That’s right, tonight is “back to school night” which is an event for the parents to come with the kids and meet the teachers and I guess, see the school. We will be going (even though we really don’t need to) as it’s an annual event with free pizza for the kids. It’s really just a social event.
Yesterday I picked up the boys from school (the misses was working, remember?) and the oldest told me his teacher wanted to talk to me because he fell in the classroom. I asked him if he was ok and he said “yea” and didn’t understand what the big deal was. So the 3 of us (the boys and I) went to his classroom to see his teacher. She said she just wanted to make sure I knew he tripped and hit his knee. Apparently he tripped over something and banged his knee on something else. This of course was nothing compared to the daily crashes our boys get into but it was nice of her to let me know. I took the opportunity to ask how he was doing and she replied “just great, I hope he really likes 4th grade, I am really glad he’s in my class!”. She went on to say how well he’s doing in detail and what a pleasure, help and joy he is in class. Now this is the first time I’ve had a chance to talk to her so it was good to hear that she too knows what a great kid he is.
The boys and I headed home where I had to jump on the phone while they read some books and grabbed a snack. After a brief spat over some candy bar, all was fine. I tried to clean up the kitchen before the misses arrived home at 5. After a quick clean, the boys and I, just for fun, jumped in the car and drove down to the local motorcycle shop. You see ever since last weekend, it’s all we’ve heard about. I understand this, being a kid and all of a sudden getting the “itch” for something so I decided to let them go dreaming. I told them that if, and it’s a big if, they ever get a motorcycle, it could only be a dirt bike or one that could not be ridden on the roads. My only problem with motorcycles has always been the other people on the roads that could hit you. Most injuries are from riders getting hit by cars, not from motorcycles crashing on their own. Dirt bikes are designed to be ridden “off road” on dirt trails and are actually really fun. I remember as a kid riding my friends Yamaha YZ350 quite a bit off road and boy was it a blast. This sudden infatuation of course is all my buddy Brad’s fault for insisting they get to ride his kids new bike last weekend. To compound the issue, the oldest ones classmate and family friends (Vinnie) all have dirt bikes and ride as a family. The mom, dad and both boys (about the same age as ours) all go riding a bunch. This is one more piece of logic the oldest is using in his argument for us all getting bikes. He comes up with things like “it’d be good for the family and something we could all do together”, boy is he a smart one! Anyhow we arrived at the dealer only to run into Dale, the former head of the meat department at Whole Foods! We’ve known Dale for years and I knew he worked at a motorcycle shop and was a racer as well, but I forgot that this was where he know worked. He gave us the inside tour and scoop on everything and thankfully I made it clear to the boys ahead of time that we were “just looking”. With winter coming on, I’ll get a reprieve until spring so we’ll wait and see if they still have the itch then.
We hurried home to meet up with Mom and warm up some leftover enchiladas for dinner. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful with a little tv and conversation before bed. Today it’s raining lightly with snow above 10,000 feet. Look out, here it comes! This will be the first day the boys will wear long pants to school marking the official change of the seasons.
I have about 4 hours of calls this morning with 3 different producers (winemakers) in Italy and we also need to take our truck into the shop due to the “check engine” light that is stuck on. I did have the plumber come over last night around dinner to check our pipes and sewer smell in the basement. The power of prayer works in mysterious ways as it turns out the smell was from a drain or vent pipe that for the 10 years we’ve lived here, had never been capped! Bob the plumber told me it’ll cost $100 to solder on cap but that that would fix the problem and our main sewer line is just fine, whew, what a relief. We surely didn’t need to deal with that!
I think I’ll skip politics today as I don’t want to lose any of you. The family is doing well, still fighting to keep up with all the bills and cleaning but overall everyone is happy and well. We hope everyone out there is well too. I’ve been trying to get the misses to write for a day or two and hope you will all get to hear from her maybe on Friday.
Anyhow, take care, God Bless and stay safe.