Monthly Archives: March 2012

A couple of years ago a young man came into the fire station where My Captain works, and asked what he could do for the men there as part of an Eagle Scout project.  I am not exactly sure how they came to the decision, but it was determined that a good project for the aspiring Eagle Scout would be to build some stairs for the men.

You see, the station sits on the lower end of an incline, and the shops the crew often go to during a shift are up-hill.  For decades they had taken a path that had been naturally created from literally hundreds of boots going up and down it.  It was pretty muddy and very slippery in inclement weather.  Stairs would solve this problem.

So the boy took a year to plan, earn money for, organize a team, and build this:

Look at that.  That young man even built a hand rail.  And each step was filled with water draining gravel. It was a monstrous job.  But to become the prestigious rank of Eagle Scout, it’s got to be an impressive project.  They don’t just hand those badges out willy-nilly.  (Eagle Scouts never use the term willy-nilly.)

SO much work had to go into that project.  Hundreds of hours.  Sweat, blood, and sacrifice.  That young man could have been out with his friends, or dating a girl, or heck, even just sleeping instead of working on everything that this project entailed.  But he chose instead to give his time for the benefit of others.

How proud his parents must have been.  What a success story of parenting!  And how noble an endeavor.  This boy built these steps so these firefighters could….

….wait…what is up there again?  Why did they want the steps built?

OH YEAH, there is a Dunkin Doughnuts, a McDonald’s, and a Wendy’s on the top of that hill.

The boy sacrificed a year of his youth so that the firefighters could………

……eat junk food without getting their shoes dirty.

I shudder to think of the sleep and girl-time this kid lost for that purpose.  I sure do hope that Eagle Scout rank gets him somewhere good…he certainly earned it.

At the very least, I hope it helps him get a date.

My Captain has more help that he could possibly need on his “Project From Hell” out back.  He’s creating a walk-out basement where there was none.

It all started when he bought my brother Graham’s vintage Skeeball machine for Critter and Varmint for Christmas.  He figured he’d finish the basement and make a bigger door to get the machine in.  That led to a series of other “Might-As-Wells” that led to a full-blown excavation/building project.

It’s taking every ounce of his energy to do it.  His father often pitches in, and essentially it’s just the two of them working on it.

Until yesterday.  Yesterday Varmint and Critter were determined to be more of a ‘help’ and less of a ‘load.’  So they put down their toys, pulled on their Crocs boots, some sturdy gloves, and got to it.

That there is a healthy dose of mud.  Let’s see how much of it we can get inside the house!

Come here, Varmint.  I’ve got something you can do.

Varmint: Let me apply some 5th grade math.  Mom could never do this.  You’d better stick with me.

Me: Whatcha doin, love?

Varmint: I’m puttin’ the thingamagiggy into the whatchamacallit so we can cut the doo-dad.

World’s best Tamper.  Tamp. Tamp. Tamp.  Got something that needs tamping?  He’s your man.

My Captain: We unplug it when we measure and then plug it in when we’re ready to cut.  But not before then.

Varmint: Why?

Varmint: Ah.  Nevermind.

World’s best gravel shoveller.  Shovel. Shovel. Shovel.  Need some gravel shovelled? He’s your man.

Papa’s here!

He never lets me drive that thing.  What could possibly go wrong?

Critter: Mom! Look at this!

Critter: Papa said I could have it!

Me: What are you going to do with it?

Critter: I dunno.  I’ll find something good.

Me: I don’t doubt it.

Critter:  Do you want to come help us, Mom?

Me: No love.  I’ve got someone waiting for me.

Hello there, Darlin.  Ready to see what’s under all those leaves? It’s not as glamorous as the saw….

…but it can be equally rewarding.

And people wonder why we don’t have Cable TV.  Who has time to sit and watch it?

The world ain’t gonna wait for you!  So Go On!  Git Out There !!!

My Captain and I were cleaning out relics from the mountains of stuff he had saved at his parents’ house over the years and came across a boomerang.  A REAL honest to goodness boomerang!  He’d made it himself when he was a teen.

His family had had a student named Meri from Australia live with them for a year when My Captain was in high school and she had brought a boomerang.  He traced it, and made one of his own out of plywood.  And he played with it for a while.  Then he put it away in a box.  And there it stayed.

Until….

He found it when we were going through stuff.  He pulled it out, laughed out loud, dusted it off, and decided to show Critter and Varmint the finer points of boomeranging (I just made that verb up.  Do you like it?).

We tried throwing it one way. It didn’t come back.

We tried throwing it another way. It didn’t come back.

And another.

And another.

And another.

My Captain looked up a “How To Throw A Boomerang” video on his phone.

And we tried it again.

Is this some kind of a joke?  How many times are you going to have us throw this?

Aw, come on.  Just try it one more time.

So they did.

And then it broke.  The dagnab thing never did come back to us.

But it was a nice day for a game of fetch.

You know what I think?  I think everyone in Australia who is reading this is laughing at us.  Boomerangs don’t work.  They are nothing more than a practical joke.

A really good practical joke.

This was the most wonderful day.  What a relaxing Sunday.  We slept in.  We went to church…our first time at Poolesville Presbyterian.  Pastor Williams is a pleasure to listen to!  Then we went to Subway, and drove down to the Barnesville Train Station for a picnic and science experiment.  Well….we called it a science experiment…what it really was, was boy time/girl time.

My Captain and Critter put a couple dozen coins on the tracks by the boarding platform and waited for a train to come smoosh them.  Talk about cheap entertainment.

But apparently My Captain used to do this when he was Critter’s age, and this was some kind of trip down memory lane…of a time when there was not nearly as much weight on his shoulders as there is now.

Of a time when disposable time was much more readily available, and there were not nearly as many distractions from the simple pleasures in life.

I am not sure which boy enjoyed it more today.  I love this shot.  I call it “Following In His Footsteps.”

And Varmint and I sat on the picnic blanket and watched the boys

….and talked girl talk and decided that we needed to do this more often.

She didn’t want it to end.

And neither did I.  I love this shot.  I call it “Mom, Take The Dang Picture Already.”

I know, I know, it was totally campy.

And I’m ok with that.

We don’t have Cable.

We don’t have TV reception.

And we never have.

In fact, our children’s exposure to Cable television was limited to Grandma Jane’s house, PopPop’s house, and then, a couple of years ago, at their father’s house.

When we tell people this, they are astounded.  What are we, living in the Ice Age?  What do we do with our downtime?

Downtime?  We have very little downtime!  There are too many fun things out there to be explored and experienced first hand.  We don’t have a lot of time for vicarious experiences!

Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’ve got plenty of DVD’s, and the kids grew out of their toddlerhoods with Baby Einstein et al.  And I am willing to bet my kids are the only kids on the block who could give you characters and lines from Gilligans Island, Wonder Woman, Bewitched, and Johnny Quest.

But for the most part, we don’t spend a lot of time in front of the TV.

What do we do?  Well, here’s an example of a Sunday morning, not too long ago:

In the Family Room:

Mom, I’m ignoring you.

Still ignoring you.  You are SO weird, Mom.

I will have you know that I read this same series of books when I was her age.  LOVE me some Nancy Drew!

Meanwhile, in the Kitchen:

Critter? Whatcha reading?  Hello?  Hello?   Whatcha reading, Critter?  CRITTER?!!

What???!!  Alright Already!!  Here!!  Does this make you happy, Mom?  You are SO weird.

Ah…from the series of books that spawned the movie “How To Train Your Dragon.”

Oh, and in case you missed this detail in his first picture above.  Yes, I believe in a well-balanced, nutritious start to the day.  A half pound of bacon, washed down with Tang.

Don’t judge! I’m just glad he’s eating something.

Some people say TV is evil.  They say that it is bad for family dynamics because it causes children to disengage from other family members to be passively entertained.

Huh.

Disengaged from family members?  Judging by these pictures, I guess books are evil too.

But what do I know?  I’m just SO weird.