a blog by Ian Kennedy
When talking with Tyler this morning about Steve Fossett’s solo flight around the world, my five year old son asked,
"Why did he do that? All the way around the world to end up at the same place? He should have visited someplace and met some people."
Good point.
Julia has these clip on earings that she likes to wear and her entire attitude changes when she puts them on, becoming more flirty and, in her eyes at least, sophisticated.
Tyler, on the other hand, clips them on top of his ears and acts the goof.
We had some guests over for dinner on Saturday. Julia now insists on helping out and she even has her own knife (dulled slightly but fine for cutting cabbage) and an apron sent to her by a family friend, Tani-san. She loves cleaning up as well and, at three, is a great little helper.
It was a great dinner, a beef stew that has been simmering for the past couple of days, Izumi’s special top ramen/cabbage sesame oil salad, and appetizers. The two couples that came over both had kids so we started at four which worked out just perfect because everyone was able to leave satisfied at eight when the kids began to get sleepy.
While we were away in Hawaii, my sister said that it was raining most of the time and, would you believe it, it’s raining again now. The rainfall has topped up all the reservoirs which has abated last Summer’s drought worries for now (these things take time to sort themselves out). Being on a small island on the Bay, our water table is something like 6 inches down. People that have below-ground garages have put sandbags at the top of their driveways to keep water from streaming from the street down into their garage and this evening we found a newt in our playroom, poor guy was looking for some relief from all the water!
One of the great things about living in Alameda is that I can walk my son to school each day. On most days we pick up the neighbor across the street and during the 15 minute stroll we can talk about things that are going on in each of our lives. Being in Kindergarten, there are lots of distractions along the way so I leave with ample time so we can take these diversions as they come. Today’s diversion was a worm that decided to take a swim in a puddle.
On Sunday we went to see the Alameda Antique Fair which must be seen to be believed. There must be over 400 vendors spread out over the tarmac of the old naval airfield in Alamdeda. All sorts of weird and wonderful stuff, interesting people too.
It was a big weekend for Tyler. He finally got the hang of riding his bicycle without training wheels. If you look closely at the picture to the left, you can see that both training wheels are off the ground. He was besides himself when he started to get rolling – laughing to himself like a crazy man, “I’m doing it! I’m doing it!” He quickly got the hang of it and now realizes that the faster he goes, the easier it is to balance. He zips up and down the block like a demon on wheels and I can no longer keep up just by running. Looks like we’ll be riding together more often!
One of the nice things about walking Tyler to school each morning is that during those 15 minutes we have together, we can chat about any number of things that are on our minds and clear the plate for the day. This morning Tyler announced that he’s decided what he wants to be when he grows up which is big news as we’ve asked him this before and his responses have always been a wise guy, snappy answer, “Big”
Today he said in all seriousness that he wants to be a. . . Sports Announcer. Bonus points to the kid for originality – I don’t think any of the kids books I’ve read have ever covered this one. Fireman? Policeman? Astronaut? Sure, we’ve all seen these but Sports Announcer? I don’t think they ever covered this one because so little is known about the glamorous life of the sportscasters out there. Travel to exotic cities and sports venues around the world, meet famous athletes, watch all your favorite games, long vacations in the off season – seems like it’d be pretty fun.
The more I think about it, the better it sounds. Let’s see, Tyler loves to talk so there’s a good fit there, the worst thing that can happen to a sportscaster is “dead air” and Tyler talks like a shark swims – for his life. There’s also the need to know detailed stats for instant recall and there again, Tyler has shown a talent for storing arcane knowledge with his detailed knowledge of the Thomas Tank Engines. The other day Tyler asked me to pause a new Thomas DVD which he had been studying (he really studies these things like a cycling fan studies old 1972 Giro D’Italia films) because he caught a glimpse of a new engine that he’d never seen before. There, in a split second frame was a indeed a new engine (I’ve become a bit of an expert myself).
Tyler put a little of his talent to practice the other day – two kids were playing catch in our yard and instead of joining them, Tyler narrated the play-by-play.
I’ve heard of Speed Bumps and Speed Humps but here in Alameda we have Speed Lumps. What exactly is the difference and imagine the bewilderment to the road construction crew when they go into the back of their truck to pick up the the appropriate sign,
“I don’t know Larry, they kind of look like humps to me, what to you think Moe?”
“Nah, it looks more like a bump, check out the curvature on the approach.”
“Yeah, but if you look at the peak, yeah, there, from the driver’s perspective, it’s less of an angle, almost flat, this is more like a lump to me,”
Our taxdollars hard at work. . .