Roller Blading in the Living Room

"Can I roller blade in the living room?"

I've had interesting conversations with our kids, but that was a new one to me. We have two more kids than usual under the roof just now. Their older siblings and parents are installing cabinets in Minnesota's Twin Cities area. They're an active lot, so I had the impression that there were four of them last night, and that's another topic.

The roller blade and living room question came up this morning. After discussing the matter with our visitor and my son, we decided that the living room was a bit small for that activity, and that the driveway and sidewalks offered a superior venue. Not that we used quite those terms, of course.

It's nice, having new experiences like that.

Saturday: A Full House, Again

#1 daughter arrived this morning, putting all four kids under the roof. I've been enjoying the experience. I woke up this morning to the sound of #3 daughter, my son, and #2 daughter gleefully - and loudly - enjoying some game downstairs.

#3 daughter decided that my wife should get that baking done that she'd hoped to do yesterday. So, she enlisted #2 daughter and the others, whipped up a batch of muffins, and got them in the oven. Meanwhile, my wife was taking her afternoon nap.

Then they went upstairs to practice on a play.

Which left me near the timer when it went off. I had no clue what was supposed to happen at that point, but happily #2 daughter did. Or maybe it was #3. It was hard to tell whose voice it was, coming from somewhere upstairs. The muffins got taken care of, and now the baking's done. I think.

#2 daughter's boy friend is arriving at the St. Cloud airport tomorrow, around noon. He's here to visit us and my wife's father. Apparently he doesn't know that #2 daughter is here at this time - she made me promise not to tell him, if we talked on the phone. Which we didn't.

The plan was for me to drive down to St. Cloud with #2 daughter, and surprise him at the airport. She was going to hide behind me until he got within range.

The way I'm feeling, she'll probably be driving herself, and hiding behind a pillar or something.

Which reminds me - I'd better not post this until tomorrow, so he doesn't read about what's likely to happen.

#1 daughter brought her rabbit, Giol, with her. She's moved to a new-to-her apartment, rather an improvement on where she was before. Her neighbors are very taken with Giol. One thought that he was a small dog at first. People don't often see a rabbit on a leash. With outsized floppy ears.

I see that I've got an awful lot of catch-up to do, but that will have to wait for another time.

Moved the Kids Out

I wasn't involved very much with today's project, which wrapped up our family's double-header nest-emptying.

My wife picked up a 14' U-Haul truck, she and the kids packed it, and when they were done there was room them, but not me, inside. I joked that they might strap me to the top of the truck: and my wife said, "don't tempt me."

I stayed here in Sauk Centre.

Today's move got our oldest daughter into an apartment, so she'll be closer to her new job. Sure, it's a temporary job, good until the end of the year, but: it's a job!

It's different now, with half of the kids out of the house. Quieter. My son came in a while ago, on his way to bed, turned to where his oldest sister would have been working with her laptop, and observed that he wasn't used to her being gone yet.

It will be quite a while before I'm "used to it." In a way,I suppose I never will be.

This summer was a wonderful time, with all four of our surviving children under the roof. It may be the last time that happens for a full season. In a way, I hope so. The two oldest are adults now, and it is time that they begin setting up households of their own.

There are times when I wish we lived in one of those cultures where several generations of a family might live in one compound, or on adjoining farmsteads, or whatever the arrangement might be. But, counter-cultural as my wife and I are in many ways, there's no sense in trying to run a family's economy one way, when several hundred million of your neighbors are doing something else.

Besides: this way, I figure that we're likely to get grandkids sooner, than if they stayed at home.

What I Did Saturday: It's Not as Boring as it Sounds

One of my daughters had been using my laptop yesterday evening. I've got it set up on top of a small cart. I need to pick the thing up and put in on my lap: she can sit in a nearby chair, swing around to face the laptop, and use the cart as a desk. Being five-feet-nothing has some advantages.

This morning, I sit down in that chair, and see a small figure hanging resolutely from the top of the laptop screen.

My daughter was delighted when I noticed him. She explained that he'd been in one place for most of the summer, and was due for a change of scene.

The rest of the morning was routine, apart from a bit of hydraulic engineering involving a plumber's friend. I think they're more properly called plungers. The key to happiness in situations like that is making sure that the p.f. is stored close to where it's used: and kept where it's stored.

On a tastier topic, I grilled lunch, as usual. I got a little carried away later, writing about it on the Easy Griller blog.

I spent most of the rest of the day online, following up on some information I'd seen in a online community. If I were a little younger, and a little more focused on the cybersphere, I might be a geek.

Actual online time was less than it sounds. I work, or try to, in an area that's pretty heavily populated by the rest of the family. One of my daughters had me read through the rest of a story that she'd written. I'd started it yesterday. My son stopped by a few times to see what I was doing. Our conversations are often the sort of stand-look-grunt sort of thing that wise wives learn to expect from their menfolk. My boy and I have some pretty good talks now and again, usually about Bionicles or computers.

Supper, catching up on another task or two, and evening prayers took up most of the evening.

Don't worry: I won't do this slice-of-life thing too often, but I thought it would be interesting once in a while.

Family and Computers

The other two computer-types in this family, my son and oldest daughter, are getting an older computer ready for use in its new location.

My wife and kids moved a computer into a more accessible spot in the house this morning, and about an hour ago my #1 daughter and son installed anti-malware software on the thing.

For the uninitiated, malware is stuff in a computer that gets picked up, generally on the Internet. Once this stuff gets into a computer, it causes trouble of one sort or another: very often, just by getting in the way.

Think of a big, none-too-bright, slow moving dolt in a busy factory or office, lumbering along aisles, peeping into cubicles, and leaning on equipment controls.

Back to my kids: So far, the new software has found 222 "Critical Objects:" things that could cause real trouble. And it's still running. The kids are impressed. So am I.

I like to think in goofy metaphors, and am about to write one down. This will be the last item in this blog entry, so feel free to skip it, if nonsense isn't quite your cup of tea.

The computer that my kids are working with is a little like a small town that had a police department that consisted of the man who ran the feed store and his dog.

The town grew into a small city, but still had the feed store owner and his dog as their entire police department. The only change was that the feed store was now a pet supply store.

Today, all that changed. A new Police Department building opened its doors, releasing 2nd-generation SWAT teams: wearing chrome armor, carrying Buck Rogers personal cannons, asking very polite but firm questions, and displaying all the warmth and humor of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator.

I think they'll be more effective than the old department in protecting the 'city.'

Computers and a Small Town Family

My wife interned as a system analyst, and graduated from the computer program that I bombed out of. When she has an email to send, she writes out the message and gives it to one of our daughters to handle.

I've got half her formal training in the care and feeding of these digital wonders, and I'm the one that family members claim has to be surgically removed from a computer at the end of a day.

One of my daughters shares her mother's indifference to computers, another uses the things for her writing, email, browsing the Web and playing the occasional online game.

My son, as noted earlier today, is making a computer from a relic and a wreck, and my oldest daughter alternates between studying medical terminology, making pictures with a sort of combination of traditional drawing methods and digital painting, and giving me technical advice on Web pages that I'm developing.

Following up on part of Family Life: Unglamourous, Maybe; Boring, Never (June 27, 2007), our #1 daughter has worked the bugs out of her laptop and its operating system. It only took a few trans-continental phone calls, research on the Web, and climbing a steel learning curve.

Most of the bugs, that is. The point is, it works now.

That "#1 daughter" term may need explanation. I've found it easier, sometimes, to refer to the kids in terms of birth order. The oldest is #1 daughter, the next-oldest is #2 daughter, same with #3, and, from my half of humanity, #1 son.

Maybe it seems that I'm bragging about my family. Well, that's understandable. I'm very pleased with this bunch of folks, and all too ready to say so.

There's another reason I posted this blog, though. Two, actually.

1. The more things change, the more they stay the same. My son has a half-built computer standing in his room. A couple generations back, it would have been a hot rod or jalopy in the back yard. Before that, I'd guess that it would have been a special horse, or something of the sort. What hasn't changed is the way that children grow, learning skills that they'll use as adults: and the beliefs that determine what those skills mean.

2. These days, small towns are not longer isolated pockets of quaint and backward folk, if they ever were. Thanks to Information Age technology and a habit of learning, folks out here can, if they want, be nearly as connected with the world as someone living in one of the great cities. Perhaps more so, since we don't have the hour(s)-long commutes and other distractions of urban life.

Recovery From Knee Surgery: Determination and Family Help

My father-in-law is back home, having gotten both knees replaced on Tuesday. I understand that he was scheduled to come back Saturday, but was doing well enough to return Friday.

He's not about to dance around, but he's doing quite well, given the circumstances.

I think two factors are at work here: the sort of determination that I'm more inclined to expect in those born a few decades before me than those born more recently; and a large, loving, and cooperative family.

My wife and kids helped out by minding the shop in his absence, and now much of his home care is being done by a the kids of one of my sisters-in-law. Others in the family are either living farther away now, don't have children of an age to be able to help, or a combination of the two.

Large, cohesive families weren't part of the culture I grew up in, but I'm very glad to be in a family where my kids are part of an annual "cousins" photo in which the kids fill most of the branches of a large oak tree.