Ran across a news story about children jailed for an armed holdup.  At the time of the robbery, they were all 14 years old!!  My first question was, “where are the parents?”.   The article mentions that the three children were cousins, but makes no mention of parents or guardians.  Could it have happened in my family, sure.  My girls had plenty of time to plan this sort of thing.  I had hoped, and still hope that the lessons they were taught earlier in life were and still are with them when they aren’t in my sight.

So, I guess I do have another question.  Should the parents/guardians be held responsible for this?  My thoughts on this are mixed and still in the formative stages.  Many things point to, yes hold the parents responsible.  But another part of me wonders, when are the children old enough to take responsibility for there own actions.  Parents can be completely in the dark about some of the things their children do.  This does not have to be an indication that they don’t pay attention.  Some children are just really good at hiding things from Mom and Dad.   So, I guess I still don’t know…

Today I took a trip back in time, sort of.  For just a little while, I was back 20+ years ago having a donut with my little girl.   She’s no longer the 2 or 3 year old I would carry on my shoulders for 4 blocks to the donut shop, and she definitely eats more than 1/2 a donut now.  But just for an instant I saw that very young father, and his daughter in the refection of the door entering the donut shop.

The shop changed in the past 20 years.  There is no longer a bar with stools to sit and watch the frenzy behind the counter.  The library and store that as across the street no longer exist in that location.  The apartments still looked the same.

They say you can’t go back, and of course that is true.  I would never want to try to live in that little apartment again.  I’ve grown to comfortable living in the country away from the noise, the lights and the people.  I like the silence and the darkness.  Most of the time this suits who I am.

I’ve changed over the past few years, but I haven’t changed to the point where I can’t enjoy a quick trip to the donut shop with one of my girls.  I hope all my girls have some special memory of things they did with their parents.  I know I have some for each of them…

As a society we are surrounded by coffee. In larger cities there have been Starbucks on every corner.  Stretching the point a little, but they did just close a number of “extra” shops.  There are also a number of other coffee places that are national/international brands.  Even the likes of McDonalds are starting to sell their own premium coffees.  Were does in end?

Now I a admit being a bit of a coffee nerd/snob.  I have tasted good coffee and desire it above all others.  I like the pure 100% coffees from specific regions (Kona and Kenya AA are at the top of my list).  I like  various blended coffees (Mocha Java and Kona Blends).   I like good dark roasts, medium roasts and light roasts.  I even go for a good shot of espresso every now and then.   When it comes to flavored coffees, there are those I like and those I don’t.  Adding flavor to coffee is outside the realm of a simple cuppa…  So are most of the fancy blends and even the espresso.

I’m talking about a simple no nonsense cup of joe.   That fresh jolt of black goodness in the morning. And the thoughts of that cup bring back memories of days long past.

I’ve told the story many times, of my wife and I finding a coffee shop of all places to spend a little time alone.  At that time, I was the only one  to even drink coffee.  It grew on her.  But I felt myself being drawn further back in time.  To a small apartment, our first, in Toledo, OH.  This little two bedroom unit was about 3 or 4 blocks from a Dunkin’ Donuts shop.  I remember walking down on some Saturdays to get some donuts and for me a coffee.  That coffee was some of the best I’ve ever tasted.  To this day it is still one of my favorites.  In those early days, we didn’t even have a coffee maker in the house (I would consumed the whole pot), so this was a treat.  I even had a Dunkin’ Donuts thermos so I could get cheaper re-fills.

If I have my count of Toledo area donut shops correct, that one Dunkin’ Donuts is the last in the Toledo area.  When we lived there, there were a least 4 in the area.  Who knows why they left this part of the country for a while.  But I’ve heard that they are opening up new shops in the Ft. Wayne IN area.  I now live halfway between Toledo and Ft. Wayne, so maybe I’ll be able to get coffee and a donut from Dunkin’ Donuts when I’m on the road.  I’d love to see them expand in the area again.  But maybe 65 miles isn’t too far to go to relive a memory…

I thought today was going to be a real downer.  Work seemed endless today with barely a break for lunch.  If things could go wrong, they all waited for today.  But with some luck, I had a much better late afternoon/early evening.

As told earlier, I went to a movie.  I went with not 1 but 2 of my daughters.  We all had a good time, it was just a fun little show to watch.  Then we went to dinner.  Dinner was Pizza Hut, so I didn’t find it very good, but the girls seemed to enjoy it.  Then off to the Putt-Putt.  With two free game one at an earlier time, we were able to putt with no money down.  One of my daughters doesn’t like putt-putt, but is willing to keep score.   Except for 2 miss-played holes (really badly mis-played, I had a good game.  I was able to break par by 1 stroke.  I think I figured out my problem with putting.  I get too sure of myself at times, and don’t concentrate on what I am doing.  Makes be flub up sometimes.  I guess I should be more careful.

Then we had Ice cream at the Creamery again.  Still good stuff, a bit expensive, but it is good to splurge every now and again.

Time to run.. or sleep as the case may be, it is now a bit after midnight.

A somewhat mindless post of things I’m thinking about.

Took my youngest to a movie and to play putt-putt. I aways enjoyed the time I could spend with my daughters. I’m sure they’re getting a skewed view on life without their mother in it, but that is what it is. They get this skewed view, because my view is somewhat skewed. Not doing as well as I would like on putt-putt. On the little course closest to us, I have made a hole-in-one on all 18 holes. I should be able to get 2 on each and everyone of them. I get a little down when I get 3’s on some of the holes. Most of the time I don’t keep the putter down.

Stopped at a Coldstone Creamery. Wonderful stuff. Ice Cream, Sorbet mixed with stuff right in front of your eyes. It is very good ice cream.

A fourth of July weekend is in front of me. It is nice to get an extra day off of work. I’m looking forward to spending time with family and friends this weekend. Happy Birthday wishes to my oldest sister on the 4th. Never did get to put the sparklers on her cake instead of candles.

Tigers are on the radio right now. I don’t have cable, so I don’t get to watch much ball on TV, but Gameday on the Computer, and a radio near me, works well. Tigers are winning in the 7th.

I need to take the time this weekend to do the things I wasn’t doing during the time my daughter was in “Little Women”. I wouldn’t trade that time for anything, but I need to do more around here.

I saw a movie trailer today. It looks like they are making a remake of a wonderful Science Fiction Classic. A new “The Day the Earth Stood Still” is coming to the big screen again. This was a classic, and from the trailer, I think they found a way to ruin it. I’m planning on going just so I can really rag on the film. You are warned. Normally I don’t get preconceived ideas about movies, but this was a wonderful short story, a very good movie (classic in my mind), and it will now become a standard Hollywood space invasion movie… Grrr.

I’m waiting for the new Batman movie. One of the favorite comic characters, because he is a normal person. He was also a troubled hero. It makes the comic book a little more real when the hero has normal problems.

Should be a good 4th tomorrow. Getting together with friends for food and socializing, maybe some fireworks.

I need to try to schedule some additional time off work. It may be tough since we are in the middle of a major software change. Maybe I can get 1 day off a week for the rest of the summer.

That should be about it, for now

Tigers still ahead in the 8th.

Two dreams stuck with me all day in a very short time. This could be an indication that I’m sleeping better, or just my mind needing to work things out. Not sure if anyone got much out of the last dream but since I started blogging to clear my mind, here it is.

Started out as a very mundane dream, I’m driving my daughters (all four of them for some reason) to some University. The name of the University was never brought up, but we were going there to install the youngest in her first dorm room.

While driving I suddenly knew I was going to California. This was because we drove across the old “Iron” bridge around home. The one that “C” would never drive across. For some reason the story of “C” never driving across that bridge made us all laugh. (Side note — This bridge no longer exists in real life, in fact it was torn down well before “C” moved to the area, he never saw it.)

So in California we start setting up the youngest in her dorm room. All the girls are having great fun trying to decorate the room to make it seem a little like home. I tell the girls that since we are there and have a bit of time to spend together we should do a little site seeing. We come across an arts and crafts fair in the city the college is located. Now for some reason, the three oldest girls are no longer in the dream. I’m with my youngest still getting ready for school and her mother and we are touring the arts/crafts fair. Now to steal a line from Dickens, Her Mother “was dead to begin with… this you must remember”… This of course did not seem at all weird in the dream, it was only when I woke up that I remembered that.

Well the three of us our touring the crafs and my dear wife takes us to her table. She always wanted to do a craft table in such a fair, but we never did get around to it. All of her various needle work/sewing, knitting, crocheting were on the table. There were things I remembered, and new things I never saw before.

We are really enjoying ourselves when my wife says it is time to get “B” ready for college.

Here I wake up suddenly. It is almost time to leave to get my daughter to her ACT test. No alarm has rung, and my daughter is still asleep. I wake her up and we get to the test in plenty of time… And still the dream is with me….

For the past four days, I have been helping out my friend Amie while she babysits while her mom is down in Texas. You see, Cheryl (Amie’s mom) went down to Texas to help her daughter-in-law, Angel, and Angel’s son, Aidien, move up here, while Zac (Amie’s brother) is over seas. The problem, what was going to be a two week thing has turned into being a whole month! Apparently Angel called and said she couldn’t deal with it, it was all too much to handle on her own and she needed Cheryl down there as soon a possible. Yes, I understand that her husband is going over to Afganistan, and her son is a premie, but is it really necassary for Cheryl to be there a whole month while Amie is up here doing Cheryl’s job and not getting paid for it? Amie was supposed to go down and help Angel for the summer, and get paid, so she would have some money for college in the fall, but that was changed, and now she’s helping her mom for nothing! Amie’s not too happy about it, and to tell the truth, neither am I! Amie is working so hard with these kids and is going to have five children at a time some days. I am staying with Amie and helping her this month, so she doesn’t go crazy. There are days that I will be going back to my house to do some chores around the house, but a lot of the time, I will be over with Amie, because a month is too long for her to have to do this for free. Yesterday, Amie went to her friend’s graduation party while I watched the kids, so hopefully she will be able to do that occassionaly, because I get to leave when I feel like I need to, or should so I can do things at my house, and spend some time with Tony. So I am hoping to do the same for her: let her spend time with her boyfriend and other friends. She will need breaks and I want to be there when she does.

Once Angel gets up here, she and Aidien will be staying with Amie and her family. The problem is that Aidien has to stay downstairs because of his oxygen and other stuff, so Angel has to sleep down there too, but there isn’t really anywhere for her to sleep. Cheryl stays on the couch so she can get up when the kids start to arrive. And another thing, with all the stuff for the kids that Cheryl babysits, there really isn’t room for all the stuff Aidien needs either. Amie isn’t very happy with what is going on, but she really can’t do much, since Angel is family and it’s her mom who is letting them stay. Plus, with the way things are between Angel and myself, it will make things a little difficult for Amie, I think. Angel isn’t very thrilled with me, though I really haven’t figured out why. I have asked Amie about it, and she really doesn’t know either. I have tried to patch things up, to help Amie, but Angel keeps pushing my attempts away, so it’s really up to her, if things are going to get better between us while she’s here.

On a lighter note, Amie has kittens in her garage. There are five cute little kittens and Amie has named them all. There is George because he’s verycurious, Cotton because she’s so fluffy and soft, Jet because she just takes off, Juno and Telula just because Amie liked those names.

This day actually started some time yesterday evening. During a thunderstorm in the area and a tornado close to us, 4 outlets in our house went out. I’m thinking something in the storm caused it, because to was only part of a complete circuit. Looked like I would have to replace at least on outlet. I couldn’t tell from a exterior glance as to which outlet shorted out. So I put a trip to the hardware store on my Saturday to-do list. The first thing on the list was getting my daughter to her SAT testing.

Now on to Saturday Morning… Storm damage from the previous night’s storms caused some rough driving. A normal 40 minute drive took closer to 1 hour. We just made it just in time to the SAT testing site. Hmm, day not starting off well…

I had to wait around for at least an hour for the hardware store to open, so I stopped for coffee. Those who have known me for a while, know that my favorite coffee shop closed for good a little over 2 years ago. This was the place my dear wife and I spent many happy times, just getting away from the kids, planning for future things, getting to know one another again after 4 children. Good memories in that little place. I have yet to find any coffee shop that comes close to the atmosphere, quality of the coffee, food ect. and the people who frequent the shop itself. The place I stopped in today had a very nice atmosphere (except for the big screen TV, but I went around the corner from that). The coffee was very good. The food I had ok, but nothing special.. Not many people there, so I couldn’t say anything about that. Too bad it was a 40 minute drive… Too far for a once a week type of thing.

After the coffee, I could get the things I needed to replace at least 1 outlet. I got 4 new outlets just in case. I still had at least 2 hours to wait for the SAT to finish. Stopped at another store and was able to find some water filters for our office at work. I installed an older water filter on the tap at work, but the filters have been hard to find. I try to pick up extra whenever I see them on the shelf. Filtered water makes better coffee ya know… Now only 1 1/2 hours for the test to let out…

Got a call from my daughter in FL, we talked until my Cell battery almost died. Then I got a notice that I had 3 messages… Two were from the day before!!! They weren’t there when I got up in the morning, I checked… Storm must have hit a local tower or something?? Anyway a friend wanted to get together to (in his words) “just get out of the house”. Great!! How does one decide what to do when I was already invited to oldest daughter’s place for fun and games… Hmmm. Well, I was expecting a call from the oldest earlier in the week to finalize the plans. It never happened. I let my youngest test goer decide… Friend won the toss.

So after a good lunch youngest, and I head out for some fun. We played games (all sorts), and just had a lot of fun. We played a miniature bowling game. The balls were slightly larger than a softball, no holes, and the pins were on strings/wires. If you ever see one, try it out. They are very fun. We also played indoor mini-golf (black lit area with dark black ‘greens’, and glowing colored bumpers and obstructions). This was fun to, but it did make it hard to ‘read the greens’. I ended up with a hole in one on the last hole. We also played a number of arcade games for ‘tickets’. It was a fun afternoon/evening… Good idea C…

Now I’m tired and ready for bed…. What a Day…

When I was in high school, I was in a peer group called Snowball and one of our activities was to write “warm fuzzies” about each other.  Warm fuzzies are kind thoughts.  When we told family and friends we are now expecting a boy instead of a girl, we got lots of warm fuzzies, so I decided to collect them in one place so baby Christopher can read them someday.

Lisa,
How exciting to find out about your new son, we are so excited for you.
Love, Linda
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YES!!!!!!!
I knew you guys could do it! Congratulations!!
Mary Beth
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Hooray!!!
That is sooooo great. I can’t wait for HIS arrival. I sure Dad is as excited.
Jamy
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Wow!  No wonder you are in shock!  I’m excited for you.  I had 3 boys and the last was a girl, and I didn’t know till she was born – no ultrasounds in those days.  All I can tell you from my experience is the girl was nothing like her brothers, from day one.  For me, 3 boys were easier than one girl!  I’ll be interested to see how your experience is.  Can’t wait to meet little Christopher.  I have one of those as well. (He is and was the “toughest”, most bull-headed of my boys.)
Shirley
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  You are going to love having a son. I know I was very nervous about having a son because I wasn’t sure if I could feel the same way about a boy as I did about Abby.  Because she was a girl, I thought we had this unusual bond that couldn’t possibly exist between a mother and a son, but it turns out that gender has nothing to do with it.   I knew I’d love him, but I wasn’t sure that there’d be that “click” I had with Abby.  I’m glad to reports I was very wrong.  I’m positively in love with my son and couldn’t imagine life without a boy to raise.  I’ve often said that I’d have a whole ball team of boys before I’d have another girl, so if that tells you anything, you’ll LOVE having a son.  HOORAY for you!
Tracy
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