Frenzied Daddy

According to some of the radio stations here in town, last weekend was the Official End Of Summer. We spent the weekend west of Warrenton in beautiful downtown Fort Stevens.

We could not have asked for a more lovely weekend- the highs were 75ish, it was sunny and warm. The yurts were comfortable (well, the second night). The dogs were well-behaved (after the first night). We had great time out with our friends.

The first night, nobody closed the skylight in the yurt. The ladies were co–o-o-o-o-old. I would have been too, except that I was sleeping in the car with the dogs. You may ask “why?” Go ahead… I’ll wait.

No dogs allowed in the yurts. Last year they did great in the car. This year, apparently there are raccoons that live at Fort Stevens. And they like to taunt the dogs. So our dogs went completly ape-scrumm in the car when the raccoons came by to check out the buffet. The only way I could get them to keep from waking up the neighborhood was to go sleep with them. They were quiet- and cold because I forgot to close the windows too! (eew)

On Saturday, Brynnen and I hiked with the dogs over to the beach and the wreck of the Peter Iredale while “unnamed wonderful people” went to Seaside to check out the shopping. Later, we all went to the military fort at Fort Stevens and then went to the beach for the sunset.

I’ll have scrapbook-like pictures up soon!

No, this isn’t the normal post-Towers paragraph or two on “heroes.” Keep reading.

I found myself via a link from slashdot reading this article regarding David Brin (the author)’s take on the second of the new Star Wars movies. Not only does he have a great way for George Lucas to pull his head out and clean up some plot holes (Obi Wan and Darth Vader are really in cahoots against Yoda and the Emporer ) but he’s got this interesting article on the difference between heroes for Spielberg and for Lucas:

Spielberg actually interviewed scores of real life heroes before filming Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List. He portrays heroes as real men, flawed, prone to anger and weaknesses, often slipping or falling… but then doing what real heroes do, getting back up and confronting evil once again. That is how it’s done, proved a million times. A true moral lesson… and the diametric opposite of everything G. Lucas teaches about “heroism” — that it is a zen-purist godlike state, ruined by any thought of self or attachment or genuine human emotion.

Talking about heroes always reminds me of David Tubb. He and I share a trait- we desire to be seen as heroes … in gaming terms (which is where we met) we both have a hero complex… We’ll take the fall, we’ll be the last ones because we want others to see us heroically. Of course he’s a teacher (good hero) while I’m a web-geek and avid computer gamer (non-hero).
Anyway – it was kind of inspiring to read this paragraph because so much of my life in the past few years has been lived under pressure, dealing with real life things like bosses who can’t pay you, people who lie to you, bills that have to be paid. And I usually spend a lot of energy reminding myself that “heroes survive in adversity” – like it’s some sort of mantra (kind of like GLucas’s presentation of heroes). While what makes my survival impressive is that throughout my last few years, I’ve kept some (IMHO) pretty good traits. I’ve been getting back up. I’ve been facing, well not a hallway filled with fire and smoke, but a 1:30 AM paper route and peanut butter sandwiches. In my own life, I’ve been .. dare I say it? Heroic. And so has my friend Erich. And his wife. And my wife. And my mothers. And … well and you. Good job!

And it’s not about the mind set … it’s been about the continuing to function.
ouch I think I just broke my arm patting myself on the back.

We picked the delightful child up at the daycare yesterday after school. It was her first time at this new day care.

I don’t know if this apparent to anyone else- but my child has her own opinions and a lot of determination. She also is … very vocal about structuring the play time. Sometimes it makes me nervous, but she and the other kids work it out OK. I’m sometimes worrying about what other people will think of my determined, organizationally minded, “I’m in charge” kid. (I’m learning to let it go.)

The new teacher last night said … “You have a great kid. She’s a natural leader.” Somewhy, that allays my fears about the punkin’s socialization.

So I got caught drinking Red Bull by the delightful child. She asked me why I was drinking it (she’s not allowed)… and rather than tell her it’s because I’m a caffaholic, I told her I was going for “wheeeeengs”… because that”s the commercial (Red Bull gives you Wheeeeengs). So then I put a serious face on and asked her if I was growing them yet. She looked at my back and smiled and said “yup.”

Then I asked if I was growing eagle wings or bat wings (thinking angel versus demon in my head, not sure what she was thinking) and she informed that I was going to have Eagle Wings. Hurray!!

But perhaps I ‘d rather have Heron Wings instead?

Hey, good news.
The Scrapbook Page for this year’s state fair is up. I’m thinking the pictures are a little small again. Feel free to use the comment link below and let me know what you think. To hit the scrapbook pages, use the quicklink on the menu (which links to the scrapbooks) and then select the top one.

One of the most annoying (and that’s the nice word) people in Oregon is under scrutiny right now – yes, I’m talking about Bill Sizemore. I can’t wait to see how this plays out.

I was happy to hear about the kid’s school doing a ‘telephone directory.’ She’s in a public school, and the kindergarten folk seem pretty on the ball. I thought the telephone directory was for my amusement; to call in case of snow, or if a birthday party happened; with 26 kids (!) that’s two per month.

Imagine my surprise when our daughter got her first telephone call from a boy! yesterday evening. How do I tell her to be careful? All I can do is limit her telephone time and pay attention to what she says on the telephone. All in all she talked to three boys and two girls yesterday- I was being pretty lenient because of how new it all was.

Kindergarten started this week!
Those of you who have kids in kindergarten may understand why I feel so frenzied about this. Some of you without kids may too- come to think of it.

Elementary school in our neighborhood has a 2 and a half hour kindergarten. With my wife and I both working out of town (about forty minutes away) that just won’t work for us. So we had a rather hectic three weeks trying to get Brynnen into a ‘better’ (longer, more indepth) kindergarten program. We found one, near her grandmothers’ house, but it was a near thing.

Welcome to the site-makeover! As you can see, we’ve got a fairly basic layout, but the blogging script looks like it’ll work great.

Check back and see how it looks later!

-Russ