Watching life as a husband, father of 7, pastor, and software engineer.
It’s been several weeks. The Styrofoam glider / duct-tape football thing is part of a landfill somewhere.
Two days ago the 8 year old showed me a project he had been working on. A paper airplane – taped to the only remaining parts of the old balsa wood bi-plane – the propeller and the rubber band.
…keep your cape out of the chain.
My wife and oldest daughter were out walking one evening. It was getting darker than they wanted, so they quickened their pace.
Then there was the screaming. A tree frog had jumped onto my wife’s leg.
One minute I’m crawling around on my belly in the woods (paint ball), the next minute my nephew walks up with two snakes – one in each hand.
Next time I’m staying in the car…
Two days later, I pull into the drive way, and my neighbor calls me over to see something in his yard. Yep, two more snakes, and they’re crawling towards our house.
Next time I’m staying in the car…
My 21 year old son told me last week that he was going to play extra hard at our men’s basketball night. He wanted to assure me that he wasn’t angry or trying to be overly competitive - he just wanted to bring his game up a notch. He wants to get in shape and is planning to try out for the team at a small college next fall.
Thus was the context for his aggressive base line drive to the basket, an upending by the defense, a wrist first impact with the floor, and a fractured wrist bone.
My 14 year old son and I went into the woods to play paint ball. With our guns and masks on, we stumbled accross a small tent – and a man popped his head out. I’m sure we startled him more than he startled us. We promised to not shoot in the direction of his tent – and we went our separate ways.
A while later he came and introduced himself as “Kelly” – and said that he was just camping out in the woods to enjoy the nature and woodland creates and all.
He seemed nervous – and it all felt kind of creepy. He left the woods while we finished a few more games – and later we saw him walking around off in the distance.
A few years ago, I pulled the ham-string in right leg (softball). A few months ago I pulled it in the other leg (basketball). Last week, I pulled both the upper and lower muscles in my left arm (basketball again). It hurts, and it’s ugly – all black and blue below the elbow.
Both I and my right arm are nervous about this trend.
My sons are 20, 13, 6, and 4. As a team, the five of us will probably field the best basketball team in 15 years, when my older sons are still young enough to play well and the younger ones are in their prime.
I guess being part of the family dream team when I’m 67 is something to look forward to. I’d better start working on a hook shot.
Maybe they’ll let me carry the water.
My boys love playing at the tree house at the mall, while I watch them, and their Mom is somewhere else shopping for us.
All the vaulting and jumping over obstacles – it’s like Parkour for kids.
So claims my 13 year old after an afternoon of war games in the woods.
Someday, we’ll have real paintball guns, just to see if he’s really that much better than I am.
