White Lightning Axiom: Redux

Here I am in the boys locker room, doing the 'Security Duty' for the Swim Meet. Basically, my primary task is supposed to be making sure that no kids get molested or harassed while they are here. Secondary is the prevention of vandalism or injury from horseplay. So, sergeant at arms is probably the best classification. I've pulled this honor for the last two meets, mostly because I'm one of the few who took the training. I needed it for the work I do with the children in Sunday School and Cub Scouts as well so I'm in high demand for this sort of thing. Most of the time I just sit here in the swampy heat waiting, watching, and giving stern looks of disapproval when one of the boys do regular boy-type stuff. No harm comes of it since it never goes to far. Story of my life: Sheepdog.

Friday night was ok. Kids ate their lunch so they were entitled to 5 minutes in the hot tub provided they did their piano practice, finish their homework and eat all of their dinner (of course, busing their dishes afterwards as well). They fulfilled the requirements so they got some bubbly time. On the way to the pool, they get a treat in the POS Super Saturn of 6 little smokeys of the 'cheddar wurst' variety. They just love 'em. Gobble them down and we get going on our laps. Three laps each of breast stroke, back, crawl and butterfly. They get some pointers and then we play for the rest of the hour. It's can be a pretty good time, mostly. If either of them have had a rough day, it can be a real bear. From there, we have a 10 minute drive to TSD practice where they eat a hard boiled egg on the way. A little death-ninja training mixed in with a bazillion pushups/situps (they cheat horribly on these) will get them a bit tuckered out. On Mondays and Thursdays, they'll go from the karate studio to another 1.5 hours of swim practice where they mostly goof around. That's fine by me ... the Tyrants already got enough 'coaching' (read: drill-sergeant admonishment) for the day. The Ever Beautiful Mrs picks them up for that activity most of the time. If she has her own late-night engagements, I'll take over. Every other week is Girl scouts so she'll take Attila to that and I'll escort Genghis to the practice. On the way, they'll get either crab/lobster chunks (Jakers) or Mandarin orange slices (Alexis) and a packet of string cheese to tide them over. On the way home from that, it's a treat of a 100% fruit drink and a packet of sugar wafers. So riddle me this: why have they not gained a pound in
a year!? Must be the Asian influence.

The Grandparents made a trip down and occupied the Tyrant for a bit while the Mrs and I got some much-needed sleep this morning. Of course, since I failed to get my coffee at 0600, I started the day off with a good old withdrawal headache. Since then, I've been sucking down the brown elixir of alertness like it's going out of style. In between, Gramps and I worked on the pine-wood derby cars for the Tyrants and restocked the firewood brackets. I've got about 1 more month's worth of firewood stacked up next to the manor walls and 2 weeks inside the 'stove' room. I think we'll do ok for the rest of the winter. It's been colder than an Alaskan plumber's wrench in January around here of late. Gotta talk to Mr Gore about that ... Need some of that new-fangled global warming! Tomorrow, I've got to get the family to the 8am mass so I'll have time to do some brunch with them after I finish up with Sunday School. Weekends ... ever since we started the family some 6.5 years ago, my free time has been anything but! If I can slice out a few hours tomorrow, I'm going to try to clean some of the refuse out of the flower beds and put a few bulbs into the ground. It may be to cold though, I wish I had finished that nonsense in the Fall. If it's too onerous out there I'll just spend the time cleaning inside and prepping the meals for the week. That's a lot of sandwiches you know.

Labels: Children, Karate, Swimming, Weekend

# posted by mdmhvonpa @ 10:10 PM