Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

So… Padawan Learner got in a fight with a tree [...]]]> Obi-Wan Kenobi: “If you spent as much time practicing your saber technique as you do on your wit, you would rival Master Yoda as a swordsman.”
Anakin Skywalker: “I thought I already did.”
Obi-Wan: “Only in your mind, my very young apprentice.”

Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

So… Padawan Learner got in a fight with a tree Thursday night. This may surprise, you but the tree won. $1900 dollars and a week later and the old car should be back in fighting shape again. Let’s hope this little event reminds him to slow down and drive more carefully on snow-covered roads from now on. And people wonder why I hear Rainman’s voice in my head every time he tells someone, “I’m an excellent driver. “

I have been watching, on and off, The Universe on demand from Netflix this week (thank you awesome internet-ready Samsung TV and forced week of vacation!), and I have decided that when I grow up I’m going to be [...]]]> “And you, young Skywalker; we shall watch your career with great interest.” Chancellor Palpatine, Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace

I have been watching, on and off, The Universe on demand from Netflix this week (thank you awesome internet-ready Samsung TV and forced week of vacation!), and I have decided that when I grow up I’m going to be an astronomer. Then again, if I get back to watching Mythbusters I may decide to return to my earlier decision to be a Physicist. I think the fact that we only get one short ride on this rock is deeply unfair.

Please forgive the crazy delay. I popped in today and noticed that my last post was on July 4th. A [...]]]> Obi-Wan: “Captain Typho has more than enough men downstairs. No assassin will try that way. Any activity up here?”
Anakin: “Quiet as a tomb. I don’t like just waiting here for something to happen to her.”
Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones

Please forgive the crazy delay. I popped in today and noticed that my last post was on July 4th. A month and a half. Geez.

So, you see here’s the thing. I got a job. A full-time job. A really full-time, on my feet all day long on a concrete floor job. A this was supposed to be a part-time, up-to-20 hours a week, filler position job, but after six days spread out over two weeks I was offered the position of store manager on July 8. A full-time, at least 40 hours a week job. Well, holy cow. I said yes, took over on July 9, and it’s been a crazy rollercoaster ever since. Have I mentioned that it’s been way too many years since that kind of non-stop on-the-go activity has been a regular part of my life? I have learned a new level of both exhaustion and sore foot pain.

On the up side, I love this job. Love, love, love it. It’s fun, it’s positive, and it’s close enough to walk or bike to. The women I work with are fun and hardworking (a great combo), the challenges are enough to keep my brain pumping along, and the feedback from my employers and customers regarding the changes I’ve been implementing have been uniformly positive.

Many other things have been happening as well these past couple of weeks.

Padawan Learner turned 16 this summer, is driving around town by himself, started back to school at 5 out of the 8 periods (and is picking up a 6th period geometry class starting on Monday) and has been pleased with his newfound freedom. It’s a little weird, but we’re both enjoying the break from each other 24/7. He’s very 16, and I’m definitely a mom. Clashes have ensued. He’s talked about getting a job and working toward becoming independent sooner rather than later. It could be a good idea, but we’ll see how much effort he puts into meeting that goal. As you know quite well, there’s more to being a grownup than earning an income.

PL went to two different camps this summer, a week long half day parkour camp in Boulder. So PL got to participate in one of his most favorite activities ever AND we got to visit with our nephew who just moved into the area a few months earlier. I think he enjoyed our visit too since he was forced to learn first hand about lots of great restaurants in the area. PL also went to a week long overnight camp (his first experience with that type of program) for trampoline and double mini in Michigan, so Dad Windu and I were able to visit some old friends from different parts of Michigan – including some that we hadn’t been able to see for years.

To round the summer out, our niece married, rather unexpectedly but apparently happily, and we were all able to gather once again as an extended family (minus 3) for a long weekend. But it seems that with joy comes pain, and this weekend was no different – DW’s co-worker was in a motorcycle-car accident on the way home the same day we left for MI and was airlifted to a hospital near us. Thankfully he had on his leathers and a helmet (a rarity in Iowa). Still, he has two broken legs, a broken arm, and bleeding in the brain (now stopped), but he survived the first night (a major event) and is on the mend. He is such a sweetheart and such a fighter. I’ve been able to go sit with him in the mornings while his wife gets their four kids off on two different school busses (two hours apart!) so that he doesn’t have to wake up alone. The good drugs are giving us really fun conversations. It’s so nice seeing his bruises go down day after day, but it’s heartbreaking to see the pain that goes along with all the things that will ultimately make him better – multiple surgeries and their subsequent swelling most of all. Send any extra good thoughts along to JerBear.

So there you have it. Sorry for making you wait for an update.

When Padawan Learner was just a wee little guy, wrapped snugly in his blankets, sleeping calmly and [...]]]> “Nevertheless, I’m taking Captain Solo and his friends. You can either profit by this or be destroyed. It’s your choice, but I warn you not to underestimate my power.” – Luke Skywalker, Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi

When Padawan Learner was just a wee little guy, wrapped snugly in his blankets, sleeping calmly and silently through the night (yes, I understand that many of you will now be compelled to hate me for that statement), I assumed that he would be a traditional scholar. A multiple degree-holding academic of the first order. He would love learning for its own sake and almost compulsively read through the local library system. When he was a two year old chipping golf balls in the front yard and chasing down soccer balls in the back, I assumed he would be a traditional scholar who rode into college with both academic and athletic scholarships. When he was a five year old kindergartener, bored by reading lesson because he already knew how to read, I assumed he would be a traditional scholar, sought after athlete, who also was accelerated through multiple grades.

A decade later, my son is not a traditional scholastic academic, is not fighting off athletic recruiters, and is not advanced for his years. He struggles with math (sorry to have shared that with you, kiddo), doesn’t much care for science (although physics is considered interesting enough), and couldn’t really care less about the humanities. Oh, the humanities! He hates to write, which is proof positive that he is Dad Windu’s child. He’s a strong, if not regular reader, given to fits and starts of recreational reading. Oh, and he’s not a stellar athlete either. Definitely athletic, and given to strange and frightening leaps and twists on the trampoline – 9.8 last weekend, thank you very much – but probably not collegiate level. Sound grim to you? I’d be more upset about it, if I didn’t know that he’s a pretty normal kid.

He’s got a serious girlfriend (just shoot me now) who seems nice enough, with enough family baggage to cause an appropriate amount of maternal concern. He knows that teen romances rarely last, but he’s interested in giving it a try. He wants to, maybe, go to college for video game design, but mostly he just wants to play them. He has an absolute passion for parkour that makes my stomach lurch, his hands raw, and his pants ripped. He isn’t very good at keeping track of his schedule or his stuff yet, but is learning that if you don’t pack a lunch for school you get pretty hungry in the afternoon. He likes to roam around the downtown area with his best friend who is probably going to move back to Texas this summer, so he’s scraping to spend time with her because he has already learned that moving away means you probably won’t have much contact after that. He’s learning to enjoy the moment and accepting the “seasonality” of most friendships.

He’s learning that it doesn’t matter what you say you want, if you don’t do anything about it. He’s learning that there’s a limit to what your parents are willing to take when it comes to attitude and behavior. He’s learning that consequences for poor chooses are, by their very nature, often unpleasant and decidedly un-fun. He’s learning that laundry doesn’t care for itself, clear skin doesn’t just happen, showers don’t magically sparkle, and that it’s easier to take care of things than to catch up on things.

He’s learning from others, too. A boy his age has taught him that being in the 98th percentile on a high stakes standardized test isn’t nearly as impressive when you’re also a self-centered jerk 98% of the time. He’s learning that some people have an easier time understanding certain things, but all the “smarts” in the world don’t mean a thing if you can’t be bothered to do the work. Conversely, he’s noticed that fighting for a solid C is better than someone else throwing away an easy A because they couldn’t be bothered to show up for class. He’s learned that some mistakes, especially relationship mistakes, can last a lifetime. He’s seen how long $45,000 in student loans takes to pay off, especially if you never graduate and have to work two jobs just to support yourself and your not-so-sexy debt. He doesn’t enjoy math, but he understands compound interest.

Ultimately, he’s recognizing that “intelligence” goes hand in hand with effort, just like “luck” goes fastest to the best prepared. He’s learning that no one can do the work for you, make you want something enough to fight for it, or set your path before you. These things – he’s learning – must come from within himself. He’s a bright one, that son of mine, and I know he will go just as far as he chooses to go.

What? Two posts in one day? Has the [...]]]> [Chewbacca is carrying a dismembered C3PO in a net bag on his back]
“If only you’d attached my legs, I wouldn’t be in this ridiculous position. Now remember, Chewbacca, you have a responsibility to me, so don’t do anything foolish.” – C-3PO, Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back

What? Two posts in one day? Has the world gone crazy? Perhaps.

In my effort to find these little beauties on super-secret sale, I ran across a website called SHOEBACCA. It’s no Fluevog, I grant you, but it looks like it has the makings of several wasted afternoons in my on-going great shoe search. While SHOEBACCA doesn’t carry the Aldo brand, and I was forced to order elsewhere, I feel it is my inter-galactic duty to pass along an online shoe store making a passing reference in their name to Star Wars. The Force is with them.

You’ll be glad to hear, I am sure, that not only did I find the above lovelies on super-secret sale and in my size, but I ended up getting them in both black and brown. They are, indeed, fabulous.

That’s an apt quote. My communications have felt jammed lately. For a couple of months, actually. In the past, I’d have those ‘I have to write about this’ thoughts a couple of times a day [...]]]> Ric Olie: ….our communications are still jammed.
Obi-Wan : Now stay here, and keep out of trouble.
Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace

That’s an apt quote. My communications have felt jammed lately. For a couple of months, actually. In the past, I’d have those ‘I have to write about this’ thoughts a couple of times a day or week, but lately… Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. And since I’m of both the If you don’t have anything to say, do us all a favor and put the keyboard down and It’s your blog, so don’t feel the need to apologize if things go quiet camps, I’ve not written and I’m not sorry about it. I wish it hadn’t been so long, but it has been and I guess it needed to be.

Padawan Learner is off watching Tron 3D with the local teen group, Dad Windu is hob-nobbing on shores of the Mississippi with the corporate headquarters crowd, and I find myself in an aggressively Christian coffee shop eaves-dropping on some very interesting conversations. A mom/daughter duo are discussing a felon’s drug/alcohol addiction (sounds like a dad/brother) and his refusal to enter a half-way/treatment house post incarceration which is – specifically – why he’s not being allowed back home. Apparently his parents in AZ are not facing the fact that he’s going to end up right.back.there if he doesn’t get the help he needs. Dad, it turns out to be.

A customer just said, “Happy Holidays” to the latte-maker girl. This has been such a BIG DEAL on my Facebook status update wall, with calls to (and I quote) “force stores to say Merry Christmas” and announcements that people are “not going to have a Happy Holiday but only a Merry CHRISTmas” or that they won’t go to “Holiday concerts but only to Christmas concerts” that I actually shuddered a little to hear him say it. But no one in the coffee shop even blinked.

The guys next to me are discussing a co-worker (not present) that likes to show off his p@rn collection in the warehouse  - can you spell F.I.R.E.D? – and the fact that tomorrow is a guy at the table’s birthday. One of the guys just smiled at me. I wonder if he knows I can hear every word they’re saying.

A new guy at the coffee counter is now debating the existence of God with the girl behind the counter – and doing a good job of it, frankly. Respectful, but not taking the “mystery” and “faith” arguments as definitive answers. I just heard, “Come on, Jonah really sat around inside a whale? You know better than that.” It sounds like this is an on-going conversation with a regular customer.

An intense, Save the Whales bumper sticker on the computer case, trio of guys across the room are discussing ways to bring freedom of the press to some country I can’t quite hear from here, but somewhere in Asia from the sounds of it. Wow, I feel like such a slacker just sitting here. I’m not doing anything to save the planet or expand personal freedom to oppressed peoples anywhere. One of the guys looks just like the lead actor from Napoleon Dynamite – without the painfully poor fashion sense. He must have gotten so much crap after that movie came out.

OK, the religious conversation is beginning to grate on my nerves. Time to find a new typing place. But on the upside, I think I’m digging out. It feels good to write again.

As you may have realized (yes, I know, I hide it well), reading is one of my favorite activities. In reality, reading mysteries set in the English countryside has become, [...]]]> “Sir, I don’t know where your ship learned to communicate, but it has the most peculiar dialect.” – C-3PO, Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back

As you may have realized (yes, I know, I hide it well), reading is one of my favorite activities. In reality, reading mysteries set in the English countryside has become, to be blunt, a bit of an obsession these past few years. I like them set from modern times (Minette Walters) to a more genteel age (Agatha Christie), between the World Wars (Jacqueline Winspear) to over a century ago (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), and everything in between. I just can’t seem to get enough of them.

Despite the fact that the authors and I share (for the most part) a common language, there are frequently antiquated or obtuse terms that send me running for my trusty old Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary – spattered, stained and highlighted (but still tightly bound, thankyouverymuch) after these two and some odd decades. Yes, I can generally gather the meaning through context, but it niggles my brain (3rd definition: GNAW) not to know exactly what the author meant. So I scurry into the delicate pages, hunting for meaning, before re-reading the passage with the full knowledge of what the author meant to express. Ah, it’s just divine.

So I have been sitting here this afternoon, while Padawan Learner goes about his lessons, very much enjoying my first book by Catherine Aird, The Stately Home Murder, with my much revered old red dictionary by my side. Seventy-three pages in and I’ve already looked up a dozen words. Now that’s my idea of an afternoon well spent!

Saturday in Central Iowa was drop dead, autumn weather perfect.

Although we were going to visit the historical farms and 19th Century town at Living History Farms with Dad Windu’s parents [...]]]> Aunt Beru: “Luke’s just not a farmer, Owen. He has too much of his father in him.”
Owen: “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
Star Wars IV: A New Hope

Saturday in Central Iowa was drop dead, autumn weather perfect.

Although we were going to visit the historical farms and 19th Century town at Living History Farms with Dad Windu’s parents this weekend, they decided (at rather the last minute) that it wasn’t a good time to visit since his mother wasn’t feeling her best. Pulling on our big boy/girl pants, DW and I decided to go check it out anyway while Padawan Learner was at trampoline class. We enjoyed it so much, we hosed Padawan Learner off and went right back for the rest of the day.

A few pictures for you to enjoy:

This Ioway Native American lodge looked downright cozy.

Traditional medicinal plants and their uses were identified in and near the Ioway farm camp.

The one-room (with loft) Frontier Cabin…

and it’s matching lean-to barn/shed. One of the things DW liked best about this set of historic farms is that they had live farm animals and (very informative) interpreters engaged in the daily tasks of farming life. I liked that they were NOT trying to pretend they were actually IN each farm’s stated time period. I know some people love that type of thing; I am not one of them.

On our way to the 1900 Farm, we spotted a stunning set of matching dappled gray draft horses participated in the farm’s annual weekend-long fall plowing contest. (I believe there’s one in the spring, too.) What a clever way for the LHF to quickly get their fields plowed. I wonder if a laundry contest could work in the apartment…

My heart never ceases to go pitter-patter when I see a big, beautiful barn like this one. The hay, grain and leather harnesses inside made it smell heavenly.

I’m pretty sure PL’s favorite part of the day was finding this sweet little kitty to love.

This interpreter said she started as an elementary summer camp attendee, 9 years ago, and has been involved with the LHF in one way or another every year since. Now that’s impressive, in my book. Did you know that Iowa has one of the highest rates of volunteerism in the nation? Just another reason to love this place.

This pantry and the prep area below had me drooling into the collar of my turtleneck (it was in the high 50s, after all).

Anyone know what that corrugated-looking thing in the corner is?

With such a scene as this, it almost makes a girl want to go boil up some laundry. Ok, but it does make me think of flapping sheets and towels on the clothes line.

This is similar to the treadle sewing maching that I remember from my great-grandmother’s house, which she had from her mother.

The 1950s kitchen from the Modern Farms exhibit stopped me cold (there was also a Modern Farm Kitchen; I found it pretty sterile looking). This little honey is almost an exact replica of the kitchen we had when we bought our Grand Rapids house all those years ago. I think it’s just lovely.

We had planned to go back the next day to watch the old-time baseball game, but found out while eating breakfast that Padawan Learner had (a shitload of) work that was due the next day for one of his public school classes that he figured “wouldn’t take that long.”  Oh, the learning curve ride this kid is taking… He worked straight from 11am until we had to leave for a homeschool family potluck at 4pm and was back at it when we got home at 8:30 pm, finally finishing around 10:30pm. Nothing like learning the hard way to get your stuff done as it comes in, rather than waiting until the very end because you’ve got “lots of time to do it.” Dad Windu is finding all this very hard to be patient about, but I keep reminding him, “The fastest way to learn is to screw up.”

For those of you who didn’t check out the curriculum log over at The Jedi Academy, here are notes I made on Thursday and today about his Ocean project and some more work that we didn’t know about until later for the same class:

Padawan Learner’s Environmental Sustainability class found out Wednesday that their Oceans-related project – his is on the Smalleye Hammerhead Shark – which was scheduled to be due in late December, was being moved up to being due… this Friday… to meet the 6th week marking period. <snark>Ah, the logic to be found in grades-based public schooling.</snark> Therefore, we have pushed our homeschooling scheduled work off to Friday (after he gets back from his public school classes) and Saturday afternoon (after gymnastics/trampoline practice) so that he can spend today getting his ES project completed.

and

Considering Padawan Learner’s experience with “projects” last week at Public School and the fact that he has several more projects coming due in both Italian and Environmental Science, we’re taking the next week to do some (much needed) science review here in The Outer Rim, especially since we’ve just finished Unit I in Biology, a little more Pre-Algebra & Algebra review – a few things are still a little shaky – and to give him time to get these crazy Public School projects zipped up and out of the way. No more last minute project “emergencies” for us, please.