You Can Hang Out With All The Boys (HOL 109)

HOL 109

Nancy and I decided we were tired of having all of that free time so we signed Isaac up for Y.M.C.A. T-ball. As genetically unlikely as it may be, he is pretty good, works hard at it, and really loves it. When I get home from work, he asks to go out and throw or hit baseballs. He then asks to throw or hit more after dinner. He will keep playing until it is dark or Nancy calls us in.

During practices and games, he squats down and watches the batter intently. If a ball rolls by him, he will chase it into the outfield to get it, even if other faster kids are going for it. I try and help the coach on practice days. I figure it won’t be very long before I will be less than helpful in teaching most sports. For now I enjoy playing with the kids and trying to motivate the ones rolling in the dirt.

We only have one batting tee for the team to practice with. Using the ingenuity that has made my family famous, I made three more tees out of toilet plungers and cardboard tubes. Papa would be disappointed that I went out and bought new plungers instead of using “Slightly used” ones.

We did not get into any of the magnet programs for elementary school that we wanted, but the school we are zoned for it pretty good from what I understand.

We took Isaac to Merlefest last weekend. I didn’t know there were so many Country-hippies-with-money in the world. We heard a lot of great music including Bearfoot, The Greencards, Steve Martin with Steep Canyon Rangers, and Elvis Costello. My favorite moment of the whole day was watching Elvis Costello after the sun had set with a sleepy boy curled up on my lap. Isaac’s favorite show was the world famous “Alberti Flea Circus”. The enthusiasm in the crowd rapidly evaporates when they realize exactly what a flea circus is, and they wonder out loud why this show has to be out in the sun during the hottest part of the day. The crowd had dissipated to about a dozen sweaty kids by the end, most were either mildly disappointed or just didn’t get it.

In contrast, Isaac still excitedly talks about the girl flea that dove off the high dive and splashed the audience.

Isaac has taken up Stratego and has gotten pretty good at it. Be sure and ask Nancy about the time we made a bet that if he could beat her, he could stay up as late as he wanted one Friday night.

Isaac has always enjoyed comics of any type and has recently been requesting to read my old “Far Side” books. He will laugh out loud and explain what is going on in each panel. I have to skip some of them, but we read a lot of the dark material too. Bears, sharks, aliens, and dinosaurs are all fascinating to boys and Larson’s art has connected with him like it did with me when I was young.

The last few items were posted on Facebook, but they still make me chuckle.

On the way to school one morning, Isaac informed me that you can’t talk about elephant butts at school….unless you are reading a book about elephant butts.

I woke up one morning to see Isaac standing at my bedside looking me in the eye. “Dad you should never touch a porcupine because you could get spines in your hands, face, or testicles.”

One morning, on the drive to school, completely out of left field…”Dad, do you remember the time that Tim Tebow got hurt real bad and threw up?”


Strength and Honor
Big Matt