White Lightning Axiom: Redux: Monday ... is good, next ... Tuesday

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Monday ... is good, next ... Tuesday

So, just one day after the Grandparents retreated to the FOB, Jovial Jake has been exhibiting severe symptoms of Post Grandparental Withdrawal Syndrome. We had a rather rough time in Karate last night and his solution to being called onto the mat for regular attitude adjustments was to just IGNORE anyone calling out his name. We had a little 'come to Jesus' talk later on and an agreement was made. The Emerald Accord. Every time his name is called he needs to look at Daddy or Mommy. If he chooses to ignore it, he can either skip one day of vacation or do 20 push-ups. The gig is up. This recent spate of insubordinate behavior is partially to be blamed on the lack of naps in kindergarten. He is sleeping much better at night however. He's a little boy yet, and he will make a fine young man. Much like his nick-name's namesake though; Genghis's formative years are always the trickiest.

Speaking of kindergarten ... the Tyrants have a field trip to Build-A-Bear today. I weep for the bulkward teachers and paladin chaperons ... much carnage will lay in the wake of Attila and Genghis. Teddy-bear stuffing EVERYWHERE. I already paid the $9000 billion for the expenses ... let's just hope that they do not try to charge me for the FEMA costs as well.

Alexis has been coughing up a storm of late. At first, we believed it to be a standard summer cold. With all the cruft and crud they haul back to manor every night, it was a rational expectation. When the usual cough suppressants and expectorants failed to lighten her load, the Mrs made a visit to the local pediatrician and we got the diagnosis we have been trying to ignore: Allergies. We had a lot of rain last week and the humidity laden environment has provided an excellent bed for fungus, mildew, non-photosynthesizing growths and other assorted eukaryotic single-celled or multinucleate organisms. This is something that was expected. The gene pool has benefited from the filtering of mostly icky flotsam between the Mrs and Myself ... but a few bits made it through. Let's just hope the MS/Cancer thing was eliminated. So, after the first tablespoon of Claritan (OTC), she has been doing significantly better. The rejoinder to the question of 'Should we medicate our children?'; yes. In this case. We will probably discontinue later in early summer when she has her first visit to an Allergist and we determine what is giving her such a rough time. Silly histamines.

Finally, the local township failed to pick up the dead hulk of the hot water heater that failed over Memorial Day weekend. So, we bought the sticker, put it to the curb at the designated time ... and nothing. There it sits. So I call, and as expected, they are closed. You see, they are open from 0830 till 1630. Yeah, all the hours we tax-payers are at work. So, I call this morning to complain and ask what they are planning to do. Oh, you see, the truck broke down so they had to leave some things behind. Huh? If the truck broke down, how is it that you knew to leave behind the heavy things exactly where they sat (she admitted that they did not pick up 3 things) but everything else got taken away. I'm not in the mood for confrontation so I just ask for advice on further action. I'm instructed to just leave it at the curb and call back before 1600 if it is not picked up. Ummm, yeah. I work so I'll not be sitting on the curb monitoring the status of my trash. I ask if it is ok to call the next day and I'm greeted with silence. After some hemming and hawwing, it is explained that I will not be home at that time since I WORK a full day. Egads. It must be systematic that once you enter into the office of civil service, you must abandon any concept of the real world. Almost like academia!