Dear Dinker,
On the weekend was around a few babies ... two of them were yours. Well done you.
Dad says congrats as well, although he also says that he still beat you. Just like you, he couldn't celebrate his first father's day ... he wasn't a father. By his second, just like you, he was father of two.
He says he wins because he didn't have twins.
I can't wait to see your daughters again. They're really cute and cuddly, and for the most part they just lay there. Lilly was flailing around, trying to look at as many things as she could, which isn't very much, as far as I know.
Though what I know about babies that age is limited.
Well, what I know about babies is limited.
I know how to hold them. I have to support their neck. I don't know how old they are when they can hold their own necks but I've figure it's safer to hold every baby as if it can't hold its neck up. At least until it proves itself.
When I was holding Lilly on Saturday we were having a grand old chat. I was going on about the headaches you'll have over the next eighteen years, how you'll take her to soccer games and show her how to do long division and she smiled back as if to say she knew exactly what I was talking about.
Her grandmother said "You're pretty good at holding her. You'll be invited back again next weekend."
She also said that I was keeping her up by talking to her, that she should be fast asleep by now since she was just fed.
I was just super thrilled to have such a small person so entertained by me. Maggie, who was also very cute, was sleeping the whole time she was waiting for Lilly to finish her meal.
If Lilly sleeps through the night I'll be praised forever. If she doesn't I may not get invited back again for a while.
It's Tuesday and I haven't heard from them about next weekend. I don't know what to think.
Tuesday, June 14
Monday, June 13
For H.E.
Dear sister H,
It's your birth and grad day today. Hope it goes well. Don't keep my roommates out too late tonight, they have to be able to do chores tomorrow.
--bbb
It's your birth and grad day today. Hope it goes well. Don't keep my roommates out too late tonight, they have to be able to do chores tomorrow.
--bbb
Saturday, June 11
Grown men
"Grown men" is an oxymoron. At least, I like to think so.
Take the job site, for instance. It's basically a playground for grown men. At the start of the day we're given a game to play during recess. It's a game with a few rules, some powerful tools and a goal to reach. Best part is we get. a recess that lasts all day. We take a lunch, but all we talk about is how we've played the game so far and how we're going to play after.
Kids spend their time at school planning for recess. Desk time is just an annoying inconvenience, a necessary evil to be entertained so as to be allowed back out the door.
It was neat to see some of the same games being played as we played when we were in school. Ten or twenty years hasn't changed the fact that snow forts are built by a staff with a hierarchy, in kindergarten everything is a gun and the first kid to the playground gets first pick for his team.
Some kids would use their class time prepping for recess, to better use the time they had outside. Teams might be picked before hand, or at the very least captains. The more aware kids would have their desk work done first so that when the boss came around they would either not notice the extracurriculars, or not care.
Some kids will grow up to be in a hotel near Nashville with their wives, and after an early breakfast, will lean in to their middle aged buddy, fake a conversation and flip a back hand at his personals.
This is how I know there aren't any grown men.
At least I hope not.
Take the job site, for instance. It's basically a playground for grown men. At the start of the day we're given a game to play during recess. It's a game with a few rules, some powerful tools and a goal to reach. Best part is we get. a recess that lasts all day. We take a lunch, but all we talk about is how we've played the game so far and how we're going to play after.
Kids spend their time at school planning for recess. Desk time is just an annoying inconvenience, a necessary evil to be entertained so as to be allowed back out the door.
It was neat to see some of the same games being played as we played when we were in school. Ten or twenty years hasn't changed the fact that snow forts are built by a staff with a hierarchy, in kindergarten everything is a gun and the first kid to the playground gets first pick for his team.
Some kids would use their class time prepping for recess, to better use the time they had outside. Teams might be picked before hand, or at the very least captains. The more aware kids would have their desk work done first so that when the boss came around they would either not notice the extracurriculars, or not care.
Some kids will grow up to be in a hotel near Nashville with their wives, and after an early breakfast, will lean in to their middle aged buddy, fake a conversation and flip a back hand at his personals.
This is how I know there aren't any grown men.
At least I hope not.
Thursday, June 9
To Mands, from the road
Happy birthday.
It is the co-author's birthday today, though it's been a while since she's contributed a story here. She says she writes better from the road, but that only means she needs to hit the road.
I know I have more to write about when I'm on the road. I can't imagine I'll keep up this pace once I return home again (in 24 hrs. ish). I don't want to say I'll try because trying doesn't get posts posted.
Lee told me once that no one cares what you almost did, Bird and she is so very right.
Wasn't this a post about Mands, not about your posting habits?
i think it was meant to be, but i don't know what happened.
nevertheless, happy bday. hope it's a good one.
--bbb
It is the co-author's birthday today, though it's been a while since she's contributed a story here. She says she writes better from the road, but that only means she needs to hit the road.
I know I have more to write about when I'm on the road. I can't imagine I'll keep up this pace once I return home again (in 24 hrs. ish). I don't want to say I'll try because trying doesn't get posts posted.
Lee told me once that no one cares what you almost did, Bird and she is so very right.
Wasn't this a post about Mands, not about your posting habits?
i think it was meant to be, but i don't know what happened.
nevertheless, happy bday. hope it's a good one.
--bbb
Wednesday, June 8
jittery, from the road
sbux is our new office on the road. we usually stop at one part way through the day, or when we've reached a point in our day where we've exhausted our research and the locations we want to hit and need a moment to recharge, cool off and, most importantly, spend some time outside of the truck.
we both agree, and the Boss figured when we left, that the hardest part of this trip will be the time spent driving.
.. and we've spent a lot of time driving; on average 400 km/day.
We figured that out on this morning's two hour drive/math refresher course. (I'll get to that in a moment.)
Just as we haven't spent longer than one night in the same hotel (save for one set of nights), we haven't made one sbuxs our local brew hut either. However, there's one in every major city and, quite often, one at every major intersection. They all serve basically the same things. Some people do different things, but over all it's the same. I've learned that they have the right things to make a dairy-free, soy-free smoothie. It's not on the menu, but when you're as versed as I am with the ingredients of all the smoothies, and there's a creative person working on the beverages, we can come up with something.
The first dude .. (man I wish there was a story developing here, but there doesn't seem to be. I was going to write about the math review that Sweet and I had going down I40. He wanted to use a calculator to figure out our daily average, I said we should use our heads, or at the very least a pad of paper and he couldn't understand why. Turns out it was because he'd forgotten how to use long division. After a few minutes I had him convinced that I thought he couldn't do it, which was the tipping point to put his pen point to the paper.)
[I know; nice alliteration, right?]
(we worked on a small problem, which he got right. we learned how to check our work and then he went to work on the problem at hand. It was an honour to see him light up with the answer he got, especially after looking over after a couple of minutes to find a confused look on his face because he couldn't figure out why 8x4=34, but 8x7=56.)
<<It doesn't compute he said, and I can't figure out why>>
(Eventually he got it, the right answer and a flood of other thoughts about teaching styles and learning habits. It was refreshing to hear someone talk about all this with such interest and passion, but without the cliche buzz words that practicing teachers find themselves using among other practicing teachers.)
(Road trips make great think tanks, it's unfortunate that it takes a week to get warmed up to it)
.. something about making a smoothie that isn't interesting anymore and wasn't interesting in the first place. Thanks for reading.
8x4=32
we both agree, and the Boss figured when we left, that the hardest part of this trip will be the time spent driving.
.. and we've spent a lot of time driving; on average 400 km/day.
We figured that out on this morning's two hour drive/math refresher course. (I'll get to that in a moment.)
Just as we haven't spent longer than one night in the same hotel (save for one set of nights), we haven't made one sbuxs our local brew hut either. However, there's one in every major city and, quite often, one at every major intersection. They all serve basically the same things. Some people do different things, but over all it's the same. I've learned that they have the right things to make a dairy-free, soy-free smoothie. It's not on the menu, but when you're as versed as I am with the ingredients of all the smoothies, and there's a creative person working on the beverages, we can come up with something.
The first dude .. (man I wish there was a story developing here, but there doesn't seem to be. I was going to write about the math review that Sweet and I had going down I40. He wanted to use a calculator to figure out our daily average, I said we should use our heads, or at the very least a pad of paper and he couldn't understand why. Turns out it was because he'd forgotten how to use long division. After a few minutes I had him convinced that I thought he couldn't do it, which was the tipping point to put his pen point to the paper.)
[I know; nice alliteration, right?]
(we worked on a small problem, which he got right. we learned how to check our work and then he went to work on the problem at hand. It was an honour to see him light up with the answer he got, especially after looking over after a couple of minutes to find a confused look on his face because he couldn't figure out why 8x4=34, but 8x7=56.)
<<It doesn't compute he said, and I can't figure out why>>
(Eventually he got it, the right answer and a flood of other thoughts about teaching styles and learning habits. It was refreshing to hear someone talk about all this with such interest and passion, but without the cliche buzz words that practicing teachers find themselves using among other practicing teachers.)
(Road trips make great think tanks, it's unfortunate that it takes a week to get warmed up to it)
.. something about making a smoothie that isn't interesting anymore and wasn't interesting in the first place. Thanks for reading.
8x4=32
Tuesday, June 7
haphazardly, from the road
The road to Missouri (MO) is a long one; 12 hrs long to be exact(ish). It involves rounds of driving of about four to five hours, which are juxtaposed by rounds of sleeping haphazardly while the maniac sitting next to you drives like he's in a race car.
It's a crew cap truck, Sweet. There's no pit crew and you're not going to get sprayed with champagne when we get to the next checkpoint.
I deal with it best while I'm sleeping haphazardly. It's during those times that I can't feel the truck swaying as he changes the music on the eyePod.
Currently we're in Guthrie, OK which is about an hour north of Oklahoma City which is the least likely place I thought I'd run into Vancouver Canucks fans. Turns out that there's a few anti Boston fans. Had I* been in OKC three weeks earlier I might have been invited to a basketball game, "the city nearly shuts down, as I'm sure these two can tell you".
She was motioning to the two sitting behind her, the pair of reception like people sitting just behind the board room table her and I were standing at. The man looked up and nodded eagerly in agreement, the woman didn't look up from her computer but smiled politely, nonetheless.
"would you like another coffee?" he asked, equally as eagerly. I remembered back to when I first sat down and he offered me the first.
"no thanks" i said, i'm still wearing most of the original "I should get going."
I know none of them had seen me cross my legs into the cup of coffee he had so generously offered me. I was glad because I went as red as the couch I had just spilled it on, and I hoped that it was coffee heating my leg.
Leaving meetings like this one have made this trip worth while. I know I enjoy talking to people, but having to sell myself is stressful, and I've learned that I don't know if I could do it all the time. At least not this road trip version. The road trip itself is going well, but it's such a rough ride emotionally all day. We stopped at more than 15 places in the morning and I got a different feeling about each one. The good feeling lasts until the next place we stop, but the bad feelings last the whole day.
But hey, I've crossed three states to my list (though I haven't found a badge for any of them yet) and there's a chance I'll get another two if the trip goes the way I think it might. (However in truth I don't have a clue where the trip will go from here. Sweet and I have been sitting at this cafe for two hours now waiting on orders from base camp.)
When I learn how to make the good feeling last all afternoon I'll let you know. I'm sure a few of you are thinking of suggesting that I drink, but that wouldn't help much since they don't put alcohol in their beer here.
*I had an urge just now to write this sentence out as "had I a been" or "had i of been" but neither would have been correct. It's taking me a while to figure out what is correct, in fact I haven't written the rest of the sentence yet and I have no idea where I'm going to go with it. I think it must be a colloquialism, or a rural thing. Any thoughts, dear readers**?
**speaking of which ... yesterday, apparently, there were 49 of you. I don't know who you are, or where you're coming from, but thanks for stopping by. I hope you like it.
It's a crew cap truck, Sweet. There's no pit crew and you're not going to get sprayed with champagne when we get to the next checkpoint.
I deal with it best while I'm sleeping haphazardly. It's during those times that I can't feel the truck swaying as he changes the music on the eyePod.
Currently we're in Guthrie, OK which is about an hour north of Oklahoma City which is the least likely place I thought I'd run into Vancouver Canucks fans. Turns out that there's a few anti Boston fans. Had I* been in OKC three weeks earlier I might have been invited to a basketball game, "the city nearly shuts down, as I'm sure these two can tell you".
She was motioning to the two sitting behind her, the pair of reception like people sitting just behind the board room table her and I were standing at. The man looked up and nodded eagerly in agreement, the woman didn't look up from her computer but smiled politely, nonetheless.
"would you like another coffee?" he asked, equally as eagerly. I remembered back to when I first sat down and he offered me the first.
"no thanks" i said, i'm still wearing most of the original "I should get going."
I know none of them had seen me cross my legs into the cup of coffee he had so generously offered me. I was glad because I went as red as the couch I had just spilled it on, and I hoped that it was coffee heating my leg.
Leaving meetings like this one have made this trip worth while. I know I enjoy talking to people, but having to sell myself is stressful, and I've learned that I don't know if I could do it all the time. At least not this road trip version. The road trip itself is going well, but it's such a rough ride emotionally all day. We stopped at more than 15 places in the morning and I got a different feeling about each one. The good feeling lasts until the next place we stop, but the bad feelings last the whole day.
But hey, I've crossed three states to my list (though I haven't found a badge for any of them yet) and there's a chance I'll get another two if the trip goes the way I think it might. (However in truth I don't have a clue where the trip will go from here. Sweet and I have been sitting at this cafe for two hours now waiting on orders from base camp.)
When I learn how to make the good feeling last all afternoon I'll let you know. I'm sure a few of you are thinking of suggesting that I drink, but that wouldn't help much since they don't put alcohol in their beer here.
*I had an urge just now to write this sentence out as "had I a been" or "had i of been" but neither would have been correct. It's taking me a while to figure out what is correct, in fact I haven't written the rest of the sentence yet and I have no idea where I'm going to go with it. I think it must be a colloquialism, or a rural thing. Any thoughts, dear readers**?
**speaking of which ... yesterday, apparently, there were 49 of you. I don't know who you are, or where you're coming from, but thanks for stopping by. I hope you like it.
Monday, June 6
A word from my cousin
Hello everyone,
My good friend, Anna, is participating in the relay for life this coming Friday. She will be shaving her head, and as one of her team members, it is my responsibility to help collect pledges! It would be much appreciated if you could make a simple contribution, I need all the pledges submitted by tomorrow night. So, lets raise some cash for cancer!
Follow the link below to donate online!
Thank you very much,
Tom
http://convio.cancer.ca/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFL_ON_odd_?px=4097999&pg=personal&fr_id=8764
Sunday, June 5
stale, from the road
Our road to Joplin, MO began six days ago. An early morning at the shop where we grabbed the essentials out of the yard (baseball gloves, golf clubs, cellphone chargers) and took the non-essentials out (empty candy wrappers, crusty coffee cups, smelly work boots) and took to the open road.
Twelve hours later we arrived in St. Louise to drive past the Gateway, maneuver around Cardinal fans and shack up for the night.
Now, that might seem like a bit of a jump, the skip over the twelve hours in the truck without any mention of a funny thing that happened, but the reality is that nothing much did. Traveling, a lot of the time, consists mostly of boring, mundane details that provide little entertainment to anyone, especially those experiencing it.
There was a great deal of mp3 shuffling, some chatting with the boss man every couple of hours with nothing more to report than our new location (which could have been guessed at with a quick calculation and an online map) and cracking juvenile jokes about everything and anything.
I learned the trick to starting the truck after putting new fuel in it: turns out one has to hold the pedal down to the floor, turn it over for thirty seconds then let the RMPs hover around 4000 for ten seconds. That got us a lot of looks, even the odd cheer, from fellow roadsters.
We would pause every so often at chain sandwich shops, or coffee huts, or road side trees to change up the pace. Sometimes when the Boss man called we'd say we were in a completely different state.
He didn't like that and told us so.
I learned to use the messenger system on the work phone, however if you're not in the crackberry club then I can't get in touch with you in text form from that device.
In closing, we rested a moment in St. Louis, ate a burger and tried to chat with friendly wait staff who were in no mood to chat with anyone because they worked at a bar that was next to a hotel and got all kinds of crazy come in the door. We spent the basketball game nibling quietly on a burger and talking about the people around us in hushed voices.
Sweet is learning to use his inside voice quiet well.
Twelve hours later we arrived in St. Louise to drive past the Gateway, maneuver around Cardinal fans and shack up for the night.
Now, that might seem like a bit of a jump, the skip over the twelve hours in the truck without any mention of a funny thing that happened, but the reality is that nothing much did. Traveling, a lot of the time, consists mostly of boring, mundane details that provide little entertainment to anyone, especially those experiencing it.
There was a great deal of mp3 shuffling, some chatting with the boss man every couple of hours with nothing more to report than our new location (which could have been guessed at with a quick calculation and an online map) and cracking juvenile jokes about everything and anything.
I learned the trick to starting the truck after putting new fuel in it: turns out one has to hold the pedal down to the floor, turn it over for thirty seconds then let the RMPs hover around 4000 for ten seconds. That got us a lot of looks, even the odd cheer, from fellow roadsters.
We would pause every so often at chain sandwich shops, or coffee huts, or road side trees to change up the pace. Sometimes when the Boss man called we'd say we were in a completely different state.
He didn't like that and told us so.
I learned to use the messenger system on the work phone, however if you're not in the crackberry club then I can't get in touch with you in text form from that device.
In closing, we rested a moment in St. Louis, ate a burger and tried to chat with friendly wait staff who were in no mood to chat with anyone because they worked at a bar that was next to a hotel and got all kinds of crazy come in the door. We spent the basketball game nibling quietly on a burger and talking about the people around us in hushed voices.
Sweet is learning to use his inside voice quiet well.
Friday, June 3
Planning
i don't have a plan. i don't use capitals often. at least not when i write Here. I'm sure it's cause my fingers haven't practiced using the SHIFT key enough to make it part of their typing routine.
I'm writing as if I could ask them. If they could answer I wouldn't have to ask them directly because they'd already have replied by giving up writing what I'm telling them to and stare directly at them.
Perhaps that's what it means "to fing", for digits to cease what they've been told do in protest of being spoke to in passing.
If they could comprehend orders they'd likely respond the way that annoying guy on the bus does when you indirectly tell him to stop tapping his hand to the beat of Adele on the seat next to him by leaning over to your friend to speak in a loud whisper: embarrassing disgust. He knows he should have know better, that it was entertaining to anyone else, but he's had to be told by some complete stranger and now everyone around knows he's been scolded.
I find myself leaning over to complete strangers, sometimes even an empty seat, just to make my point.
... What was my point?
Oh, right. I don't have a plan.
Although here I've learned that not having a plan can still lead somewhere entertaining.
Can I go nowhere with you?
I'm writing as if I could ask them. If they could answer I wouldn't have to ask them directly because they'd already have replied by giving up writing what I'm telling them to and stare directly at them.
Perhaps that's what it means "to fing", for digits to cease what they've been told do in protest of being spoke to in passing.
If they could comprehend orders they'd likely respond the way that annoying guy on the bus does when you indirectly tell him to stop tapping his hand to the beat of Adele on the seat next to him by leaning over to your friend to speak in a loud whisper: embarrassing disgust. He knows he should have know better, that it was entertaining to anyone else, but he's had to be told by some complete stranger and now everyone around knows he's been scolded.
I find myself leaning over to complete strangers, sometimes even an empty seat, just to make my point.
... What was my point?
Oh, right. I don't have a plan.
Although here I've learned that not having a plan can still lead somewhere entertaining.
Can I go nowhere with you?
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