kid wants to know more about 17-minute miles, the head cross country coach there was a 4th grade classmate of mine (and a former Big 10 cross country star). I also have a sister and bro-in-law there who’d be glad to give tours – especially at basketball time.
Grad school at Stanford: in the sciences, there are many fellowships available, and probably more at Stanford than at lesser places. The daughter in our family, a physicist, got through her PhD at UW-Madison and a post-doc at Stanford without having to write a check for tuition or enrollment. And she wasn’t a TA either (although, she’d probably have enjoyed that given the pleasures she’s had in teaching since leaving Stanford).
I WALK a mile in 15 minutes on the treadmill. Give or take a few minutes for the treadmill vs real road and…well, I just don’t get it.
Oh as for grad school, my parents agreed for undergrad but nothing after that. That is why I waited until I was 31 and had a job that would pay for it.
Tell him to skip the MS and go straight to the PhD and let Stanford pay for it.
Our daughter finished grad school at U of O in Eugene, and is working for the University now. She loves the school, loves Eugene, loves Oregon. We visited and really liked it, too. Hippie town. They also have the stadium that Nike built. Oh, and she is the product of parenting which sounds quite similar to yours. We figured we’d trust our kids until/unless they did something which showed they could not be trusted. They all did well, and are competent, honest, hard-working adults. Assuming that is your goal, you are doing just fine!
If you need a tour guide for Oregon, I’m your man! Eugene is my hometown! You can’t go wrong with your kid being a Duck!
But then he turns out to be a quack. Har.