The Rewards of Fatherhood

Since I started CrossFit about a year ago, I’ve resisted talking about it much here. In fact, I’ve resisted talking about a lot of things here that did not at least in some small way have something to do with fatherhood or raising my girls. You may disagree. But I’ve decided I don’t want to limit myself. CrossFit in particular is simply too much a part of my life for me not to share some of that enthusiasm here. So I’ll be doing that from now on along with sharing other, non-parenting, things. Whatever I want.

As a start, I competed in the Hybrid Summer Challenge this past weekend. It was awesome. I was the oldest male competitor and the lightest one in my weight class. I went in with low expectations. Mostly because of my bum shoulder. But I surprised myself. I did much better in the initial, shoulder intensive, event than I thought I would. I’m upset I didn’t go in with a “I can win this thing” attitude. That won’t happen again. I’m really looking forward to the next local competition.

Carrying 480# @ Hybrid Summer Challenge

WOD: 21-18-15-12-9-6-3, strict pullups, hspu

Daddy move: Talked to Thing-One about the mailman.

Money maker: Secured a new domain name.

I’m a football fan. Not necessarily for any particular team. I just love the game. But this is the first year in a while that I’ve been excited by one team in particular. Perhaps it’s because they are the hometown New York Jets. They’ll be playing in a new stadium this year AND they have a great team. The success of the team will be highly dependent upon the play of the defense which shows a lot of potential. They have two cornerbacks that should be able to handle any receivers in the league without much trouble.

But one of these guys, Antonio Cromartie, has some off the field issues in the form of eight children with six different women and the child support that comes with such a situation. Antonio, good luck with the season BUT PLEASE keep it in your pants and please don’t follow Antonio’s lead.

Sorry about the sound. Please turn your volume up.

It’s been a minute since we first learned of T-One’s fate regarding SOMA school district’s gifted and talented program. Since then, there hasn’t been much movement on getting her into the classes. We have gone through the proper channels but the administration has been, shall we say, slow to respond. Although we finally have a meeting with the Assistant Superintendent, our patience is already thin.

SOMA School District

In the last few weeks we have sent a few letters, made a few phone calls, paid a couple of visits and talked to other parents. What we discovered is we are not the only parents upset about how our district identifies and addresses the needs of children. At least one lawsuit has been threatened. We also discovered a heavy layer of lip service in regards to closing the well publicized achievement gap in the district. It is the district’s alleged number one priority but all that has been done is putting together a 50+ member panel to “make recommendations”. Seriously? C’mon. [Read more →]

Washing the kids' clothes.

My dryer broke down a few weeks back and I’m so backed up on washing clothes. Why haven’t I fixed the dryer yet? Well, it isn’t that I haven’t tried. It simply needs one small part to be replaced. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to replace the thing with a new dryer just for one small $30 part. (Although I’ve set a new washer and dryer in my sights for a couple of years out.) I haven’t replaced the part because the manufacturers made the faulty part in question nearly impossible to reach without having the hand size of a small child or taking the entire machine apart. I will fix it eventually. In the meantime I’ve been trekking to the local laundromat.

At first I hated it. I thought it akin to having to take the city bus to work, another activity I’m not a fan of. But after several trips, I’ve come to enjoy it a little. There something about the hum of the machines, the smell of fabric softener and bleach and the spinning of the clothes that is both relaxing and hypnotic. It’s like a short mental retreat now. I’ll take my coffee, a book, and plan on enjoying an hour or two of therapy disguised as washing, drying and folding.

When I was in college I had a professor who knew just about everything. He could intelligently articulate some knowledge on nearly any subject. It was soon after entering his Urban Studies class that I discovered how this was so. His office consisted of three very large rooms filled to the brim with books. And I don’t mean books stacked neatly on shelves like you might find at your local Border’s Books. I mean, no-room-to-walk, filled with books. I’m sure he had upwards of 10,000 books, magazines and newspapers crammed in those three rooms.

The first time I visited his office, I asked had he read all those books. Without hesitation he said, “Yes.” I don’t know why but it struck me as one of the best things I’d ever heard. The pursuit of knowledge in and of itself just appealed to me. I thought to myself, “I want to know all there is to know about a bunch of stuff. I’m going to have a library like this too.” Over the next twenty years (sigh!), I’ve accumulated a hodgepodge collection of books, newspapers and magazines. And yes, I’ve read most of these items in whole and all at least in part.

A partial glimpse of my library

As was my goal, over the years I’ve accumulated a lot of knowledge over a modest array of topics. However, as I’ve gotten older and perhaps a natural byproduct of doing so, I’ve become less interested in learning about a wide range of topics. I haven’t thought about that change too deeply, but every now and again the thought pops in my head as to why this might be so. I’ve brushed it off as simply being in a reading slump or being occupied with other things. But I’m also filled with the thought it’s more to it. [Read more →]