Why Girls Are Better Teammates

Our team made the other team's goalie cry. Two goals in fairly quick succession. The goalie went down to stop the ball the second time and missed it. Rather than get up off the ground, she crumpled in a heap under the goal. Her teammates piled on top of her and hugged her and patted her. She got up and swiped the tears away. Her teammates ran off to their positions and the game resumed.

It was a beautiful moment to witness. I could not help but think how it would have played out differently with 11 year old boys.

23 Point Safety Checks

The best mechanic is the one that does a good job when your car isn't broken. He calls you and suggests a weld on your muffler to save you a hundred and stay on the road. He calls you to tell you that it was a wire to your tail light and it'll be $20. Of course sometimes he calls and it's the master cylinder that needs to be replaced or that both sets of brakes need to be fixed. But it's the time he calls to say that they checked out my "engine service" light and the only reason it went on is that the sensor was dusty - so they cleaned the sensor and my engine is fine - it's because sometimes it is not a problem that I believe him when he tells me that it is.

There was a lame article in the newspaper this morning about customer service. But after I got off with the phone with my mechanic who is charging me a minimal fee for cleaning a sensor and an oil change, I thought about how important customer service can be, but I don't mean cheery and overly friendly. By customer service I mean that I want the truth and I want to trust what people say when they are talking about something that I don't know anything about.

The thing is that this garage is downtown near a lot of offices and near the University and I am sure they have tons of business - they don't need mine. They don't send me Christmas cards or give me calender. They don't do 23-Point Safety Checks to tell me that my cupholder is broken, when I brought it in since the tail light doesn't work. They have never offered me "free" coffee. The place is greasy and the guy who runs the register is the same one who works on my car. They just give me the truth about my car and I really appreciate that. That's customer service.

Doh!

So this is one of those things that I should have known and somehow misunderstood. "Senate Bean Soup?" It's really from the US Senate.

Grams makes navy bean soup with a ham hock and calls it "Senate Bean Soup." I wanted to make it for my bookclub since I have a ham bone from Easter and soup sounded good, so I googled the name thinking that I would get back a bean soup recipe like my grandma's and not only did I get that, but I find out the history of the soup and the actual recipe from the US Senate. Apparently it's served at the cafeteria in the US Senate every day.

Also on the menu for the bookclub - sweet potato biscuits, salad, lithuanian torte and I will make an appetizer of some sort. Blue cheese walnut spread on apples or shrimp. Or both.

Music With Kids - Version 109.809

"What are you listening to, mom?"

"American Beauty - the Grateful Dead," I said.

"This is the Grateful Dead?!" Anna said. "I thought they were a rock and roll band? This sounds like country."

Objects in Motion Stay in Motion

After years of scientific research (without grants of any kind, I would add) I am pleased to be before you today to discuss my findings. The data confirms that Newton's First Law of Physics does not apply to children.

As an example of this, a child who is getting dressed in the morning and has removed her pajamas, picked up her outfit for the day, and in fact has one leg in her jeans and the other leg out of her jeans, when interrupted by her mother to announce that breakfast is ready, will remove her leg from the jeans rather than just put the other one in, and will appear at the breakfast table in her underwear with no understanding of why this event makes her mother's head spin in circles. (The inability of children to comprehend their affect on adults is an entirely separate study and will not be discussed here at this time.)

As another example of this, a child who is sent to "take a shower" may begin the task by going in the bathroom, perhaps even moaning about having to take a shower, but then inexplainably, the child will stop forward motion into the shower once the door is shut. All motion directed at the shower stops and the child becomes imobalized (in this study children were observed to be in the bathroom talking on a cellphone, reading books, and even just sitting on the toilet seat cover with arms crossed).

The greatest variable appears to be the presence of an adult. With an adult present Newton's Law appears to apply and children who are sent to "take out the trash" will start out the door, go down the back sidewalk and actually place the bag in the trashcan. Children who may start this same task with adult supervision only at the begining of the task, lose inertia outside the forcefield and the bag is set down and the child's motion then shifts in another direction - to the garage or yard or even to the front door to avoid the adult.

Fire Makes Everything Better

I love my kids and as they get older I am aware that I like them as people, not just because they're my kids.

I took them to the circus tonight. They were the perfect people to take to the circus. I think there is concern that this generation is jaded against excitement and violence. But I have to say that the circus can change your view on that.

When the lights went out, there was a gasp. Then the live orchestra started up and the spotlights shone on the disco ball at the ceiling which made dancing spots of lights all over the three rings.

"How do they do that?!" whispered Frank next to me.

We love this stuff. We see all the acts at the State Fair. In retrospect, I can't believe that this is the first circus we have gone to, but it was nice that they were older and were a good audience. We cheered and applauded and gasped. The kids were impressed with the jugglers with the fire batons and the gauchos with the fire ropes and the tigers jumping through rings of fire. But we also like tumblers and swingers and trapeze artists and elephants balancing on balls. We loved the steel cage of motorcyclists - three motorcycles and someone standing in the middle. We clapped and clapped and clapped at the end.

On the way to the car we argued about what was the best act and teased Anna about volunteering her to stand in the steel ball while the motorcycles whizzed around her.

"It's not like it's on fire, Anna," Mary teased.

Puppy Dog Tales

This morning while I was putting up my hair and putting on makeup, Frank wandered into the bathroom.

"Mom, how do you think Satchel Paige figured out his pitch?"

"What?" I asked. I was a bit disoriented and it seemed like an odd conversation to have at 7am.

"You know, with his leg up, so the ball could go super fast? How did he figure that out, I wonder?"

"I don't know, Frank."

When I went by his room a few minutes later he was pinning the Satchel Paige picture to his bulletin board and studying it, presumably to "figure out" his pitch.

When I study this picture of Satchel Paige I wonder more about what he would think about baseball today and what he would think about his picture on a kid's bulletin board in Nebraska. I like Satchel's face. He looks amused with life and as if he is enjoying himself. Not a bad role model - a good athlete and a good humor.

Cash or Credit?

Under the register at the little grocery store there was a card file with names on the cards.

"Cash or credit?" had a whole different meaning.

I remember walking over to the store with my friend after a volleyball game but before the football game. We had not lived in Brownlee for long at that time, but I was still surprised that everyone knew me. In Denver I was annonymous - just another kid. In Thedford I was "the Brownlee teachers' kid." More than likely, the adults knew my name even.

I paid cash for my snack that night, but my friend put her snack on her parent's "credit card," meaning that the store clerk pulled the right index card out without even asking her name, and wrote down the date and the amount that she spent. Then my friend signed next to the amount. At the end of the month her parents would get a bill from the grocery store which they would pay and the index card balance would zero out. (I would note that my friend was the child of a land-owning ranch family and I was the child of teachers, and we were no doubt treated better than the hired man's child - the caste system is alive and well in the Sandhills of Nebraska.)

I thought about that store and the little index cards this morning when I heard a story on the radio about a gas station in Chicago that uses fingerprints to charge expenses. It's the same idea - knowing without a doubt who someone is and knowing that they have good credit - just a little less personal.

Fly(a)way

The geese are in a hurry to migrate this Spring. I heard them last night when I let the dog out for the last time. 10pm is pretty late for geese. And then I heard them again this morning as the dog and I ran through the park in the dark at 6am. They're not waiting for sunrise and they are not landing at sunset. (If this were my mom's blog, then she would probably be able to explain why the geese are in a hurry to get North this year or what that means. It's not, and I don't know, and I prefer a literary explanation to a scientific explanation, so we'll just leave my observation as it is.)

honk honk honk honk

While I am fascinated by migration, I really don't get it. I prefer hibernation to migration. I am always looking for a place to land.