What a difference...Redux!

And traffic is mostly back to normal today around town and near Jake's school.  Go figure!  Where are all the cars that were parked and the parents dropping off their kids and the traffic jams of people dealing with buses!  The high school went back into session today so I thought it would be worse but we'll have to go to Stephanie for that story as she took Em to school.  Or Em drove herself.  And a friend...

I'm glad the roads were less busy.

But it seems odd that the day of so much importance, yesterday, has now become the next day and its all routine.  The kids are still getting used to having to return to school.  One day is like a trip to a boring museum during the summer...

My kids like museums.  They beg to go to museums.  Museums they have been to EVERY year, sometimes more than twice.  I have weird kids.

Now the little students are going to be realizing that this WILL be an everyday thing.  I think the second day is important too, if not moreso. If you can get them excited about the year now and keep their interest this first week when they still are thinking about all they used to do during the day all Summer...

Swimming, going to museums, playing video games, day trips to someplace fun...

Then they have a better chance of staying the course.  Being focussed!

Jake came home from school and the first words out of his mouth was the Math test they took in class that he did awesome on! It was easy and he only got a couple questions wrong!  And he did perfect on the Time quiz!  He can even read a not-digital clock! (His words)

There's some good teaching going on in those two statements.  Nothing succeeds like success and you have to know where you are to get where you're going.

If you need some more conversation on where I get that, don't hesitate to ask.

Jake blames his Star Wars wall clock for his ability to read dials.  He says he just looks at the pictures.  Something most be sinking in...

Now if I can just find children's workbooks on how to be a video game designer...

HAND!

WoW!! What a difference one day can make!

School is back and so is traffic! Buses, pedestrians, kids wandering like sheep to the pasture to graze at their educational repast...

Yesterday, traffic was confined to Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds drive thrus for the early morning coffee!

Now, left turns are not illegal but ill advised as you might be forced to wait quite a while to turn.  Parents are congregating excitedly on corners discussing what they will do while their cherubs are confined to the educational institution for the afternoon!

I usually use the first day of school, and the ride to it, to discuss the summer with my little Jedi.  Did we do enough this summer?  Did I spend enough time with him? Was there anything we didn't do that he wanted to?   I also try to remind him of plans he may have made at the beginning of the summer that he didn't quite achieve.

Jake said his summer was great and he was very happy.  I spent more than enough time with him.  I don't know if that last comment is a good thing but I was happy to hear that.  I have decided that I will never feel like I have spent enough time with my kids or any of the people I love.  I have to go to work some time...

He wore his favorite new shirt, Plants vs Zombies, although he was worried about it being appropriate.  What a good kid.

And we saw a girl standing lost on the sidewalk leading up to school with that mortified expression that i will probably have one my first day back to work after vacation.

Only it looked worse on her.  The last time I felt the way she looked was when I was sitting on my bed at Oswego after my parents and girlfriend had dropped me off, feeling totally alone and abandoned.  My roommate was going to be a day late for school so I was staring at the empty half of the room with no one to bond with.

Thats too much stress for a 7 year old.

I'm glad Jake was excited to go back to school, even though he didn't want to admit it.  He was wearing his back pack a half hour before we had to leave.

I'm glad I take the first week back to school off every year to make the transition a little easier and to connect about the summer.  And just to be there.

I can still see that girl in my minds eye and I feel like she just needs someone to tell her to turn around and get up that hill.  Just walk forward and get started.  It may seem terrifying but a million kids are surviving it every day...

So I try to remember that when I'm looking at a big problem. 

Walk forward and get started... somewhere.

Just standing there is going to just let time get away...like summer...

HAND!

A NOOK in life...

I had to reset my wife's Nook this morning.  Kinda one of those favorite situation things where there is a problem with the device and trying to uncover a solution may involve using the broken device.  Like call customer service if you have trouble with your phone...

So I got out my Nook and looked their trouble shooting guide which just had the soft boot and didn't work...

So I got on line, thinking about checking my Blog as i got on but first things first, and got the hard boot instructions.  The Nook seems to be recovering and is changing pace instead of just idling on the start up screen or trapped in what it was doing...

Probably an infinite loop type thing.  A nefarious computer problem which can spring up at any time where a series of decisions and options, or just pushing too many buttons as my son finds out too often, causes the program to go through the same motions continuously.  You can see people doing this in the junk food aisle of the grocery store as well.

It's also a time travel problem which never seems to be explored in most fiction:

I'm going to go into the past to change something horrible that happened, like Chuck being cancelled by NBC, and succeed.  But then I have no reason to go back into the past to convince them to not cancel Chuck so it gets cancelled so then I go back in time to keep them from....

Nook still resetting.  I may have not solved the problem.  At least I tried...

The point, because, interestingly, this all has something to do with what I was planning to bring to your attention.

Cuz, I love that contraction, sometimes life seems to be caught in an unfulfilling infinite loop of work, eating, sleeping... or worse.  I know someone who's daily infinite loop includes drinking a six pack of beer before bed to help them unwind and sleep.

So it's time for a reset.  Study what you want to be doing, thinking, living, and try to make sure what you are putting in your head and heart is what you want to have coming out of your life, mouth, you...

If you spend your night, after work, watching the News and listening to all the horrible stuff thats going on, you're going to get depressed...

And a big impact can also be made in the morning.  What you do in the morning.  I used to get up with just enough time to shower, shave, and rush out the door.  No breakfast.  Swing by McD's for coffee on the way...

No wonder I was in a tense, bad mood most of the day...

So I took some advise from Chip Ingram and started to read the Bible every morning, got up a little earlier to get a couple chapters in.  I also use my Nook to read the Bible while riding in the car or sitting on the commode...

I have a little Bible in my glove compartment which I read a little of during my lunchbreak.  I feel more refreshed and in touch and I'm being kinder and nicer...

So if you want to keep being grumpy, keep your News IV going...

Or start reading a crafting magazine in the bathroom if you want to do more crafting,

Watch more cooking shows if you want to learn more about cooking...

Etc,

HAND!!

Ok, so I don't post much...

And I don't always edit my work after typing. So there...

Probably less people reading this today cuz I've missed more birthdays and lost track of some more friends.  You get in the grind of going to work, playing with the kids, doing stuff around the house, finding time to eat or sleep, maybe get some time alone, spend time with a relative (which was a very nice afternoon and change of pace)

And sometimes I get annoyed by people who lack the creativity and desire to get back to you somehow.  My old friends from long ago...

back when the orcs ranged the hillsides and undead would sprout from the ground like campaign promises,

...know where I am and how to get in touch with me. I know I haven't called them lately but they haven't called me either...

And I have tried to be available to people.  I have invited folx from work to my new house but they are as busy as I am... I geuss...

So I texted a friend during the bad storm, ie TORNADO, we had here a couple weeks ago to see if they were ok and how they were doing... and I still don't know.  I suspect they are in Oz although their house is still standing and they still go to work...

So I don't know if I lost track of more friends or if they are just hiding from me.  Maybe they are like ninja friends, lurking in the bushes until the appropriate, or inappropriate, time to appear...

Do you ever think about how much life is NOT like TV and the movies?

I have yet to have an ex wander back into my life and say, "How's it going?" Maybe its me. Once you get to know me, You don't mind me not being there!

I Yam what I yam

HAND!

Oops! And now for something...

If you don't know the rest of that quote, too  bad.

I thought the last post was a little dreary so lets try this...

Ever wake up in the middle of the night thinking about something you haven't thought about in, like, forever? Metaphorically speaking, of course.

And you can't get it out of your head?

When it's a person from the past, I take it that they need some prayer and i pray for them.  That usually works.

If it's something I did and its not a happy thought, I pray for forgiveness and too learn from the mistake.

That usually works.

The other day, I woke up in the middle of the night...

oops.

The other night, I woke up thinking about a hobby I used to enjoy.  Somethimg legal.  And I haven't  spent time enjoying that in quite a while.  And I still have all the stuff I needed to take up the hobby again.

It's a game, so you know more.  To be more descriptive is to wander away from the point.  If there actually is one but I'm enjoying the 'sound' of my own voice right now so...

But i don't have anyone to play the game with anymore.  Or the time.  And I'm not really sure I want to play that game anymore but I have boxes of the stuff...

And I couldn't get it out of my head.  And I didn't know what to do to get back to sleep.

So,

And maybe this is the point...

I decided to divert my thoughts.  I got up grabbed the Bible and read for a little while.  That was when I was reading Proverbs.  I'm in Isaih right now with some quick forays into Revelation (no s at the end) and Acts...

The other day, I was noticing how much John's writing ability had advanced between the Gospel and the last book of the Bible.  I'm not saying that i think they were written by 2 different writers.  It just seems like Revelation flowed better and it is a far more complex book...

Its like some of the stuff in Genesis.  The people who put a pen to it did not know that the earth was round.  But some of the stuff they write makes more sense with that knowledge.  I'm not saying it was fasified.  The age of the documents proves otherwise.

In case you are wondering, I got back to sleep in about a half an hour...

I wanted to read more though...

HAND!

Oops! Where does the time go?

So I was talking with a friend the other day and they said, You haven't Blogged lately.  I almost answered I didn't know anyone cared.

I'm not much, I have found, into narrating the events of my life. Not that I'm ashamed of what I do but that it never seems all that interesting to me...

I cleaned some more of the basement today and fished some mothballs out of the garden...

Rivetting...

And my views on society always seem to leave tigers hiding in the bushes...

Hey, you just pulled directly into the outside lane while turning.  You hate that!  You're blog says so...

Or even views on public events.  Do we really need another person to say how upset they are that Ray Bradbury is gone or that school shootings are horrible?

I once did an opinion piece for a college writing class about how rabies is bad for pets.  Filled with facts and footnotes.  It was a thickly vieled opinion on how everyone else was choosing topics that no one would argue about.

And then I get sooo concerned about spelling mistakes and making it perfect cuz i don't want people to discount the opinions withing cuz I forgot to use spellcheck...

or capitalize my i's...

Sometimes, it seems to me that a blog is a one sided conversation and those who are the best at it might be the ones who like to hear themselves talk...

Thats not even an opinion.  That's a thought.

About opinions, I sometimes think they are about to become illegal.  Can't take the chance of hurting someones feelings.  They might charge me with harrasment or hate speech.

It's like road rage.  If you have ever read the road rage law?  If you accelerate or decelerate in reaction to another driver?  Does that mean that braking for the person who cuts you off so you don't hit them is road rage?

Well, this hole has gotten pretty deep.  Maybe I should climbout of it before the neighbors come over bearing pitchforks and torches...

HAND!

And then...Vacation!

Well, that vacation lasted awhile....

It seems, when you go on vacation for a week, it takes up more than a week.  It's like dropping a marble into a glass of water.  It's like time displacement.  All the time you spend planning any vacation events and packing, if you can afford to go anywhere, and making sure you're caught up at work and other people who have work that is dependent on you get caught up or prepare for you not to be at work...

And then you've got to travel...

If you go anywhere...

OR... you might have a project that you've been meaning to work on and this vacation at home will be the perfect time to get that done...

To make a long story short, after two weeks of preparing at work for my vacation and preparing for a 3 day trip to Splash Lagoon in Erie, PA...

I only got half the detritus from beneath the deck cleaned out,

I'm still not caught up on Alcatraz or Castle,

the lawn still needs mowing,

I didn't make it over to my parents to help around their house (Now I have guilt),

I still have beer,

I forgot to assign a reset at work due the day after Easter,

Splash Lagoon was great!!

Which leads me to wonder,

Why do we only give ourselves one day to unpack?

HAND!!