Working on the Weekend – Family Edition

This has already been a busy week around our house. A good friend came over today and helped fix/maintain/improve our sink. It’s amazing how much stuff is seemingly obvious to a man with a wrench, but oh so carefully and thoughtfully hidden to a man who isn’t looking. A small water leak caused a tremendous amount of corrosion around the bolts holding the sink in place. The danger would be if left unchecked, the entire faucet would fall over into the sink basins.

So, I’m thankful for the help with that. It’s much, much cheaper to have a friend who knows what they’re doing than to hire a professional. Unless, of course, your friend actually doesn’t know what they’re doing. I lucked out.

Where I didn’t luck out was staying away from the office this weekend. We have an intermediate deadline coming up on the 9th, and because of that, I was in yesterday and today, trying to make things just so for our customer. Meanwhile, Laureen and the kids went to Oklahoma to visit my grandmother and her husband. The kids had a great time; they went to feed ducks, played on playgrounds (including some on which I’d played on in my youth, and got to visit some Clydesdale horses. Jacob looked up at one of them, saw it’s size and exclaimed, “that’s one big eating machine!”

Onward and upward we go.

On the Controversy of Obama Addressing Schoolchildren

First off, I primarily want to respect other people’s opinions while giving them the chance to respect mine. That may be impossible, but at least I can try. If you’ve been in a cave the past week or so, there’s a large amount of controversy across the state about President Obama addressing the schoolchildren of America on September 8. Parents have been in arms over the speech, mostly due to one of two things: (1) they don’t agree with Obama as a person or as a politician, or (2) they don’t know what he’ll say to kids.

People disagree with each other all the time. Unfortunately, the state of political discourse in this country, spurred on by talk radio and news programs, has allowed the most vitriolic of opinions to get equal time. There are people who believe Obama is a socialist who wants the government to run everything. There are people who believe Obama is also the chosen savior of the United States. I personally voted for him, but I don’t hold any illusions about Obama’s stance on things. His stance on FISA which gave large telecommunications companies immunity for illegally wiretapping U.S. citizens (something done post 9/11) makes him willing to compromise politically. His willingness to give money to large corporations in the form of TARP monies while allowing executives to reap large rewards irks me. About the only change for people that has been seen at our end is a small reduction in the tax rate (at least the one I pay) and the CARS program, which is now no longer in service. So my personal opinion on Obama is mixed, but he shares culpability in leading the country with the Senate and House, and right now, there’s a huge fight with tons of misinformation about health care going on.

But the hue and cry about not wanting your children to see the President address the nation just confuses me. Where else are kids supposed to learn about basic civics and government if not from the highest elected official in the land? Let’s face it: Presidents have done this before without having people getting concerned about the content of his speech. Ronald Reagan did it. George H. W. Bush did it. And I don’t think anyone protested back then. Admittedly, we didn’t have the same technological infrastructure as we do now, but still, Presidents have spoken to kids before without any permanent brainwashing.

Now, the government has altered the supporting materials to remove letter writing to the President, and they’ve also agreed to make the text of his speech available on Sept. 7. Thus, people who want to know ahead of time now have that ability. That roadblock is no more. This still won’t deter some people from objecting, but that’s more personal than anything else.

At some point, parents have to allow their children the freedom to make decisions about elected officials unless they want their kids to remain ignorant of the reasons why they pay taxes, or why we go to war,  or why there are laws in the first place. And kids won’t be able to make that if they’re prevented from having that interaction. And that’s what saddens me most–that kids will be stuck learning how to take a test instead of getting a chance to apply some higher-level critical thinking skills about what the President has to say.

In Memoriam: Chris Haycocks

Chris Haycocks, my uncle, passed away today at 7:30 a.m. He was an interesting man who loved his family, rugby, and mining. He taught mining science for the longest time at Virginia Tech  and also lived in Africa for a stretch. While he could be acerbic in his wit, he was still a good man who raised three sons to be outstanding people. Ultimately, a man can’t ask for more from this life than to be remembered, and as such, I remember my uncle Chris.

So, How Was That First Day, Son?

There are some times when you’re reminded that you’re dealing with a single-track boy. Trying to get him to answer questions about his day is like pulling teeth in terms of frustration. I’m certain that he will only become less communicative as a teenager. Here’s our dinner conversation:

“So how was school, Jacob?”

“Good.”

“What did you do?”

“I played. Had lunch. Had snack.”

“Did you meet any new friends?”

“Yes.”

“What were their names?”

“I’m trying to eat right now, Daddy.”

“Was Mrs. Fuller a good teacher?”

“Yes.”

Apparently, there is now a separate compartment into which all school memories will be dropped, and only Jacob holds  the key.

Jacob, School, and Reversing the Field

This note comes courtesy of Laureen:

Ok-looks like homeschooling is officially on hold. Seems like Mrs. Fuller  is dearly beloved by all the staff, and judging by the number of older kids who stopped by to say hello to her at meet-the-teacher tonight, her students love her, too. Jacob’s class has 15 girls, 7 boys, and a veteran teacher who still loves to teach, in an an “exemplary” rated school where the teachers don’t actually feel the pressure of TAKS testing, because they just do their job of teaching and let the students shine on their own (rough translation of her answer when Kevin asked about it).

He starts Monday at 8am. Mommy is shocked at her change of heart, but grateful for having a new principal  who comes highly recommended by the mom of a child in the principal’s former school–because there Dr. Eldredge knew every student and family, among other wonderful reports. Wow. Wow! 🙂 And Jacob is super-excited…after 2 hours there tonight he walked around as if he owned the place, and had to be dragged out of his classroom when it was over–he was having too much fun exploring all the new sights in the room.

Still, Mommy’s crying. You’d think that after four years of preschool I’d be a little better at letting him go and grow up again. Sigh. –Love, Laureen 🙂

And as far as Daddy’s concerned, whatever works best. So far, Abbett Elementary seems like a nice place to be, so we’ll roll with it. There’s still hope that Jacob will get to go to the gifted and talented academy should a space open, but right now, they’re full.

Ready, Fire, Aim

I’ve begun to post links to things that amuse me at http://www.lopeyland.com again. This time, it’s one link a day in order to keep myself sane. Feel free to head over there and check it out. Also, I’m doing some writing now, so if you look under the free-for-all section, you can read the current story I’m working on. At some point, if all goes to plan, this will get sold to someone, but right now, it’s just a dream. Anyway, enjoy it while it’s posted.

Site Updates

I’ve updated the site to use WordPress 2.8.3 and also updated the theme to a more recent version of it. There was an issue where the sidebar had disappeared; this was due to cut-and-paste from html to my blog introduced rogue html element tags. If you have no clue what that means, that’s okay. The sidebar’s back. Hooray for logic.