As you churchgoers know, sometimes sermons aren’t the most gripping. In order to make myself listen, I bring a notebook and pen and try to take notes, even though there’s a vanishingly small chance I’ll ever look back at those notes. But sometimes sermons are so not-gripping that I end up flipping to the back of the notebook and doodling while listening. I’m almost done with the current notebook, and I thought I’d scan and save my doodles, since I particularly like some of them.
Flying Wheels 2015: Goal Achieved
I haven’t mentioned my recreational biking here much of late, mainly because I figure not many people find it as interesting as I do. Plus there’s not that much to say. When I try to tell Benji a story about my bike ride, the story pretty much always goes, “I went out for a bike ride with Papa Joe today. We rode, and we rode, and we rode for a long, long, long time. Now I am very tired.” This is good; biking stories with excitement tend to involve emergency vehicles, trips to the hospital, damaged bikes, and other less-than-ideal outcomes.
Green Thumbing
Lately Benji has decided he likes to be “Benji Yard Waste Man.” In this game, an adult pulls weeds or cuts grass, and then Benji picks up the detritus and throws it into the big yard waste bin. We set up the step stool so he can reach in the top. The great thing about this game is that, as a result, a significant portion of our yard has gotten weeded.
We have a rock wall along one side of our property, and adjacent to this is a bare strip that we mulch, but it doesn’t have any plants. It’s very sunny but wet and seepy, and has virtually no top soil above the underlayment of solid clay. In short, terrible growing conditions, except for weeds, which thrive there.
For Sale: One Load of Tripe
Lately at Benji’s school, something’s been happening that I’m not sure what to do about. I don’t want to get into too many specifics, but the short story is that this mom has repeatedly told her kid something untrue in front of other kids, including mine, in order to keep her kid from doing something.
Let’s say, hypothetically, that she told her kid not to yell in the hallways because it would make other people go deaf. She’s doing this to curtail an unwanted behavior her kid engages in (one that I actually think it’s that bad in the first place), but it seems manipulative and, besides, it’s simply not true. I avoid lying as much as I can, although I’m as guilty of lying to my kid as any parent. But I’m not going to lie when a perfectly good truth exists and would work just as well.
Memorial Day and Birthday!
Well, this last weekend, I turned 31. My mom called me and told me what she always say, every year: “I remember exactly what I was doing at this time X years ago.” Now I have a kid, I can finally say it to him, too! Anyway this year Mom even elaborated that at that exact time 31 years ago, she was really hungry because the hospital had stopped serving lunch and wouldn’t be serving dinner for four hours, so she sent Dad to get Kidd Valley, and it was the best burger and shake she ever had. I have to say, the donut I ate after Benji was born sure did taste amazing, so I can understand where she’s coming from on that.
Loves
Benji has Pretended to Be…
– A dung beetle, with his snuggly blankie as a ball of dung
– Intestines wiggling on the floor
– Silly little baby spider that wiggles and giggles before he hatches out from under his snuggly blankie
– A hermit crab in his shell (a pillow fort)
– A duckling following the mommy duck (me) single file
– A silly little egg ready to hatch from under his snuggly blankie
– A bit of soap grabbing grease and a water molecule in a bubbly wash
– A blob of grease jumping progressively higher on the grill (couch) as it gets hotter and hotter