When I was a kid, being grounded was a bad thing. Being the daddy in a cool family has turned that upside down, though. I had a nice weekend to become grounded and quite enjoyed it.
Friday was Kelly’s birthday, so we went out to dinner with the help of a neighbor who volunteered to take the kids for a while. We went to a local restaurant near the local mall. Bad move. The service sucked and the food was only marginally better. Atmosphere was zero, too. At least we didn’t invest much time in it and could head home to take in a movie.
The flick was The Da Vinci Code, which I understand everyone else on the planet has already seen. I thought it was interesting – mainly due to Tom Hanks’s excellent acting – but I found myself squirming and checking my watch well before it ended. There were some things too implausable to for me to maintain my “suspension of disbelief.” Like inexplicably carting around the goon that had just tried to kill you, for instance. Or a priest casually taking a cellphone call at 40,000 feet. Or a junkie takinig money to walk away from a fix. On the good side, Ron Howard is getting much better as a director: this movie didn’t seem nearly as wooden as some of his others. Overall, I give it 2.5 stars out of five.
Saturday morning I cooked the family a breakfast of pancakes. Then I went to the local Big Box Electronics Retailer and picked up a new car stereo for Kelly’s Oddity. The CD player refused to play CDs, so I reasoned we could buy a new deck and get free installation for less than the cost of taking the old one to the dealer and having them troubleshoot it. I wasn’t planning to install it myself but the professional installers balked when they saw the navigation system in the van. They said if they installed it the navigation system wouldn’t work right. The installation was probably the easiest of the half-dozen I’ve ever done but what they told me was true: the navigation system doesn’t talk through the stereo anymore. I figure I can figure that out at a later time: not having music in the car when the kids are riding in it is a much bigger problem!
Cleaned out the leaves on the lawn with the leafblower Saturday evening. Then got cleaned up and visited my parents’ house. My sister’s family was visiting from Shelby and everyone seemed to be pretty happy. I found myself feeling pretty emotional that night, just enjoying everyone’s company. I was sad when we had to go. I guess when I sneaked upstairs to look through a few photo albums from twenty years ago, I started to realize just how quickly time flies. Too often I don’t make the most of every minute of my life and that is a crime for which I can’t forgive myself. I’ve only got one life (this time around, at least) and its up to me to enjoy it.
This morning Kelly mentioned needing some time to get some work done. I realized today is the first Sunday of the month, so my solution was to cart the kids off to the New Hope Valley Railway for a train ride. Kelly decided to join us so we threw some snacks together and headed off to Bonsal.
As usual, we had a great time. If the train wasn’t enough, Santa and Frosty the Snowman were there. We found seats in a caboose’s cupula where we could watch the rails and stay warm at the same time. A bonus was hearing the steam whistle on Engine 17 blow throughout the day. There’s something magical about the sound of a steam whistle!
Hallie looked positively exhausted after the train ride but wound up sleeping only an hour. Kelly was anxious to keep working so I entertained Hallie by pulling out a deck of cards and teaching her “Go Fish.” She caught on quickly though she had trouble fanning her cards to see her hand. It’s so fun to watch her pick up new games and skills – mainly because she does it so effortlessly. I wonder if its too early to start her on chess?
I again stepped up to the “dinner” plate and cooked up a tasty spaghetti for the family. The kids and I wrestled a bit before bedtime, which went smoothly. Now its time for me to finish up a few chores before retiring tonight myself. The upcoming workweek doesn’t excite me much but I do have plenty of upcoming visits with family and friends to keep me happy.
Thanks to y’all for reading, too. It’s nice to have an audience sometimes.
never too early to learn. Well, ok maybe not in the womb but you know what I mean…
I’d be happy to teach her some chess. Its a great game!
I haven’t seen The Da Vinci Code yet. I’m really torn because although I love Tom Hanks as an actor, I really loathe Dan Brown as a writer (the man is a 2 bit hack that couldn’t write his way out of a closet… see his book on computer security for confirmation).