Monthly Archives: August 2006

Such Sweet Sorrow

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Today is the first day of fourth grade for my little one, so today Mom and I both made time to walk her to her new classroom and get situated.  Watching my daughter interact with friends she hadn't seen since last spring reminded me how much she has grown and changed.  She is becoming a “big person” instead of a “little person”.  With each day she is more independent and forming more mature ideas about her world.  And all that is a good thing, but…

I miss the person she was.  I've noted on more than one occasion that parenting means always saying goodbye.  With each passing week, month, and year, your child is changing into a new person.  I mean physically it is the same child of course, but the nature of your interactions with him or her differ vastly over time.  Spending time with a 6 month old is very different than spending time with a 1 year old.  And of course, unless you are a monster, you love your child at any level of age or maturity, but growth and change in my child is always bittersweet for me.  It's wonderful the progress Lynnea has made as she has grown, but I loved 3-year-old Neya every bit as much as I love 9-year-old Neya, but I will never again experience the joy of being a father to 3-year-old Neya.  The games we played then, the conversations we had, the things we did, they would all be things my daughter would definitely not want to do now as a 9-year-old.  That would looked down on as “little kid stuff”.

It really is important to make the time to be with your children because whoever they are right now, they will never be that person again.  Instead each child is a changing continuum, ever new.  I guess it's also true that parenting means always saying hello, and that's the sweet part of the mix.  In a mere 9 years my daughter will be legally an adult and hopefully in college.  It boggles my mind that this is so brief a time.  When I was 9, my childhood stretched behind me like an eternity, and now I've seen the same timeframe pass in my daughter's life in what seems like the blink of an eye.  Where does the time go?

Anyway, soon my daughter won't want her parents fawning over her, soon she'll want out into the world and to make her own way in life.  And as much as I look forward to her maturing to that level, I also dread it.  Hugging my little baby will be an experience of the past, just as bottle feeding her, and holding her in my arms and singing her to sleep is.  And those were truly wonderful, special experiences that are burned indelibly in my memory.

So when I had to leave the classroom today, and Lynnea was greeting her friends and chatting excitedly about the summer vacation, I said goodbye again.  Goodbye to the little girl who was afraid of fourth grade.  And she came over to me and gave me a huge hug, right in front of her friends.  Thanks Lynnea.  Dad loves you.

Happy Birthday Donna!

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Please join me in wishing my sister Donna a happy birthday today.  Donna and I had some great moments as kids, despite the great age difference between us (7 years), and I'm very pleased at the wonderful woman she has become.  I'm even more pleased that no matter how old I get, she's still 7 years older!  I got to see Donna this past weekend at our folks' house and that was very pleasant, but today is her actual birthday.  So Happy Day, Sis!  Thanks for being the best sibling I could have ever asked for.

While we're on the subject of birthdays, last week was my Brother-in-law Artie's birthday.  Best wishes to you too, Artie!  Artie is aptly named as he is something of an artist and produces beautiful custom carpets that can have just about anything you want on them.  Very cool stuff.  I'll post some pictures of a gorgeous rug he did for my folks later on.  His company, Ashley Taylor Custom Wool Carpets & Rugs, is soon going to have a website but it isn't available yet, but I'll include some contact info when I post the pictures. 

Shoe Shopping Parallels

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Here's a curious parallel.  This weekend, I went shoe shopping and picked up some new sneakers.  Nothing so odd about that.  But what is funny is that independently, my good friend Maggie, who authors Pandora's Tea Room, wrote an article about shoe shopping and strangely we both mused about similar ideas.  When I got home and was thinking about writing up my shoe shopping ideas I was quite suprised!  Coincidence is a funny thing sometimes…

I'm not a jogger, so I don't buy nice running shoes, just your average el-cheapo sneakers.  On my last 3 visits to the shoestore, I've ended up buying the same shoes, 12W “Cross Trekkers”, all black sneakers with velcro flaps.  They're pretty comfortable and they aren't too flashy.  One thing I'm always irritated by, though, is the fact that the shoe has changed every time I go back to buy another pair.  Okay these are Payless shoes, alright?  Nobody goes to Payless for the “latest fashion trends”.  Therefore I can't figure out why somebody feels the need to change the shoe every 3 to 6 months.  The average adult foot doesn't change that much every 3 to 6 months does it?  Well what the heck is the shoe changing for?

It irritates me because someday I'm going to walk into Payless and find my favorite pair of shoes has been altered to the point where I don't like them anymore.  Believe me, there's not a great selection in 12W, and that's the size I need.  Not 11.5,  not 12, not 12.5.  12W.  The store I was at probably had a grand selection of 10 pairs of 12W shoes, and in that selection was sneakers, boat shoes, dress shoes, loafers, and workboots.  In the interest of trying to make them last longer, I ended up getting 2 pairs of Cross Trekkers this time (although sadly one pair has laces instead of velcro–yes I'm lazy and I don't like having to tie, re-tie, and re-re-tie my shoes.)

Once I paid for the shoes, I immediately sat down and switched into them, putting my grubby falling-apart shoes into the box.  My daughter was with me at the time and I said to her, “Hey Lynnea, here's a funny idea, let's put the pricetag on these ratty old shoes and put them back on the shelf!”  To which she said “NO.  Give me those,” and proceeded to take my old shoes and throw them out.  No sense of adventure that one… but ultimately, she made the responsible choice.  I wouldn't really have done it anyway, but it was a funny idea to think about.  I just had this picture of a person pulling these shoes off the shelf and they're falling apart, covered in dirt and grass stains, and smelly.  Hey it already says “Cross Trekkers 12W” on the box and that's what they are… I wonder how long before somebody got wise and threw them out.  Ah well.

Name Those Movies — Audio Only

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So here's a little something I've wanted to do for a while.  What follows is 9 audio clips from 9 different movies.  They vary in length from 8 to 30 seconds, and each includes a piece of music from a movie.  The music might be incidental, part of the theme for the film, or something else…

Doubtless you may find some of these painfully obvious, and some few completely unknown.  Bear with me it's the first time I've tried this.  Post your guesses as a comment and I'll reveal the answers later on today.  Try not to read other people's guesses before you make your own!

Note: some of these clips aren't “clean” and may include sound effects from the movie (no dialog though) consider those sound effects “free clues”, although I suspect for clip #1, you won't need them.

Good luck!

Alas Poor Pluto, I Knew Him Horatio…

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Well the votes are in, and Pluto has gotten the axe as have the other new planets that originally were going to be included.  Our solar system has eight planets.  Pluto is reclassified as a “dwarf planet” along with Ceres and 2003 UB313…

…The IAU members gathered at the 2006 General Assembly agreed that a “planet” is defined as a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit.

This means that the Solar System consists of eight “planets” Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. A new distinct class of objects called “dwarf planets” was also decided. It was agreed that “planets” and “dwarf planets” are two distinct classes of objects. The first members of the “dwarf planet” category are Ceres, Pluto and 2003 UB313 (temporary name). More “dwarf planets” are expected to be announced by the IAU in the coming months and years. Currently a dozen candidate “dwarf planets” are listed on IAU's “dwarf planet” watchlist, which keeps changing as new objects are found and the physics of the existing candidates becomes better known.

The “dwarf planet” Pluto is recognised as an important proto-type of a new class of trans-Neptunian objects. The IAU will set up a process to name these objects…

Note that this definition refers only to our solar system and thus ties the definition of planet to our local neighborhood.  This means that the hundreds of planets found in orbit around other stars to date are now … what?  Oh well.  At least the IAU agreed on a definition.  And Pluto is still a fascinating world no matter what you call it.  I'm still stoked that the New Horizons probe is going there, but bummed that I have to wait until July 14, 2015.

Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy Blog discusses the new classification of Pluto.

Face First!!!

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I'd say the mask probably isn't necessary either, but here Lynnea demonstrates why she wears it by going down the slide on her belly.  As you can see, you get a faceful of water at the end.   All in all she really enjoyed the slide and I'm sure we'll use it again.