How is it that I'm enjoying Sam Adams Octoberfest tonight, but it's like 80 degrees outside? Have I mentioned that autumn is my favorite season back on the east coast? My mother in law is here visiting and she said the trees were starting to turn color when she left Boston. My lovely wife (LW) and I got married in Boston in October. I wanted to have a parade across Boston Common as part of the wedding to enjoy the fall foliage, but somehow that idea fell through the cracks. It actually ended up raining on our wedding day, so the parade wouldn't have worked. We took our visiting family members on a bus tour of Boston the next day though.
Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining about enjoying life in paradise. I took some leave this week since my eldest son had a school vacation. Yesterday, we went down to the Hale Koa pool. It was amazing to both my eldest and youngest sons swimming like fish and totally fearless in the water. When I left them here in Hawaii in June before I flew back to Norfolk to drive the boat around through the Panama Canal, they enjoyed going to the pool, but didn't really like water on their face or go in without floaties on their arms. Now, they're both jumping and swimming and diving down to pick toys up off the bottom.
There are lots of things I look forward to doing around the island as long as we're in this tropical environment. ...but I'll still miss the changing seasons.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
Teleportation Songs
What are your teleportation songs? You know... Those songs that when you hear them, your mind instantly jumps to another time and place. It's like hearing that song opens up a wormhole and you travel back through time to a previous episode of your life. You may not even be able to sit and pick them out of your brain. You may not even realize that the link exists in your memory until you hear the song come on the radio.
What made me think of it was the song "Wonderwall" by Oasis, mentioned on Sam's blog. That song instantly takes me to Groton, Connecticut and the beginning of my JO tour. It's autumn. The leaves are beautiful shades of orange and red and yellow, and they swirl up behind my car as I drive the curved roads through Mystic. There's a bite in the air as the chill of winter approaches. After growing up in summertime year round in San Diego, I absolutely loved the changing seasons in New England. That's a feel-good, happy link for me.
The most recent song to burn a permanent teleportation link my memory was "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado. Gosh, I can't believe it hasn't even been a year since the accident yet. It seems like so very long ago because so much has happened since then. But when I hear that song, I'm suddenly in Rota, Spain, and the visions and sensations flood my memory like it was yesterday. We spent three emotional weeks languishing in Rota in January 2007 while the JAGMAN and Safety Investigations were conducted for the accident that claimed the lives of two MSP sailors on December 29th. Yes, I was on board the MSP that day. I had just reported aboard. It was my first underway, so I had no official duties and was just an observer during that maneuvering watch. I felt helplessly terrified to watch it all happen with my own eyes and totally powerless to stop it. (Random aside comment: Isn't it odd how when you wake up on the morning of the worst day of your life, you have NO idea that it's going to be the worst day of your life? You'd think you would feel some sort of premonition that something was about to go terribly wrong and change your life forever). In any case, the AFRS radio station in Rota played that Nelly Furtado song at least once an hour, so every time I got in my little teenie-tiny rental car to go out to dinner or back to my BOQ room, that song was always there.
I hope I'm not opening a can-of-worms by bringing up the MSP accident. I had to stop reading bubblehead's blog for a while after the accident. It took a lot of self-restraint not to lash out at some of the people who posted comments there. Neither lashing out at them nor repressing my urge to lash out at them were going to help bring the episode to closure, so I had to just stop reading the comments and focus my energies elsewhere.
Wow. What a tangent, eh? When I sat down to start writing this blog post, I had no idea where it would take me. So, getting back to my original topic... I know there are other songs out there that have strong memory-links for me - some good, some bad... It's hard to just think of them without the link being activated by actually hearing the song (or reading the name of the song in someone else's blog as the case may be).
What made me think of it was the song "Wonderwall" by Oasis, mentioned on Sam's blog. That song instantly takes me to Groton, Connecticut and the beginning of my JO tour. It's autumn. The leaves are beautiful shades of orange and red and yellow, and they swirl up behind my car as I drive the curved roads through Mystic. There's a bite in the air as the chill of winter approaches. After growing up in summertime year round in San Diego, I absolutely loved the changing seasons in New England. That's a feel-good, happy link for me.
The most recent song to burn a permanent teleportation link my memory was "Say It Right" by Nelly Furtado. Gosh, I can't believe it hasn't even been a year since the accident yet. It seems like so very long ago because so much has happened since then. But when I hear that song, I'm suddenly in Rota, Spain, and the visions and sensations flood my memory like it was yesterday. We spent three emotional weeks languishing in Rota in January 2007 while the JAGMAN and Safety Investigations were conducted for the accident that claimed the lives of two MSP sailors on December 29th. Yes, I was on board the MSP that day. I had just reported aboard. It was my first underway, so I had no official duties and was just an observer during that maneuvering watch. I felt helplessly terrified to watch it all happen with my own eyes and totally powerless to stop it. (Random aside comment: Isn't it odd how when you wake up on the morning of the worst day of your life, you have NO idea that it's going to be the worst day of your life? You'd think you would feel some sort of premonition that something was about to go terribly wrong and change your life forever). In any case, the AFRS radio station in Rota played that Nelly Furtado song at least once an hour, so every time I got in my little teenie-tiny rental car to go out to dinner or back to my BOQ room, that song was always there.
I hope I'm not opening a can-of-worms by bringing up the MSP accident. I had to stop reading bubblehead's blog for a while after the accident. It took a lot of self-restraint not to lash out at some of the people who posted comments there. Neither lashing out at them nor repressing my urge to lash out at them were going to help bring the episode to closure, so I had to just stop reading the comments and focus my energies elsewhere.
Wow. What a tangent, eh? When I sat down to start writing this blog post, I had no idea where it would take me. So, getting back to my original topic... I know there are other songs out there that have strong memory-links for me - some good, some bad... It's hard to just think of them without the link being activated by actually hearing the song (or reading the name of the song in someone else's blog as the case may be).
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Unintended Consequences Part II:
Shape-Shifter Towels
This is an old story, but it came to mind when I was thinking about unintended consequences earlier. My wife got these awesome kids' bath towels with an animal-head-style hood. Here's Greg wearing the shark towel:
We initially only had three of them. The problem arose that if we had just used two of them and put them in the laundry, then there was only ONE of these special towels left and TWO little boys who wanted to use it.
I thought I was so smart in the way I convinced our oldest (the "rational" one) to use a plain towel and let his younger brother use the animal towel. I told him the plain towel didn't have an animal on it because it was a shape-shifter towel (see also Calvin & Hobbes' transmogrifier). He asked what a shape-shifter was, and I explained to him that a shape-shifter was a magical creature that could change forms from one animal to another, so with THIS towel he could be ANY animal he wanted and he could CHANGE what type of animal he was WHENEVER he wanted.
This was a big hit with Brian...
Unfortunately, it was also immediately a big hit with Greg, too, and now neither little boy wanted the previously-coveted animal towel. They both wanted shape-shifter towels so they could be whatever animals they wanted. It turned into a sort of elaborate game of ro-sham-bo. "I'm a snake! sssssss!" "Oh yeah? Well I'm a mongoose and I'm gonna eat you up!" "Oh yeah? Well I'm an eagle and I'm gonna eat YOU up!" "Oh yeah? Well, I'm a..."
...Not exactly what I intended to happen.
P.S. Luckily, this effect was short-lived. Greg only wanted the plain towel because he saw his big brother wanted the plain towel (monkey-see-monkey-do). In subsequent bath nights, Greg reverted back to wanting the animal towels, and Brian continued to want the shape-shifter towels, so everything was good. Amy eventually found us some more animal towels, too. :-)
We initially only had three of them. The problem arose that if we had just used two of them and put them in the laundry, then there was only ONE of these special towels left and TWO little boys who wanted to use it.
I thought I was so smart in the way I convinced our oldest (the "rational" one) to use a plain towel and let his younger brother use the animal towel. I told him the plain towel didn't have an animal on it because it was a shape-shifter towel (see also Calvin & Hobbes' transmogrifier). He asked what a shape-shifter was, and I explained to him that a shape-shifter was a magical creature that could change forms from one animal to another, so with THIS towel he could be ANY animal he wanted and he could CHANGE what type of animal he was WHENEVER he wanted.
This was a big hit with Brian...
Unfortunately, it was also immediately a big hit with Greg, too, and now neither little boy wanted the previously-coveted animal towel. They both wanted shape-shifter towels so they could be whatever animals they wanted. It turned into a sort of elaborate game of ro-sham-bo. "I'm a snake! sssssss!" "Oh yeah? Well I'm a mongoose and I'm gonna eat you up!" "Oh yeah? Well I'm an eagle and I'm gonna eat YOU up!" "Oh yeah? Well, I'm a..."
...Not exactly what I intended to happen.
P.S. Luckily, this effect was short-lived. Greg only wanted the plain towel because he saw his big brother wanted the plain towel (monkey-see-monkey-do). In subsequent bath nights, Greg reverted back to wanting the animal towels, and Brian continued to want the shape-shifter towels, so everything was good. Amy eventually found us some more animal towels, too. :-)
Eragon
Last night, I finished reading the second book of Christopher Paolini's Inheritance trilogy - Eldest.
Some of the details of the end were a little bit predictable, but it was an exciting battle nonetheless. I look forward to reading the third book whenever it comes out.
Some of the details of the end were a little bit predictable, but it was an exciting battle nonetheless. I look forward to reading the third book whenever it comes out.
Unintended Consequences Part I:
Fishies vs. Bugs
You never know what things you say or do with your children may come back to haunt you someday. Two came to mind this morning. I'll tell you about one now and the other later.
Back when I was stationed in Norfolk, we would frequently have to drive through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. Also, when we would drive from VA up to visit Grammy in Mass or NH, we'd drive through the tunnel in Baltimore.
Just to be silly, I used to tell the boys they had to hold their breath while we went "under water", then while we were in the tunnel we would pretend to point and wave at the fishies swimming by. It was cute. We laughed and giggled at how silly it was.
Then we moved to Hawaii...
In order for us to go to church over in Kaneohe, we drive on the "interstate" that doesn't go to any other states - H3, and it takes us through a long, dark tunnel under the mountains and over to the other side of the island of Oahu.
Greg, our youngest, thinks it's incredibly funny to wave "hi" to the fishies as we go through the tunnel. Brian, our oldest, being the logical, rational thinker that he is (just a wee bit of sarcasm there), get's extremely upset with Greg and tells Greg that we're NOT underwater and all that's above us are BUGS. The result is this back and forth argument - FISHIES! No, BUGS! No, FISHIES! No, BUGS! No, FISHIES!
It drives Amy and I nuts. No matter what we say to them, they can't seem to give up the argument over fishies and bugs. I even tried placating Brian's sense of logic by telling him there was a LAKE on top of the mountain and that Greg was waving to the fishies in the LAKE, but Brian didn't buy it.
It doesn't stop at the end of the tunnel, either. They will continue to argue about the fishies and bugs for the entire rest of the drive down the hill into Kaneohe.
We did find one means of respite though. Normally, we used to take my car on "long" drives (relatively speaking - we're on an island after all) because it's a hybrid and gets better gas mileage. My car doesn't have the frills of my wife's car though. Last week we took Amy's car for the first time, and the boys watched Star Wars on the DVD player in the back the entire way to Kaneohe and didn't say a peep. I think Amy and I were holding our breath through the tunnel - not out of tradition from the Hampton Roads Tunnel, but because we were waiting for the bugs vs fishies fight to start in the back seat. We were pleasantly surprised. We may just have to take Amy's car whenever we're going to go through the H3 tunnel from now on.
Thank goodness for DVD players in cars, eh? I don't know how my parents ever survived those LONG drives across country from CA to CO or FL without a DVD player in the car.
Back when I was stationed in Norfolk, we would frequently have to drive through the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. Also, when we would drive from VA up to visit Grammy in Mass or NH, we'd drive through the tunnel in Baltimore.
Just to be silly, I used to tell the boys they had to hold their breath while we went "under water", then while we were in the tunnel we would pretend to point and wave at the fishies swimming by. It was cute. We laughed and giggled at how silly it was.
Then we moved to Hawaii...
In order for us to go to church over in Kaneohe, we drive on the "interstate" that doesn't go to any other states - H3, and it takes us through a long, dark tunnel under the mountains and over to the other side of the island of Oahu.
Greg, our youngest, thinks it's incredibly funny to wave "hi" to the fishies as we go through the tunnel. Brian, our oldest, being the logical, rational thinker that he is (just a wee bit of sarcasm there), get's extremely upset with Greg and tells Greg that we're NOT underwater and all that's above us are BUGS. The result is this back and forth argument - FISHIES! No, BUGS! No, FISHIES! No, BUGS! No, FISHIES!
It drives Amy and I nuts. No matter what we say to them, they can't seem to give up the argument over fishies and bugs. I even tried placating Brian's sense of logic by telling him there was a LAKE on top of the mountain and that Greg was waving to the fishies in the LAKE, but Brian didn't buy it.
It doesn't stop at the end of the tunnel, either. They will continue to argue about the fishies and bugs for the entire rest of the drive down the hill into Kaneohe.
We did find one means of respite though. Normally, we used to take my car on "long" drives (relatively speaking - we're on an island after all) because it's a hybrid and gets better gas mileage. My car doesn't have the frills of my wife's car though. Last week we took Amy's car for the first time, and the boys watched Star Wars on the DVD player in the back the entire way to Kaneohe and didn't say a peep. I think Amy and I were holding our breath through the tunnel - not out of tradition from the Hampton Roads Tunnel, but because we were waiting for the bugs vs fishies fight to start in the back seat. We were pleasantly surprised. We may just have to take Amy's car whenever we're going to go through the H3 tunnel from now on.
Thank goodness for DVD players in cars, eh? I don't know how my parents ever survived those LONG drives across country from CA to CO or FL without a DVD player in the car.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Best Friends
My heart aches for my boys right now. I have been through the experience of moving away from my best friend many times over the years. I remember how sad I was - especially the first few times. Over the years, I guess I sort of got used to it and learned to accept it as a part of life.
The first best friend I remember was Eric Olsen. He lived 5 houses down from me in Chula Vista, CA and we were like two peas in a pod from Kindergarten through 2nd grade. His dad was a Navy helicopter pilot. At the end of 2nd grade, we moved up to San Pedro, just outside of LA (about 2 hours north of San Diego). I saw Eric once after that, when his mom brought him up for a visit, but we were too young to really keep in touch via mail or phone.
Next, up in Long Beach, my best friend was Stephen Bruce. I think we met in like 5th or 6th grade. His dad was on the USS NEW JERSEY. Of course, at the end of 6th grade, we moved BACK to San Diego (and my previous San Diego pal Eric had since moved to the east coast). Stephen came to visit me once down in San Diego, and we were climbing a tree in my backyard when he fell. It really did some bad stuff to his vertebrae and he was in a back brace for like 6 months after that. I did keep in touch with Stephen for a while after he transfered to Norfolk. His dad retired out there, too. When I went to Norfolk for a midshipman cruise in '93, I looked him up and actually got to pay his family a visit.
In 8th through 10th grade, it was Jimmy Osbourne in San Diego. Jimmy had a very long-lasting impact on me. It was Jimmy who got me to listen to 91X (radio station in San Diego) and to appreciate Depeche Mode, the Cure, New Order, Oingo Boingo, among many many other bands. I went to my very first concert with Jimmy - Oingo Boingo at the San Diego Sports Arena in 1986. We went to many more concerts together after that. Then I moved to Oregon. I have still had a chance to see Jimmy on and off over the years. Our moms are friends, so I still get updates on how he's doing.
I don't keep in touch with anyone from high school in Oregon. I was kind of a social outcast there. Most of my classmates had grown up going to school together since Kindergarten, so they weren't sure about this dude who just moved there from California.
As an adult, I've done a little better keeping in touch with friends, although the PCS moves and resultant goodbyes still accumulate. We have a handful of friends who we are very close with, and thanks to the wonders of the internet, we're able to keep in touch with across country and around the world. We continue to hope that our next transfer will take us back to being in close proximity to some of our old friends from previous duty stations.
Anyway, getting back to the point - Our neighbors across the street had two little boys the same ages as our two boys. The boys were inseparable and very close friends. They're leaving this weekend for their new duty station in Norfolk. We had dinner with them one last time last night at P.F. Changs, and it was a difficult and sad goodbye. Here's a pic of the last hugs goodbye (in front of the P.F. Changs horse) before we parted ways.
The first best friend I remember was Eric Olsen. He lived 5 houses down from me in Chula Vista, CA and we were like two peas in a pod from Kindergarten through 2nd grade. His dad was a Navy helicopter pilot. At the end of 2nd grade, we moved up to San Pedro, just outside of LA (about 2 hours north of San Diego). I saw Eric once after that, when his mom brought him up for a visit, but we were too young to really keep in touch via mail or phone.
Next, up in Long Beach, my best friend was Stephen Bruce. I think we met in like 5th or 6th grade. His dad was on the USS NEW JERSEY. Of course, at the end of 6th grade, we moved BACK to San Diego (and my previous San Diego pal Eric had since moved to the east coast). Stephen came to visit me once down in San Diego, and we were climbing a tree in my backyard when he fell. It really did some bad stuff to his vertebrae and he was in a back brace for like 6 months after that. I did keep in touch with Stephen for a while after he transfered to Norfolk. His dad retired out there, too. When I went to Norfolk for a midshipman cruise in '93, I looked him up and actually got to pay his family a visit.
In 8th through 10th grade, it was Jimmy Osbourne in San Diego. Jimmy had a very long-lasting impact on me. It was Jimmy who got me to listen to 91X (radio station in San Diego) and to appreciate Depeche Mode, the Cure, New Order, Oingo Boingo, among many many other bands. I went to my very first concert with Jimmy - Oingo Boingo at the San Diego Sports Arena in 1986. We went to many more concerts together after that. Then I moved to Oregon. I have still had a chance to see Jimmy on and off over the years. Our moms are friends, so I still get updates on how he's doing.
I don't keep in touch with anyone from high school in Oregon. I was kind of a social outcast there. Most of my classmates had grown up going to school together since Kindergarten, so they weren't sure about this dude who just moved there from California.
As an adult, I've done a little better keeping in touch with friends, although the PCS moves and resultant goodbyes still accumulate. We have a handful of friends who we are very close with, and thanks to the wonders of the internet, we're able to keep in touch with across country and around the world. We continue to hope that our next transfer will take us back to being in close proximity to some of our old friends from previous duty stations.
Anyway, getting back to the point - Our neighbors across the street had two little boys the same ages as our two boys. The boys were inseparable and very close friends. They're leaving this weekend for their new duty station in Norfolk. We had dinner with them one last time last night at P.F. Changs, and it was a difficult and sad goodbye. Here's a pic of the last hugs goodbye (in front of the P.F. Changs horse) before we parted ways.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Double Standards and Hypocrisy
My 6-year old son attends a Catholic school. We're not Catholic mind you, but we just moved to Hawaii and we'd heard very good things about this school. I went to a Catholic university after all, and it wasn't so bad. :-)
Our son's teacher informed us that the kids would not be allowed to dress up or otherwise "celebrate" the pagan holiday of Halloween. This, in and of itself, doesn't really bother me. Bear with me here.
The school is going to have a fall festival. Wanna take a guess what the theme of this festival is?
Yes, they get to dress up as pirates and participate in pirate-themed activities for the fall festival.
So let me see if I get this straight...
1) The kids are NOT allowed to dress up as firemen or doctors or cowboys or angels or princesses or astronauts or power rangers or Luke Skywalker or cute animals and "celebrate" a holiday that, although it may have some pagan origins, has become so widely commercialized and ingrained in our society that it's lost it's original pagan meanings.
2) The kids ARE allowed to dress up as murderers, thieves, and scoundrels and celebrate the profession of piracy.
Somehow that just doesn't make sense to me. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say they shouldn't be able to have a pirate-themed fall festival either. Like Halloween, I think "pirates" have become a commercialized popular icon through rides at Disneyland and movies like Pirates of the Caribbean. (Heck, I just took my kids to see The Pirates of Penzance.)
The two policies just seem very contradictory to me. I thought about writing to the school about it, but I figured they'd say, "Ya know what? You're absolutely right! We're hereby CANCELING the fall festival!" I don't want to ruin the fall festival for the kids, so I just decided to vent about it here in the blogosphere instead.
...My sons will still have fun dressing up as a Military Policeman and as Luke Skywalker after school gets out on Halloween this year.
Our son's teacher informed us that the kids would not be allowed to dress up or otherwise "celebrate" the pagan holiday of Halloween. This, in and of itself, doesn't really bother me. Bear with me here.
The school is going to have a fall festival. Wanna take a guess what the theme of this festival is?
Pirates
Yes, they get to dress up as pirates and participate in pirate-themed activities for the fall festival.
So let me see if I get this straight...
1) The kids are NOT allowed to dress up as firemen or doctors or cowboys or angels or princesses or astronauts or power rangers or Luke Skywalker or cute animals and "celebrate" a holiday that, although it may have some pagan origins, has become so widely commercialized and ingrained in our society that it's lost it's original pagan meanings.
2) The kids ARE allowed to dress up as murderers, thieves, and scoundrels and celebrate the profession of piracy.
Somehow that just doesn't make sense to me. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to say they shouldn't be able to have a pirate-themed fall festival either. Like Halloween, I think "pirates" have become a commercialized popular icon through rides at Disneyland and movies like Pirates of the Caribbean. (Heck, I just took my kids to see The Pirates of Penzance.)
The two policies just seem very contradictory to me. I thought about writing to the school about it, but I figured they'd say, "Ya know what? You're absolutely right! We're hereby CANCELING the fall festival!" I don't want to ruin the fall festival for the kids, so I just decided to vent about it here in the blogosphere instead.
...My sons will still have fun dressing up as a Military Policeman and as Luke Skywalker after school gets out on Halloween this year.
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