Sunday, August 30, 2009

Why do people want to be grandparents?



Those of you who know me (Why else would you be reading this?) realize that I am an only child that never was planning to have kids, which pretty much eliminates the grandchildren part. But kids happened, they were great, but don't ask me to hold someone else's kid.

Once you have a kid, or more than one, you find yourself spending time with other people that have kids, most of whom were not only children and have that "Oh, let me hold him" thing going on inside. Those people really lust after grand kids. I never did. I never asked my kids "When are you going to produce some offspring?" nor did I entertain putting other people up to that kind of thing. I won't even participate in such conversations.

However, I now understand at some level what is going on inside those people. Grand kids are very cool on many levels. First of all they have parents, which means if they make a big noise or do something messy, you just fain stupidity and/or ignorance and hand them back to the parent. This will not go on forever, for eventually the grandkid will be able to understand the words "Lower Volume" and "Clean that up right now," and be more self-maintaining. Mine are not there yet, but I have not yet had to use the lateral handoff. It may come up, so I practice it in my mind.

Since these youngsters will possibly read this drivel in some ancient "Way Back Machine" one day, I won't use names. But I will say that they are so fun and educational.

Take language arts. Sometimes it takes the parent to translate, but sometimes I can make up my own interpretation. Since I don't hear that well I do that with adults as well, so I'm pretty good at it. Then there is the art of getting stuff into perspective. While most people are concerned with health care reform and the real estate market or space shuttles, little ones are concerned with pull-ups and how many pears they can eat. Stuff that they can actually DO something about, though they present similar frustrations.

Another feature is that you can talk to anyone about anything once your little kid introduces you to the complete stranger. Opening doors is easy if you are only 30 inches tall. One little pinch is all it takes - you have their complete attention. Breast feeding is so common now, and gets you great service from waiters. Amazing! My coffee cup is always topped up.

Take technology: There are strollers designed by supercomputers that I can't even figure out how to open. Or was it close? And car seats that I am not sure I could operate myself. I am sure they were a spin-off of some NASA research. I saw one with a flat panel the other day. I would not be surprised to learn that it had mobile broadband and was GPS enabled so you can find the kid if you forget where you left him or her watching the stock market report on Sesame Street. Forget fonics, lets learn reading by text messaging. r u sure?

Some things have not changed much. Burping is still done the same way. Burp rags are still, well, burp rags. And they are still needed mostly when you don't have one in your hand.

Giving a 2 year old a book designed for a 5-10 year old still is not such a good idea. I am not sure it will last 3 more years, but if not, he may be able to use it in some creative way. Trying to read a good book and skipping a page will still get you in trouble. Counting is still the same, starts near one and goes to near ten. Not too hard. Five and six still have wonderful mouth-feel.

I have had the true pleasure to spend a good time with both of the grandkids this summer and it has been a highlight of my life. They are safe with their parents who are amazing for me to watch grow every day. The internet makes it easy to keep up, but to give a little pinch requires a road trip. See you again soon!

What happened to the summer?


This blog is supposed to be about motorcycle rides, and in particular, the annual July trip to someplace. This July I rode exactly ONE day. And that ride was to Mt Airy (Mayberry), NC to eat a PCS (Pork Chop Sandwich) at the Snappy Lunch. Not much more than 100 miles each way.

What took the place of the multi-thousand mile trip on two (or three) wheels was almost 7000 miles in a 2006 Impala - but that doesn't rate blogspace. We did have a wonderful time in Savannah, and then NYC where Ann and I attended a training thing, followed by several days at the Malabar Farm hostel to attend the Vintage Motorcycle Days in Ohio, then back to Florida via another night in Savannah.

Anyway, I am here at home and Ann is in Kansas. Last evening, after a picture perfect day working around the house, the sky filled with clouds at about 6PM and I changed clothes and jumped on my old bike for a ride to a nearby campground in the Jefferson National Forest. It is about 30 miles each way, and most of the ride is on a slow, curvy road that parallels, more or less, a creek. Ideal roads for the old R60. I never went over 60 MPH the whole trip. When I got to the campground turnoff onto a gravel road I got to see a teen-aged bear running (picture found on the web, is not mine, but that was what it looked like) across the road. I had never seen a bear in nature before. He was fast and very beautiful. I rolled off the throttle but never had a chance to get on the brakes (what brakes?) before he was in the woods on the other side of the road. I stopped to look for him, but it was twilight in heavy woods and he (or she) blended right in. I tooled around the roads of the campground where there were only about 4 families set-up and then went back out the same gravel road, this time even slower in case I got the chance to see the bear again. No such luck. However, when I got to the paved road there were about 6 or 7 raccoons running for cover and tripping all over each other. they reminded me of the Keystone Cops. I actually laughed out loud. Again, this was a first for me. I have seen single raccoons, but never a bunch of them together.

The rest of the trip back home was fauna free except for the deer we see almost every time we go up the road to the house.

I am reminded each time I ride that bike how much I enjoy riding it. The odometer rolled through 88888 miles on this trip and I think I am going to treat it to a new seat. The original one is starting to crack after only 40 years. I bet the new one doesn't last that long. Anilia, you keep track of that, OK?