Life of Wry

… and (starting today) the living is easy.

Peter’s first day of No School.  A later than usual get up, then out the door he went.  Didn’t see him all day.  Our feral child.

And me?  Did a little bit of reading.   If I have my way (and why wouldn’t I), it’ll be a summer full of reading.  I’m thinking backyard, hammock, umbrella, fruit smoothies…

That’s freedom.

If I can think of anything to say about this day, I shall come back.  But for now, all I’ve got is a sandwich shot.  I can report that the grilled salmon BLT is a really good sandwich.

The, uh, looking down at feet and taking a picture theme continues, it would seem.   A few things to note:

1. Going fast; note the pavement’s a blur.

2. Wearing Havaianas, the official flip flop of Brazil, probably the only country in the world that actually has an official flip flop. Really. Look it up.

3. Calf looks huge, which for me, a person with calf envy, is pretty exciting.

4. Wearing shorts for the second straight day.  Unprecedented in the year 2011.

5. My bike is very spiffy and clean.  Not always the case.

6. Scraping the bottom of the barrel, yet again, for something to write today.  My excuse: I’ve been writing all day about the events of April 6.  Much less frivolous fare.  Slowly but surely slogging through the recent Nepal trip.

7. Slogging = slow blogging.  A term I may have just coined.

* This will get significantly less noteworthy when/if we settle into prevailing seasonal weather patterns.  For now though, wow, what a nice day.

So help me, the sun came out today.  The air was warm and I wore shorts.

Seriously, yesterday was cold, windy and rainy, like it’s been off and on–mostly on–for months.  My rain jacket is still hanging by the front door, ready for service..

But today, gorgeous.  Here’s me, totally happy at a baseball game.  Not even my kid’s game, that’s how exceptional the weather was… we just had to go out to the Little League fields, sit with friends and enjoy every last molecule of it.  The stands were packed.  We had a snack shack dinner and watched two games.  Really.  That gorgeous.

Best to enjoy the nice weather and long days while we can… in two more weeks, the days will start to get shorter again.

Here’s what the sky actually looked like today (sarcasm intended, because sun’s been kind of a rare thing this spring):

I’m hoping this is a good sign that Spring is coming to Northern California.

Deciding to use this picture prompted some butterfly life-cycle research and a search for some tips on how to identify caterpillars.  I found a good site that helps you identify the butterfly-to-be by the caterpillar’s characteristics.  It’s really cool, but I wasn’t able to find this red, spotted, hairy caterpillar with lashes and/or spikes.  

Sorry.

I was straightening a few things in Peter’s room (I admit I do this not infrequently), and as I was reorganizing the blankets on his bed (not really making it) something hit the wood floor with a thud, between the bed and the wall.  This is a big, heavy, difficult-to-move loft-like bed, so if something falls into this space, it is not easily retrieved. Which is how–when I did manage to move the bed far enough away from the wall–I came to discover the trove of treasures pictured here.

Here’s an idea… we could do that memory game where you study the picture for 30 seconds, then look away, then try, without looking, to identify as many objects as you can.

Just for fun.

Here is your checklist, in case you want to play along:

Long lost iPod Touch **

Long lost camera **

Rubber bouncy ball

Heavy iron pot hanger purchased on a field trip to the gold country in 4th or 5th grade

Set of Bucky Balls (Google these, they’re amazing. Then get some.)

Drum stick

Rhythm stick

Baseball player’s fashion necklace

Green fashion plastic bracelet

Rubber snake

Suction dart

Dime

Pencil

Pen

Broken ruler

Tennis ball

Flashlight

Wooden block

Part of a saxophone

Musical-note-shaped hole punch

 

Good luck!

** Actually, most of these items are in the “long lost” category, so I’ll stop with that.

Right.  It’s June 4 and it’s raining like I don’t know what.. I’m out of unseasonal storm metaphors.  It seems there are more articles now about how these may be non trivial shifts in weather patterns due to honest to goodness climate change.  To wit, tornadoes and floods predicted for tomorrow here in Northern California.  This could be the way it is forever.

So there’s that.

I’m not entirely displeased.  I know summer will be here soon enough and am happy to call it yet another rain day… which means more fireplace and tea and reading… since our baseball tournament’s been canceled.

I’m sure there are a lot more people put out by this stuff than me right now.   Someone mentioned all the June outdoor weddings.  Poor newly weds to be.  Messed up beer fests, garage sales, pool parties… a small sampling of my Facebook stream this morning.  Bummers all around.

Anyway..  here’s my dilemma for the day: which book to hunker down with.  I’m in the middle of, and loving Freedom by Jonathan Franzen.  So, really, it’s not a dilemma at all.  But WHAT’S NEXT?   In the wings, reading from the top of the stack down:

Buddha’s Brain, the practical neuroscience of happiness, love and wisdom

The Catcher in the Rye (because I had a hankering to read it again)

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Bad Mother by Ayelet Waldman

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin

Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong (founder of the Charter on Compassion movement)

Escape from Kathmandu by local author Kim Stanley Robinson

Missing Mom by Joyce Carol Oates

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Oblivion by David Foster Wallace

Logicomix, the epic search for truth

Look me in the Eye, my life with asperger’s

Cowboys are my Weakness (re-read because I love Pam Houston)

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

All I did was Ask, a compilation of interviews with Terry Gross

White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace

Sister Noon by local author Karen Joy Fowler

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

In Praise of Slowness (do you love that title?)

The White Lioness by Henning Mankell, swedish crime writer!

Traveling Mercies, some thoughts on faith, by Anne Lamott

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (probably one of my favorite movies ever)

The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan

Smile When You’re Lying, confessions of a rogue travel writer

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers (saw him at a book reading.. wonderful!)

Train by Pete Dexter (have started this multiple times)

A journal of American Short Fiction

So Much for That (in middle of it, loving it.. but forgot I was reading it)

Bridges of Sighs by Richard Russo

Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky (awesome guy I heard speak a couple years ago)

World Without End by Ken Follett

The Ominvore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (an African childhood)

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

I Feel Bad About my Neck by Nora Ephron

The Audacity of Hope by, you know the guy

Okay, that was the living room stack, the bedroom stack AND the office stack.  I didn’t go to the shelves because I’m too overwhelmed with unread things I can’t wait to read.  So.. my dilemma is going to be:  which one next?

I know, I know.  I’ve written so much about baseball.  I apologize.

The thing is, it’s a big deal in our house.  Since he was 5, Peter’s played Little League.   He started as a T-baller on the Diamond Backs in the Spring of 2004 and in the seven years since–more than half his life–he’s played on 17 teams (counting the District 64 team he’ll play on this summer).

That’s a lot of teams, a lot of coaches, a lot of uniforms.  And a whole lot of baseball games!

It was a steady progression from T-ball (1 year) to Farm (1 year) to AA (1 year) to AAA (2 years) and finally to Majors (3 years).  Some years he also played the Fall Ball season.  In his first year in AAA, he played on the year-end All-star team and every year since has been selected to play on the District 64 team, representing Davis in the regional year-end tournament.

It was the kids on his first District team, the 9-10’s, that went on to form a travel team, Davis Crush, which started in the Summer of 2008 and continues today (in fact, if it doesn’t rain tomorrow, they’ll play a tournament in Woodland).  But Crush is a whole nuther story…a great one for another time.

So, yeah… Little League…

It’s not like Little League is completely over.  Not quite.  Peter will likely continue to play next year with Juniors, an extension of Little League–a program that is now in its third season.  But they play on a full sized field: 90′ base paths and a 60′ pitcher’s mound, just like the pros.  His days on the quaint, teeny Davis Little League fields are now, as of tonight at about 10:00pm, over.

He could have opted out this year and focused exclusively on his travel team.  But he was adamant that he be allowed to play his final year in Majors.  After forever playing up, always being the youngest and littlest guy on his team, this was going to be his year to be a top dog, one of the old guys.  He really wanted that opportunity. The season completely met his expectations.  His team didn’t win the City Championship, but he can feel really good about his contribution.  He was their top pitcher and pitched well all season.  When he wasn’t pitching, he  got to play most games at short stop and many games at catcher.  He loved that!  He also hit over .600 (29 hits in 48 at bats) for the season, hitting in all but two games.  He finally got his first home run this season, too, and went on to hit a total of 5.  He was really pleased with all of that.  He may not ever get a season like that again.

So, his last game?  It was against the Padres.  He’d limited out in his previous game and couldn’t pitch, so he played three innings each at catcher and short.  Not much action.  He hit 2 doubles–his team’s only hits–and drove in the Giants’ only run.  They lost 6-1.  And that was that.

I was surprised to see him break down in the car.  He’s not a kid who cries much and he rarely shows his sentimental side.  But he was truly sad that the moment had come and that he’d played his last game here.

As we were leaving, he yelled sort of desperately for Jim to stop the car so he could go hit “one more ball” on the field, but that wasn’t going to work because they were shutting things down.   It turned into an emotional, quiet ride home.

But, heck, it’s not like baseball is over.  He’ll continue to play on Crush until 9th grade baseball starts, and then, provided he’s still got the talent and interest, he’ll play through high school.  Big boy baseball, the real deal.

So.. there’s a ton more baseball to be played… just not within the sweet, nurturing community at F Street and Covell.  And no question, we are as sad about that as he is.

Sniff.

Was walking along the banks of the Putah Creek and came upon this lovely egret.

Then, this happened.

Didn’t mean to scare you, little fella.

Yesterday, I was in a world class pissy mood. There were many reasons for it, but the one I shared with Peter when he asked was….  Wait, before I go into that, I have to mention that it’s highly unusual for Peter to notice someone’s mood (let alone inquire).  That’s an empathic response not really in his emotional repertoire.  I don’t mean that in a snarky way, it’s just that other people’s feelings are pretty low on the list of things he thinks about.  As a near teenager on the verge of summer, he focuses on little.. except maybe things like his deepening voice, the strikes he threw in last night’s playoff game, getting to the weekend..

But yesterday, he asked.

And in response, I told him about the guy who came to our house earlier in the day to bid on a [massive, as it turns out] yard clean up.  Then I told him how the guy’s estimate was too high and that we’d decided we’d proceed to plan B (living with the weeds, or me cleaning up the whole yard, or whatever, but I wasn’t happy) and I went on to say how in despair I was over the state of the yard, “and you know how I am about your room, and dad’s garage, and how I hate big giant messes and feel terrible when things are so dysfunctional and out of control, and it just seems like we can’t enjoy our yard anymore because it’s so appallingly overgrown and it used to be so nice…”

And after listening to me go on and on, he was all, “I can pull the weeds, mom.”

And I looked at him and said, “….”

And he said, “I’ll do it for half of what that guy was going to charge.” 

So we had a conversation about how that could work, and he asked me all kinds of questions about how you pull weeds, and where they go after you’ve pulled them, and I was thinking, hmmm, this could be like a summer job and it could be a great way for him to develop a bit of work ethic and at the same time contribute to the good of the household.  And if it worked, well, it’d be a total win-win.

I told him that it was a very generous, thoughtful offer and I really I appreciated it, and that it showed great initiative and entrepreneurship.  I also told him that he totally cured my bad mood and that he was a really neat kid.

He seemed very pleased.

And then I expected he’d probably forget about the whole thing, and that was fine because it was the thought that counts.

Then late this afternoon, I was working in my office when he called me to come look at something.  And of course (because you’ve seen the picture) it was a big wheelbarrow full of pulled weeds.  Between downpours (and wow, did we have crazy weather today) he’d gone to the backyard to try his hand at weed pulling.  Perfect day for it because the ground was really soft and they came up very easily. He filled the whole wheelbarrow.

And again, he just seemed so, so happy with himself.  It’s not that he’s entirely incompetent, he’s just not ever been a weed puller.  In fact, until now, he’s not really done that much around the house at all.  I’m not sure if it’s because he’s an only child, or because we’re modern parents who don’t force chores upon our kids (please don’t roll your eyes), or what, but he’s just never really been that into work, or even the idea of making money.  He rarely collects on his allowance.  Parents of the 50s and 60s would tell him he doesn’t know the value of work, or the value of a dollar (well, that’s what my parents used to tell me).

They’d be right.

Anyway, it’s a long way from the first to the last wheelbarrow, but today was a good start.

—-

(*)   Not my invention, but I read it today and thought it was a perfect new name for June.  Happy Juneary 1, everyone.