Maebius Musing

Lately, with the hectic work schedule and summery weather outside, I have done less esoteric musing, and more being outside playing lately. Sorry for those of you after daily updates here. Life is being lived, not written up these past few days.

And speaking of life, we have a new digital camera to document all those little Life moments! I’m still learning the basics, and having trouble figuring out how to easily make thumbnails of the pics to put online instead of making tiny copies of each and every image (thus doubling th# of files on my site). so, if you’d like to see some random pictures, check out the rest of this blog entry… WARNING- links included below, but following them is not safe for dialup!

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((re-edited on 06/22 for clarity and completeness..))

So last weekend we shuffled off to Buffalo for the wife’s Goddaughter’s 13th birthday. (She’s an official teen! O.M.G.) anyway, the plan was to relax a bit on Saturday, socialize a bit at the party, and then…the part I went along for…a hike Sunday morning down a new stretch of Zoar Valley.
http://www.zoarvalley.org/home.html
To prevent my personal respiratory arrest, the folks were nice enough to setup a huge tend out in the backyard for us to sleep in. (Cats, VERY fuzzy dogs, etc. I look like a leprous elephant unless I take a few kilos of antihistamine, which then makes the brain go mush). That was a lot of fun, and Doug enjoyed ‘camping’ also. Continue Reading »

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The past few days we have been finishing up some long-awaited projects around the house. We finished tilling and (mostly) planting the garden. We built a trellis for wisteria at the “garden gate”, and such. If you’d like to read all about the joy and improvements going on around Everthorn, read below…(pictures included, so may load slower)

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So yesterday after work, I picked up Special-Ops agent: Doug (current status: Redbird, formerly Redfish, formerly Thomas the Train…) since the usual sitters were feeling rather under the weather. On the way home, I stopped by the Whitestown Ice Rink to check on times of public skates and such, since we had thought about going a few times and never got around to checking when it was open.

Well, let me tell you, walking in to the otherwise empty building at 10:30am was like going to Disneyland for the kid! Eyes: properly bugged. Heartrate: channelling chipmunk metabolisms there. Excitement level off the charts. We were to skate NOW! NOW he sez! Unfortunately, or luckily, the public skates are Tues&Thurs evenings from 7-9pm.

So after convincing him to wait and we’d go later in the day -if- he was cooperative in School, we left to go home and he had to call mom right away to ask her about skating in the evening. *grin* It was cute.

** time passes ** (He was very good at school, only when it was break time and he ran for the door to go skating, instead of taking a seat for the upcoming storytime.)

Note to others: Generally the misbehaving at school takes form of insisting his name is NOT Doug, or getting into minor skirmish with his arch-rival, the kid who likes to take the same toy he’s currently playing with and refusing to back down.
Evening comes, we head to the rink, and get laced up with the Uber-hawt rental skates. *chuckle* First 20 minutes or so consisted of Tammy and I holding his hands and the rest of his body suspended between us while we played out that scene from Bambi, and he flailed his legs around (Dancing, in his words). Then it seemed to click that walking was more useful and less tiring on the rapidly weakening parental arms.

After about the first hour, he was slowly shuffling around, with a few butt-bounces, but smiling and dedicated to getting from one “circle” to the other (picture the markings on a hockey rink, we had to stop at each dot and follow each line/arc/circle).

The only bad thing was a beautifully executed face-plant with the side of the rink when trying to go take a break in the penalty boxes since the “door” to the real seats was waaaaay over on the other side, and he didn’t want to skate that far. Incisors met lips in perfect alignment, and the hemoglobin reared it’s crimson self. *sigh* Not too bad though, but defintiely a solidly pierced upper lip.
But, once the crying settled down, and a cold cloth helped sop up the little bit of blood, the tyke was determined and adamant about getting back on the ice, after we suggested it were time to go home. (My ankles were killing me, and our arms were getting a bit worn from picking ourselves and Doug off the ice…yep, parents definitely need more practice skating!). So, we went back out and skated around for another good 25 minutes before finally leaving at 8:45, with Nate spending the final segment trying NOT to laugh too much at the huge lip and drunken-boxer expression on the little one’s face when he was smiling. By the end though, he was walking around pretty good and even “glided” an inch or two from time to time, before succumbing to the harsh seduction of Mistress Gravity.

It was a lot of fun, and I almost feel bad that the rink closes down for the summer next week. It’s also pretty amazing how kid’s brains really are quite adept “learning sponges”. The way he picked up the concept of walking on skates with a fairly frictionless surface under them made me thing that calculus was not too far off! Wish we could pick up new things that fast!

But alas, like all things, the evening came to a sobbing end far too early for Doug, who promptly fell asleep as we got home. But we will probably be coming back next year for the “learn to skate” program for 3-5 yr olds. Heck, with the lip looking like it did last night, and his unwillingness to quit in the face of further pain and chilly bottom, I just hope hockey’s not too soon in our sports future. *grin*

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Oh, and here’s a random bit of FUN pictures, shared by one of the AODA druids…feast your eyes on: The Rabbits of Disapproval!
http://www.birdchick.com/adventures/rabbit/index.html

Enjoy!

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