Tag: Lydia

The Lydster, Part 112: The Pied Piper

The Daughter will be a fine childsitter herself, if she is so inclined.

The evening I got home from that brief hospital stay in April, my daughter wanted to go to game night at her school. My wife did not; truth to tell, I didn’t much, either. But I hadn’t spent much time with her the last couple of days, so I took her.

We go to the gymnasium, and instantly all these four-to-six-year-olds scurry to her, calling to her by name. She knows them from the afterschool program they all go to. Still, I didn’t know that she was so popular with the younger set there.

I WAS aware that she had a similar relationship with the younger children at church. She plays with them, watches out for their welfare, and generally plays big sister. There was a mother at church who noted that my daughter could control her child in a way she could not.

I think this is a function of some of the girls, now young women, who have looked out for her, and are among the pool of child sitters for her.

Someone at church said that she’ll I reckon when she gets older, she’ll make a lot of money as a fine child sitter; I reckon, if she is so inclined, that would be correct.

I bought me a cat

Weird thing about getting a cat in the 21st century: the “book” said that you should keep the cat in a small location so that he doesn’t get too disoriented.


Being the terrible blogger that I am, I have totally neglected to mention the fact that we got a cat this year.

The Daughter has been wary of animals, especially dogs and cats. So we had never had pets of any kind since she was born. But as she spent more time with her friends’ cats, she decided that she wanted a feline of her own. In fact, when she didn’t get one for Christmas 2012, she gave us a deadline for her birthday in March to get one. Finally, around that date, she and her mother went to the animal shelter. There were two kittens she really loved who liked playing with each other. But before they could decide on which one to get, or possibly get them both, one was selected by another family.

They came back the next day and picked the remaining kitten of the pair. He was born around January 26, so he was two months old when he arrived. The Daughter named him Midnight.

The weird thing about getting a cat in the 21st century: the “book” said that you should keep the cat in a small location so that he doesn’t get too disoriented. I had cats 30 to 55 years ago, and I had not heard such a thing. So he was in the guest room for a time unless he was with one of us, for too long for my taste. Part of the issue is that, to this day, it’s almost impossible to catproof the house. While sometimes he cuddles and is mellow, other times he’ll run the length of the house and jump on the dining room table, or some other verboten locale, knocking over any vulnerable items.

The general routine is that someone, whoever gets up first, will go downstairs and feed him; that’s usually me. After that, he’ll be purring and mellow for about five minutes. Then he’ll look out the window and watch what The Wife has dubbed KITV, Kitten Television before he starts marauding. This tires him out and he’ll sleep for a while.

The Daughter really loves him. I guess The Wife and I do too.

ARA: Influences and historical conversations

We’ll have Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Edison, and Andrew Carnegie.

Dear Lisa says Okay, I’ll play:
Who (living or dead) has had the most influence on your life?

I’d have to say my father. He turned me on to music, which was always in the house. He had a thing for social justice. His moodiness was something I tried to avoid in myself, not always successfully. He could be an unfocused dreamer, something I can be guilty of as well.

If you could go back in time and have a conversation with someone, who would it be? My apologies if you’ve already answered these questions before!

Well, I have, so I’ve decided to change it. I want a conversation with FOUR people, together, in the summer of 1910. We’ll have Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), who would be 21, and Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1947), who would turn 41 in the fall, and Thomas Edison (1847-1931), who would be 63, and Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), who would turn 75 in the fall.

I’d be interested to see what the other three would have to say to young Adolf: Gandhi about non-violence, Edison about creativity, Carnegie about going from being a robber baron to a philanthropist who built libraries.
***
Tom the Mayor asked:

Have you ever lost your temper with your wife? Or your daughter?

My wife and I almost never fight. We disagree, but not all that often. The last time I remember getting REALLY angry with her, and it was several years ago, was when she was in a conversation in our house with someone else. I piped in with a point, and she said, to the other person, that I had gotten said point from some specific Sunday morning talk show. After the guest left, about a half-hour later, I exploded that I don’t parrot what I see on a given talk show but take in from a variety of sources and develop my viewpoints. THAT ticked me off.

The Daughter is very sensitive; just ask her. When she was younger, just being disappointed with something she did was enough to launch her into tears. Later, when I had to prod her into doing something – doing her homework, cleaning her room – I would use my calmest firm voice, yet she’d start crying, adding “You KNOW I’m sensitive!” which actually made me laugh inside.

So, I’d say I would get agitated with her sometimes, at which point, I will take a timeout from her. To be fair to me, my wife has experienced similar things; sometimes, SHE’S the “bad” parent. Now when The Daughter writes about it, she may have a different take, but that will be HER blog.
***
A question in my spam folder:

What do you consider the best security defend agency in the country? thanks!

A well-informed populace.

The Lydster, Part 111: the agony and the ecstasy

I explained that sometimes people moan when they are experiencing pleasure, such as a back massage.

The weather on Saturday before Memorial Day was cold and wet; it rained virtually all day, and the high for the day was only 47F (8C). It was just as well that we (mostly my father-in-law, wife, and daughter) were painting the living room. I was primarily moving furniture and taking things out of the cabinets, etc.

Sunday was a bit better, in terms of the weather, but there was church and more painting to do.

So Monday, Memorial Day was a nice respite from the storm. The Daughter was out front playing around 10:30 a.m. when she came inside, quite concerned. She was afraid that someone had gotten hurt. She’s a very caring person.

I went outside with her, and we could hear the distinct sound of moaning emanating from an open window next door. But these were, I quickly discerned, the sounds of pleasure, not pain.

I explained that sometimes people moan when they are experiencing pleasure, such as a back massage. She accepted that because she’d seen my pained laugh when something unfunny took place.

This, of course, leaves me with two related issues. One involves talking about the birds and the bees. The other is trying to discern which of the neighbors – it’s a three-story building – were celebrating the holiday, then finding a way to suggest that anyone walking by was aware of their activities. I have a pretty good idea but don’t want to discuss this with the wrong party. Or maybe I won’t mention it at all unless it comes up again.

The Lydster, Part 110: vacation homework

In general, the hardest seems to be how to MAKE CONNECTIONS to her own life.

It’s been a LONG time since I was in school, but I don’t recall having homework in third grade at all. And I’m fairly certain that I didn’t have homework during school vacations. Things are different, however, for MY third grader.

These days, they gave to read chapters from a book, and then write a REVAMP. Revamp, of course, means to renovate, make new, patch up, redo.
Thus, she and her classmates must:
R READ a section of the text, note the page numbers
E ENCODE the text by telling the gist (main idea) of your reading in your words
V VISUALIZE the text by drawing a picture of your reading
A ANNOTATE the text by writing down important details, ideas, words, or quotes
M MAKE CONNECTIONS by telling your personal experience or what it reminds you of
P PONDER the text by asking questions, making inferences, or predictions

For the winter break, the Daughter procrastinated so much that we (and I do mean we, not just she) was working on it the Monday morning she returned to school, which is unsettling and exhausting for both of us.

During the spring break, she was to encode The Indian in the Cupboard. Also during that period, she and a friend went to the Kopernik Observatory & Science Center in Vestal, NY, two hours away; the Wife took them to this Girl Power science activity.

When they returned on Friday, they’d only done one REVAMP chapter of the book, though she’d read five chapters. Saturday, we did two more. The ENCODE is fairly easy, but the ANNOTATE is difficult, especially if you have to go back and remember the specific section. This means I, who did NOT read the book or see the movie, end up having to skim through the chapters myself.

But, in general, the hardest seems to be how to MAKE CONNECTIONS to her own life. I throw some possible examples out there – “Did you ever get hurt like the Indian did?” – which she will accept, or reject (mostly reject) until she finally comes up with one of her own.

Thus, the entire Sunday afternoon after church, we are doing homework, when I could be reading the paper, or vacuuming, or doing any number of things.

I HATE vacation homework, and it isn’t even MINE!

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