Dateline 14 Oct 2021, Big Spring, Texas
The wife and I have been on grandparent duty for the last week. The parents have been around. We had relatively few times where we had to babysit. We came to celebrate birthdays. Youngest grandchild Elijah turned 5 on Oct 3, and his dad, Richard, had a birthday on the 6th. The celebrations were delayed due to a conflict with church activities last weekend. On Saturday they did a bowling party for Elijah. I guess 5 years old is a milestone if not a breakthrough.
On Monday I did parent duty at Ezra’s cub scout pack meeting. He had missed the week before so didn’t have his toolbox put together. The cubmaster told him to have it next week. Grandpa remedied that with him this afternoon at Ace Hardware. I only got him only the box and a few tools, telling him I had some surplus tools at home which, had I known he needed them, I would have brought them. At the pack meeting they learned a little about car maintenance. Checking the tire air pressure (and where to find the right pressure) and checking oil level are now part of the scouts’ knowledge base. And we got to use his tools this afternoon on a home repair.
Tuesday, oldest grandson Ephraim ran his final cross-country race of the year, the District finals. It was held in Big Spring, where they live. That may have given the Big Spring kids a bit of home course advantage. Ephraim had missed the last race, as he was recovering from an ingrown toenail and the coach rested him. Last year, in 7th grade, he finished 13th, which wasn’t too bad for his first year. Now in 8th grade, he is best on his team (a small team at this particular race). How would he do? His female counterpart won the girls race by a big margin. Then came the boys race. At the first viewing place, right after the start, Ephraim was 2nd or 3rd in a bunch. At the second viewing point he was 2nd but was passed and in 3rd as they went out of sight and started to spread out. Two minutes later, at a very brief view, it looked as if he was 4th, but they were far away and it was hard to tell.
Then came the viewing place on a good straightaway, and he was in 1st! And seeming like he was pulling away. He went up the hill and looked strong. At the final straightway leading to the finish line, he was still first with no one else in view. He cross the line a full 25 or 30 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor. I consider this a breakthrough because now he knows he can win, and how hard he has to race in order to win.
The week has been made a little more exciting because of the three new pets in the household, a kitten who is almost a cat, a full blown kitten, and a rambunctious lab-mix puppy. They are new to the household after older pets expired earlier this year. Their names are Nuisance, Useless, and Worthless, though the latter name was replaced by Nitwit while we were there. No, that’s not their real names; that’s just what Grandpa calls them. Nuisance (the dog) is very powerful. I walked her 1 3/4 miles almost every day, and she had as much energy at the end as at the beginning. I won’t say that I will miss them when we go, though Useless was starting to cuddle up with me the last few days.
And, the last breakthrough, again more of a milestone, was me posting my 1000th book sale. Actually, as of 10 p.m. today (Thursday), I’m still at 999 sales. I should have another sale soon, perhaps by the time we get back home on Friday. While it’s a milestone, it’s still less than 30 sales per item for sale. I still work, publish, and sell in obscurity. Maybe someday I’ll be able to report sales that are more of a breakthrough rather than a milestone.