I don't know if it's related to Tiger Cubs or if he's suddenly just super helpful, but Big T has taken to being really helpful around the house. He cleaned all the windows and mirrors he could reach at my Mom's house the other day. He even did the dishes for us (sort of) last night. He wants to clean up. It's amazing, and it's also possible that it's my wife's influence. But really, we don't care. It exciting to have him want to clean up and put his things away. The only unfortunate part is that he also has decided that the way I fold his shirts is not good enough for him. So he took all his shirts out, laid them around his room and rolled them up. Like you would make a playdough snake. Just one long shirt taquito. The weird thing is, they don't really wrinkle as much as I thought they would, but I can't tell one shirt from the other. I can, however, stick them into paper towel tubes for easy transportation. So that's nice.
I'm normally one to hold my tongue. I don't speak out of turn. I'm calm, collected, and nice to a fault. Well, so maybe not all of that is true, but having kids has forced me over the last six years plus to create a calmer aura around me. Speaking of my aura, it's gone from a crimson, to a lovely shade of forest green. But although I've mellowed a bit since my hotheaded late teens/early 20's days, I've overcompesated for that by forcing myself to become somewhat of a control freak. Not OCD style psycho control freak. Not all the way there. I just have this urge within me that I know better than whoever's in charge. And yes, that includes my house, where I am probably not the one in charge. This is why, I believe, I've coached my son's T-Ball team, and learned web development, and why I get irritated when things don't go the way I believe they should.
As you all know from following my life so closely, Big T has started Tiger Cubs. He loves it and gets along great with the other four in his den. Well, there's only the one Tiger Cub den, so there's only 5 Tiger Cubs in the whole pack, but I digress. I made a pointed decision with this that I wouldn't be the Den Leader, or even really a major influence on the direction of the Den. However, I'm starting to go back on that little promise to myself and I need to stop. I took Big T to more houses that were prescribed by his Den Leader for the Scouting for Food drive because we got almost 50 door hangers and were told to just cover one court in our neighborhood area. So out of a ten block radius, we were only going to cover 2 with our whole den. I think that my boy has figured out that helping is good because he decided that since the pack leader said that each scout should do thirty houses, he could get rid of all his hangers. So we did. I also volunteered to try to get them set up on a better outing for their communication achievement. They're supposed to visit either a television station, radio station or newspaper to see how things work in the world of communication. The moms were talking about just taking them to a Kinko's because, "They have really nice tours there." Seriously, those were the words spoken. I asked why we didn't try to contact the local paper and see if they would show the scouts around. So I was asked to check into that. Using my awesome contacts, which I met because I watch way to much television. I got the kids set up with a personal tour after hours at the Times here in town.
Of course, since deciding to be less involved, I've come across a few more situations where the old angry me started to come out. You want an example? K.
Whilst taking my kids to the library I saw one of my friends and his wife, who is also someone I consider a friend. We were talking and the kids were standing there patiently by the desk after checking out the books. So my conversation wrapped up and I asked the kids if they were ready to go. They said they were, and I asked if they wanted to go the park. They shouted, "YEAH!! PARK!!" I reminded them to whisper as we were in the library and this older lady said to her friend, but loud enough so I could hear as I walked by. "The children here are so loud." And my protective father instinct shot back, "Yes, and the ladies are so old." She gave one of those, 'Well I never' sort of snorts and we just walked out with my friends, who thought the whole exchange was hilarious.
Another time not so long ago I was in Best Buy, where I used to work and got into my share of arguements with customers, who are NOT always right. And while looking at stuff, I heard a customer talking to one of the associates. To summarize the statements, the customer was looking for a game for the Nintendo DS, but he didn't know what it was called. So the poor associate was playing guessing games with him to try to figure out what game it was. This went on for a few minutes, when the customer finally said, "You should know what game it is, the commercial is on TV every hour!" The associate was still very polite and explained that he was only trying to help and the customer said that he wasn't helpful at all, and that was all I could take. I know that the associates are supposed to just sit there and take the abuse, but I wasn't an associate anymore and so I jumped in and said to the customer that yelling at the kid wouldn't help anything. Customer asked who I was, I said I was just another customer who hated people like him because he took up the time of associates trying to solve his moronic problems when they have better things to be doing. Customer wasn't happy about that and I went on to say that he was mad at the associate for not knowing which game he wanted and couldn't remember even though by his own admission the commercial for this particular game was on every hour giving the customer plenty of opportunities to either write it down or just commit the title to memory. Customer's elderly father asked who I thought I was. I told him I thought I was someone smart enough to know what I want to buy before I walk into a store and pester others for my own stupidity. Customer said, I'm never coming back to this store again. I responded, they won't even notice. Customer left. I later went up to the associate to apologize for jumping in, but he was cool with it.
So I'm not really sure where I was going with all this, but I think it was related to trying to let go of the urge to control things, and filter my thoughts. Which seem to have come flowing out of me a little much today. But my wife's sister, the husband and their two adopted kids have moved back in with her parents, and that's where my tongue holding will be most crucial. We'll see how long I can do it.
Yup, that's the Bay Bridge, the section that was open at the time, at sunset from the deck of the Bay Celebration. I took this grand photo with my cell phone on this three hour tour of the bay. It was a great surprise and a free ride thanks to a friend of mine who had snagged some tickets. The weather was perfect, we saw the sea lions, even took a detour to the area of the bridge that CalTrans was 'working' on. It was the longest I'd ever been on a boat of that size. I've been on a houseboat before up at Lake Almanor, but I was about 14 when I did that. So it's been a while. And I must say that even though I'm not a big water person, I do love boats. I don't know why exactly, but there's just something about them. Maybe because you can just go wherever you want with no road signs or directions.
In other unrelated news, Big T will be going to his first Tiger Cub meeting tomorrow night. I'm heading out today to get the rest of the patches that I will need to attach to his uniform tonight. He's pretty excited, though I may have really built up the Pinewood Derby. Perhaps a bit much, but it's going to be great. I think he's almost as excited as I am. He did love wearing that Tiger Cub hat.
