Bachelor and Sons

Why is it that whenever a battery runs low in a smoke detector, it always happens in the middle of the night? You wake to that incessant "CHEEP". It is not really all that loud, but apparently is at just the right frequency that your ears spark your brain into action. Then you have to make the decision on whether to get up, retrieve the step ladder from the garage and disconnect the detector until you get a battery, or try to go back to sleep. You always opt for the latter. CHEEP! It doesn't work. You have to get up.

Last night, I outlasted it. I remember a few intermittent chirps, but then apparently the dying nine volt managed to procure a final bit of power. When my alarm went off, it occurred to me that the computer thermostat allowed the temperature to go down during the night. When it started the cycle to warm the house for the morning, the battery probably returned to enough life to avoid the chirping. That only means that my task for this afternoon includes changing it.

I need some nine volt batteries that are CHEAP!

For about the last 3 months, things have been relatively quiet and slow. It's January however, and things start to heat up in the Bachelor household.

Tyler has been attending his weekly baseball lesson, but now things start to ramp up. His baseball team is back to weekly practices and he also made the 8th grade basketball team. That means practices every day until 4:30 and games twice a week. Our weeks will be more and more busy until May, when our peak of activity occurs.
Goodbye home cooked meals. Hello more stops at the gas station to fill the tank. So long "moments peace and quiet".

When I was in high school, there was always some kid in class (especially math class) that asked the question "Why do we need to learn this?" Now that I'm a parent, I know the true answer. You need to know it so that when you grow up, you can help YOUR children with THEIR homework. Mostly there isn't another reason.

I've warned my sons, Zach and Tyler, that they really need to pay attention in school, and work hard to understand. As they get older, they are going to start running into more and more difficult things that I as a parent won't remember. So, when they come and ask for help with homework, there will come a day when I won't be able to help them.

Last night, Tyler, an eighth grader, asked if I would help him with his algebra. I told him that I would if I remember how. He showed me his worksheet. It was equations having to do with slopes and y intercepts. I told him "I don't think I can help you as I don't remember that stuff". He replied "It's ok; I can teach it to you".

"WHAT? If you can teach it to me, why do you need my help?!"

Anyway, I spent a while relearning that perpendicular lines have negative inverse slopes. Once we got that far, I was able to show him that if line A and line B are parallel, and line C is perpendicular to line A, then line C has to be perpendicular to line B.

Then I watched Maria Carey give her drunken "thank you" speech at the People's Choice Awards, and fell asleep.

 

Sometimes it seems the world is small.

I had some old 35mm slides in a drawer which had been taken back in the mid 70s. I decided to have some of them digitized, so I took them into the OC Photo store in downtown Oxford. When I went in to pick them up, the lady who runs the store, asked if some of them were taken in Rocky Mountain National Park. She recognized the location in this photo.

It seems that she was working in Estes Park, near the park entrance during the same year that the photo was taken. In fact, we both graduated from high school (she in Michigan and I in Illinois) in 1974. She went out to Estes Park and worked in a photo shop there for several summers. I visited that very photo shop in 1975. I spent time in the National Park during the summers of 75, 76, and 78 as well as Christmas of 79.

 

Merry Christmas to everybody!

 

At the moment, our Christmas is white, but probably won’t be soon. It is very windy here and raining. The snow is being eaten.

 

How come Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, and Minnesota get snow? And why does the mid-Atlantic get record snowfall? Here in Southeast Michigan, we barely have enough to cover the ground. Zach, Tyler and I have 11 days with no school and no work. How are we supposed to cross-country ski, downhill ski, Telemark ski, or snowboard? Tyler has been to the local glacial kame, Pine Knob, but its manmade snow is less than satisfactory.

Most likely, as soon as the holidays are over and we go back to school and work, we’ll get snow. It will snow during the week, and then warm up and rain on the weekends. That will last until April.

All we can do is look forward to baseball and bike riding in May.

 

Shucks!

 

This is our second year of a new Christmas tradition for my sons and I. We celebrate the gift giving part of the holiday in a different way. This is mostly for logistical reasons as well as a little bit of rebellion against the whole concept of "surprise" gift giving. Basically, we have removed Santa Claus and his Christmas delivery system from the equation.

Before I continue, I must warn any parents or adults reading this that you may want to close your eyes or leave the room, as this whole concept is not recommended for normal parents, and could have an adverse affect on your mental stability.