You know you're a parent when...

... you try to put your right shoe on in the morning and impale your toe on a hotwheels car.
... you can't put your other shoe on because it's full of ball bearings.
... you open your gym bag and find a Spiderman, 3 hotwheels cars, a sponge and a plastic elephant.
... you find yourself saying 'I really don't think you should eat that 6 month old Cheerio you found behind the computer'.
... your car has a pop gun under the passenger seat.
... your favorite TV shows have changed from 'Deadwood' and 'The Sopranos' to 'Sponge-Bob Squarepants' and the 'The Fairly Odd Parents'.
... you get into bed, only to lie down on the surprisingly sharp and pointy Spiderman you found in your gym bag this morning.
... a simple trip to the bathroom at night, turns into an objstacle course of toys that a Navy SEAL would be afraid of.
... you can completely understand half words with no vowels and pronounced with a latteral lisp.

Inactivity for the young

Every week I hear more reports about how obese kids are getting and what a huge issue it is. There are constant questions asking how we solve this problem.

Well one sure fire way it isn't going to be solved, is if kids are stopped from playing games that involve running around. This school in Boston has banned tag! Why?? They are worried that kids may get hurt. If that's the case why don't they bubble wrap every conceivable sharp object in the classrooms, bathrooms, hallways, streets, buses and roads home! In all the times that we played tag as kids, and they were plenty, we never had anyone suffer more than a scraped knee or a grazed elbow.

In the video news report linked to in the article below, the school is quoted as saying that the kids have plenty of other activities to keep them busy during recess. I'm guessing these activities are things like 'sitting on your butt' or 'eating food'. I may be mistaken but I thought these were the reasons why we have so many obese children, but what do I know.

Please someone stop this insane endeavor to shield our kids from everything. Parents need to be able to accept that sometimes accidents happen and you don't have to sue for every scrape your kid gets. The school needs to grow a pair and stand up for kids freedoms and their right to be kids, instead of cowering like a beaten dog.

More on this ridiculous topic here.

Rising water prices!

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Why do it?

There are many things you can do with a Saturday. You can sleep in and spend the day lazing around (not normally an option for parents). You could come home from Fridays party. You could go do the weekly shopping ... OR you could get up at 4 in the morning to drive 2 hours to row 3 miles up a river and back down again in the freezing cold.

Guess which one I did this weekend? No I didn't have a hangover, go shopping or sleep in. I rowed. It was possibly one of the most painful experiences I've had in a while. The actual race lasted just over 20 minutes during which time I developed blisters on my callouses, numb legs, blisters on the afore mentioned blisters followed by blood blisters under all those blisters. So I'm sure you're asking why I'd subject myself to this agony?

I can't really answer that question with a direct 'Because the future of world peace depends on it' kind of answer. The answer is in moments that I've experienced over the last few months of rowing that can't be had any other way.

Early last spring, we were rowing in the icy morning cold and had rowed a 4 (a boat that requires 4 rowers and an optional Cox) out into the middle of Greenwood Lake. We were without Cox which added to the moment as there was nobody shouting at us for a change. This is a good thing in itself.

After rowing for about 30 minutes we paused to rest. Nobody said a word. We were surrounded by a mirror of water, the sun rising over the Appalachians, a faint mist hanging about 5 inches above the water. We were the only boat on the lake at 7am. It felt completely surreal, and finally Simon H broke the silence saying 'We are but players on Gods stage'.

I was lucky enough to experience that again this week, this time with a back drop of the oranges and reds of fall instead of the green shoots of spring. As an added plus we were rowing as the sun rose, painting a river of gold on the surface of the lake.

For these moments, is why I do it.