This Happened

[Phoebe]

I don't know if this is the kind of soft jazz in question but I tire of the "urban traffic sad atmospheric jazz" that is ubiquitous in city scenes of movies or whatever. Also the Homeland disc intro someone left spinning here. It turns out that by being regularly awoken by annoying television sounds, I have managed to watch many seasons of a show whose title I didn't even know until now.

[Tahlvin]

So our son has been swimming on a club team for about 5 years. About 6 months ago he moved to a higher level, which meant more practices each week, and the practices were a lot harder. He's been complaining almost constantly about how hard the practices have been, and has wanted to quit the team, but we told him he has to finish what he started and get through this one season (which is supposed to end in March) and then he can stop. He qualified for the state swim meet, which is this weekend, and that was supposed to be his last swim meet.

So Friday night is the first night of the swim meet. Thinking this is going to be his last meet, he decides to go all-out. He ends up taking off over 3 seconds on his 100 yard backstroke, finishing 20th in the state. And yesterday, he took off over 1.5 seconds on his 50 backstroke and finished 19th in the state. He has 2 more events today. After his Friday night swim, his coach (a former two-time Olympic gold medalist) informs us that his time qualified him to go to a meet in Arizona at the end of April. So he's all excited about that and wants to continue swimming. However, going to that meet in Arizona will cost $880 to send him, plus $520 per adult that goes along with him. Plus it would require signing him up for another season on the swim team (which would cost another couple hundred dollars per month), plus would probably require that he attend MORE practices each week to prepare for the meet. On top of that, he would have to miss three days of school to attend the meet, and I generally HATE pulling the kids out of school for anything like this, short of it being a family emergency or funeral. And one of the school days he would miss involves band and jazz concerts, and his music was one of the activities he was upset he was missing because he had to go to too many swim practices.

So now, instead of it being his idea to quit swimming at the end of the season and us being the nice parents who finally let him quit, we either end up being the mean parents who make him quit and keep him from attending the swim meet in Arizona, or we end up spending a small fortune to keep him swimming for another couple months, and end up having to listen to him whining and complaining about having to attend practice.

I'm thrilled he's doing so well, but damn, this was much easier a few days ago before the coach spoke up.

[Phoebe]

This is so awesome though! It's cool that he gave what he thought was the last effort, and that turned into something bigger. The travel/money thing not such a nice part of surprise, but awesome he's invited!

[Tahlvin]

So of the 4 events he competed in, he had drastic time improvements in all 4 of them, and 3 of the 4 times have qualified him for the meet in Arizona. But we told him he cannot go because of other commitments. And he took it extremely well, in part because we are getting him a new cellphone (not as a bribe, but he doesn't need to know that). If anything, he's more upset with himself because he didn't get to talk to a girl: there was a girl at the meet that he used to go to school with 3-4 years ago, before her family moved up north, and he didn't get a chance (or didn't work up the nerve) to say hello to her before she left the meet.

[Phoebe]

Many ibuprofen and hours in darkness later, I shall now burst forth from bed. My head is trying to destroy my stomach or vice versa. I will prevail!!!

[Cazmonster]

We believe in you! Get some scrambled eggs or oatmeal in you and fight that infestation!

[Phoebe]

OMG scrambled eggs are my comfort food. That and a nice baked potato. Had 3 eggs for dinner!

[Cazmonster]

Eggs solve many a problem in the Granberg house.

[Zen]

[Tahlvin]

Yep. Oh well, he seems to have moved on from it pretty well.

[Phoebe]

Player...

[Zen]

LOL

[Phoebe]

I'm learning a lot about men from the perspective of my son now. He is in love with a 20 year old woman. This poses some logistical and practical difficulties right now but give it twenty years and maybe things will be okay. No it's not Lady Gaga this time. He is thinking hard about what sorts of presents he might shower her with though. I suggested flowers and he poo pooed my suggestion because that was old news: he had already been there, thought of that and it was a given. I was like hey buddy you could get me flowers anytime you want, and he rolled his eyes at me and said that Dad had already done it so what was the point.

[Phoebe]

Can't sleep, keep thinking about babies buried under the rubble of buildings, etc etc etc. Really what is this mess of existing? Also food waste, for a lighter topic. Perhaps we can do something about food waste, which plays a big part in making climate change and environmental destruction worse btw, because all the food production requires negative things to happen, and if we didn't have to do quite so much of it because of waste, then improvements... on the other hand, we have famine because we're back to the babies' lives having no value to people.

So I am thinking about other more pleasant things that happened today and one of them is that my kid is totally barking hilarious. I try to teach them young as they're able to absorb factual info, but in this case we may need to hold off until the imagination-period subsides a bit. It turns out that my son is a cheetah, born to cheetah parents on another planet much like earth, but different. It was some light years away and took time to travel, so although he also existed within an EGG INSIDE MY BODY at that time, while he was a cheetah, in order to be birthed by me he had to travel from the other planet. Shit for all I know this is true - it makes as much sense as anything else in this weird world today. Anyway, he traveled to me and was birthed, and this is why although he's pleased to have me as a mom, he has a true mother who is a cheetah. Is it possible that this mother is me, and that I too have an alternate cheetah life on another planet? Yes, that is possible. Indeed, that even explains things, as far as he's concerned. Nevertheless, the me I am here and the cheetah mother I could potentially be there are different; the lives do not coincide.

[Phoebe]

Yay insomnia. Thanks to you I have made a small error. I'm sorry, it was a mere accident, not a problem, nothing strange. My garbage disposal is broken again so I was up in the wee hours doing dishes, trying to listen to music, and then inadvertent mistake occurred.

[Phoebe]

Today is Dr. Seuss's birthday. How about them apples.

[Cazmonster]

My kids knew. They greeted people with "Happy Dr Seuss Day!"

[Phoebe]

That is adorable!

[Eliahad]

The neighbor's dogs broke through a hole in our in backyard fence. There's a small gap behind some lilac bushes, maybe four inches across. But there's some bent chain link and the pushed their way through. When I went out to corral them, they were aggressively playful. Like I never felt in danger, but they were barking constantly, and even when I tried to make myself still and small they wouldn't stop pushing at me and gnawing on my arm. Luckily I was wearing a coat with a good deal of padding. They did manage to nip my finger and bruise my arm though. Eventually a different neighbor called the police and they were able to check with the honors and got them back on their side of the fence. It was frustrating as hell more than anything else, I guess. Has anyone else had experience with this? Apparently the dog that bit me (I know which one it was) is going to have to be quarantined for a while. I don't know what that means. I tried to be clear that I didn't feel threatened, just that they were aggressive in their play. Luckily they didn't get out of our fence to the front where a whole slew of children were playing. I don't think it would have mattered if they were just playing, if they bruised and drew blood from a grown man, they could have done some serious damage to children...

[Phoebe]

I. Drinking so not good course. However, not ok what you describe. Dogs shouldn't ever, ever do that. Poorly trained or trained for ill, either way not goo.d my dog you met, right? Remember his he barked and was hostile fearfuln? That's because he had lived here only a few weeks before you visited and he was before that entirely feral. After months training he's still ready to defend me but learns, she says this person is friend so treat as friend. All dogs must be trained. Biting dog likely bite again if not proper trained. Good to have authorities note incident.