We are the Stewards of two new animals. "Rileigh" is getting a kitten, and "Ethan" got a Dachshund puppy. Apparently, these animals were promised to them. My tone may not be coming across too well, but the crux of the genre is that I am not a fan (in not so many words). And opposition is a strange thing, especially when one must survive among others in order to thrive.
I did not want these additions. (there. I said it.) I consider my life [for all intents and purposes]: full. I do not want any extraneous factors pulling me in their directions- maybe I am lazy. My thinking has been founded in the concept that any new animal to our family will be a service animal. Naturally this is because a service animal will come prepared to use the outside as their toilet. This is no small thing. Excrement on the the floor cannot be rolled around. This is one area bipedals have no understanding. But this extends to further behavior anomalies in which we, said party, would be better off dealt with BEFORE introduction to household. Simply: Shouldn't I be allowed to sleep the whole night through? In the pines, the pines, where the sun don't ever shine.
The plight of which I speak, was not implemented by some Stalinistic regime. I had adequate representation. In order to maintain the Pax Halsted...a my opposing opinion has been weighed and quantified. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one, as someone once put it. As well, how opposed am I to the idea of pets? It would be fair to ask: "what is it that you want? Would I prefer that I had no responsibilities? No one vying for my time, taking it away from my precious...um...sleep time? What else would I be doing?" In other words, It is good to have something to do. A purpose if you will. And the new additions, despite devising new ways to consume time and effort, provide other things which will surface later, specifically in the children when they grow older. In the end, my oposition was not strong enough to hold out against the "Pickets' charge" of favoring opinion.
And as the time passes, I am beckoned, I have a respite in my responsibilities, and my vices call to me. I need to match more crystals, my precious.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Was Gonna Never Did Anything
Last week I was in Bend Oregon, on snow, at the ski team's spring camp. It was a good week of training. I was not expecting winter, but that is what we got. Lots of snow, and not that much of the spring slush I was anticipating. I was prepared, somehow, so I did not freeze. I think the biggest plus we got out of last week is that it put all the skiers in one place at one time. Otherwise, it is a fairly expensice endeavor for the gain (in my opinion).
I shared a room, as is the norm for nearly all trips, with one of the "new guys" who happens to be from Hawaii. It also happens that we get along fairly well. [This is not abnormal for me; I seem to be a pretty easy-to-get-alnog-with guy.] This is not always the case, and is one of the factors overlooked when it comes to competition, it seems. We run the risk of restless nights in more noises from all the other people in the hotel and/or having roomates we would rather not be in close proximity with, for days, and weeks on end. Jeremy (my roomate) and I were basically on the same schedule, so things like wake up and lights out, were mostly agreed upon without having to say anything. I think I was rather quiet when I got ready before him in the morning, and I know he never woke me up. We each took our turn either leaving the TV on too long, or watching something the other did not choose, but we did not bug each other (it seems) with these choices. I was introduced to an example of where the roomates did not work out as well, in that one would enter the room, turn on all the lights, TV, bump around with apparent disregard to noise, and then said person accused other of snoring too much. I was glad I was not a part of that room situation, and I chalked up my ability to be undisturbed in my room, to me living with wife, kids, and pets.
At home, somehow, all that flexibility went out the window. Last night was not as restfull a night, as in the hotel. "My schedule" was dictated by the kids, and Sarah. And then, the pets woke me sporadically throughout the night. It seemed that if it was not Keelie sitrring, it was the dog making some noise, or Chesty making some sort of request. It hit me as a sort of "wow" moment. Here I was in a place that I am supposed to be comfortable with all the goings on, and I was more comfortable in the strange place. -The hotel that had a few baseball club teams and families. ...maybe I was more exhausted over the week in Bend...?
Sarah had taken the kids to Portland with her over the weekend, and I met them there on Monday. We drove through the Pugetropolis on the way home, tieing some loose ends. It was a little trip down memory lane of sorts. However, I was most impressed that I only hit a few slow downs, and not the traffic we were setting ourselves up for (we were going through Tacoma-Bellevue-Issaquah at 1600). The kids, naturally were tired of the van, but the little stop in the Gig appeared to help break up the trip for them. Not real quality time, but lots of together time.
I am almost ready to let the kids go at rest stops. It seems, in theory, that at least one of the twins can keep Keelie in line. In practice, however, I need leashes, homing beacons, two way radios and video cameras. It should look somewhat like the Marines in Aliens. I can sit in the command vehicle and see what they are seeing, as well as see where they are in relation to me with map overlays that show terrain relief, street maps, and potential threats. Alas, the scenario is more like the drop off in Finding Nemo. It is a task in itself to keep the twins out of freeway traffic. -to be fair, they are doing a good job. It is simply that they are 1st graders, and not always checking their six. An example, is that we walked across the shopping center parking lot in the Gig, the one with Round Table pizza, McD's, the one off Olympic Dr. It is a fairly chaotic parking lot. Despite the two of them being more concerned with playing hide and seek "Oh! look at the puppies in the window!", they were pretty good. As in: not running out into the drive, inbetween parked and moving cars, running into shoppers, or the construction workers gutting the DMV, etc. I did keep Keelie in my lap for that part of the trip. Funny thing; I actually was more concerned when we made it to our destination -the bike path- that they would get run over by a cyclist. But we were on the path long enough for Riles to get nervous about the "red" ants that make her itch, and the "adult" to calculate that the kids were approaching their limit, and we turned around, and headed back to the parking lot/mom without running into any cyclists. Hmm...so, either I was lucky, or the kids are better than I let on. I suppose I will always have to worry about them and their choices. ...and I never saw this coming?
I shared a room, as is the norm for nearly all trips, with one of the "new guys" who happens to be from Hawaii. It also happens that we get along fairly well. [This is not abnormal for me; I seem to be a pretty easy-to-get-alnog-with guy.] This is not always the case, and is one of the factors overlooked when it comes to competition, it seems. We run the risk of restless nights in more noises from all the other people in the hotel and/or having roomates we would rather not be in close proximity with, for days, and weeks on end. Jeremy (my roomate) and I were basically on the same schedule, so things like wake up and lights out, were mostly agreed upon without having to say anything. I think I was rather quiet when I got ready before him in the morning, and I know he never woke me up. We each took our turn either leaving the TV on too long, or watching something the other did not choose, but we did not bug each other (it seems) with these choices. I was introduced to an example of where the roomates did not work out as well, in that one would enter the room, turn on all the lights, TV, bump around with apparent disregard to noise, and then said person accused other of snoring too much. I was glad I was not a part of that room situation, and I chalked up my ability to be undisturbed in my room, to me living with wife, kids, and pets.
At home, somehow, all that flexibility went out the window. Last night was not as restfull a night, as in the hotel. "My schedule" was dictated by the kids, and Sarah. And then, the pets woke me sporadically throughout the night. It seemed that if it was not Keelie sitrring, it was the dog making some noise, or Chesty making some sort of request. It hit me as a sort of "wow" moment. Here I was in a place that I am supposed to be comfortable with all the goings on, and I was more comfortable in the strange place. -The hotel that had a few baseball club teams and families. ...maybe I was more exhausted over the week in Bend...?
Sarah had taken the kids to Portland with her over the weekend, and I met them there on Monday. We drove through the Pugetropolis on the way home, tieing some loose ends. It was a little trip down memory lane of sorts. However, I was most impressed that I only hit a few slow downs, and not the traffic we were setting ourselves up for (we were going through Tacoma-Bellevue-Issaquah at 1600). The kids, naturally were tired of the van, but the little stop in the Gig appeared to help break up the trip for them. Not real quality time, but lots of together time.
I am almost ready to let the kids go at rest stops. It seems, in theory, that at least one of the twins can keep Keelie in line. In practice, however, I need leashes, homing beacons, two way radios and video cameras. It should look somewhat like the Marines in Aliens. I can sit in the command vehicle and see what they are seeing, as well as see where they are in relation to me with map overlays that show terrain relief, street maps, and potential threats. Alas, the scenario is more like the drop off in Finding Nemo. It is a task in itself to keep the twins out of freeway traffic. -to be fair, they are doing a good job. It is simply that they are 1st graders, and not always checking their six. An example, is that we walked across the shopping center parking lot in the Gig, the one with Round Table pizza, McD's, the one off Olympic Dr. It is a fairly chaotic parking lot. Despite the two of them being more concerned with playing hide and seek "Oh! look at the puppies in the window!", they were pretty good. As in: not running out into the drive, inbetween parked and moving cars, running into shoppers, or the construction workers gutting the DMV, etc. I did keep Keelie in my lap for that part of the trip. Funny thing; I actually was more concerned when we made it to our destination -the bike path- that they would get run over by a cyclist. But we were on the path long enough for Riles to get nervous about the "red" ants that make her itch, and the "adult" to calculate that the kids were approaching their limit, and we turned around, and headed back to the parking lot/mom without running into any cyclists. Hmm...so, either I was lucky, or the kids are better than I let on. I suppose I will always have to worry about them and their choices. ...and I never saw this coming?
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