Busier than Busy and Contradance

Did I mention that I finally got my chainsaw and feel like real man? I asked my kids if I looked like Paul Bunyon and they said, "Who?"

The thing is, now that I've got my saw, it's one more thing to deal with, and I'm not exactly swimming in time. Yesterday we had a busy day, and even though you're tired of hearing about it, I'd like to share with you what we did. We were supposed to have HS tennis in Hanover, but weren't feeling so well because it's been a busy, social week. There are two major immediate projects on the home front and they both take a lot of time.

First, the woodpile. It's going to take me awhile to get through that, and I can only squeeze in a couple of hours each day, if I can even do it each day. And then there are the clapboards on the back of the house, which will eventually all have to be painted. Yikes!

So yesterday, knowing that we had all these things to do, not to mention being exhausted and having contradance that night, I made the executive decision that we were not going to make it to tennis. I knew the kids wouldn't be broken hearted, and sense that they were almost dreading it.

We had breakfast as usual and then we went outside. N wanted to play games but I told him I had real man work to do, and being the real man that he is, he said he'd join me. I spent the morning hours cutting wood, but at some point around noon, I knew I had to stop to make lunch. Since the weather has been so beautiful, the kids always lobby for the picnic lunch, which I dread because it's more work for me. And, of course, I always relent because it is nice out, and it's not such a big deal, reminding myself that life is about the little things.

After lunch, I had to wash dishes and then go to work on the clapboards. The one bonus was that we were planning on going to contradance so I didn't need to make supper. As much as I love to cook, I find that making meals (and the subsequent cleanup) takes a huge chunk of time out of my day, not to mention the disruption in the flow of my work.

Anyway, enough of my whining. After lunch and doing the dishes, I did a quick cleanup of the house, which is much tidier when the kids play outside, and threw in two loads of laundry because the weather was so warm and breezy and I couldn't pass up the chance to dry them on the line outside-our first time this season. A seminal moment, though hanging clothes on a line takes up a lot of time. Just for the record, we don't have a dryer (our conscious decsion), so have little choice in the matter.

I then set to work on the clapboards, knowing that I had about three hours before having to get my act together. I spent a lot of time last year learning to do clapboards, and though I'm still a novice of the highest order, I at least have a better sense of what I'm doing, which streamlines the process immeasurably. I know what I'm looking for, and thankfully after taking off a few layers and peeling back the Tyvek, the plywood underneath was not rotting. In fact, it was in surprisingly decent shape, so I set about applying the ice and water shield.

The day was beautiful, but my daughter, who has been tracking and studying the weather as part of her HS science work, told me it was going to rain on Saturday, so before getting the kids ready for the dance, I had to haul pallets and tarps over to cover the exposed frame. Life in New England never lets you slide, but it makes you a better person for it.

I still have a lot of work to do on it, not to mention needing more i&w shield and clapboards. We have my mentor #1's truck, so I can jet over to Brittons and get them, though I'm staying away from cedar and will go with primed softwood. A lesson I learned last year, go with primed clapboards, they save you time and money in the end.

By 4:30, I had to round the kids up and hound them to get dressed. Just a quick note, life was actually easier when we did everything for them, like putting on their clothes. You'd think it would be simpler to have them just get dressed, but it always involves a great deal of coercing, wrestling, and finally breaking out the bigs guns, i.e. threats, bribery, and extortion, to get them to do what you want them to do, even if it's something they really want. How ironic is that.

We drove out to Woodstock for the dance and the kids really have a good time. I'm sort of mixed on the whole thing. We have some really good friends that go and we love to see them, but the dance is really a Waldorf scene, and as I've mentioned, I feel like a persona non grata in Waldorf circles, mainly because I don't talk the talk. They don't go out of their way to make me feel this way, they just are adept at completely ignoring me and excluding me by default. No malice involved, just lack of sensitivity. Mind you, they are not all like that.

That may be changing, however. There was definitely a more mixed crowd than usual there, with what looked like a large contingent of hip, consumer-conscious kids, some of whom had cell phones that rang during the dance. Scandalous! Maybe contradance is heading in a new direciton, the result of its growing poplularity.

I also wanted to mention that my wife and I (while holding our son, mind you-he refuses to dance) danced with the son and daughter of a family that comes regularly and has something like ten children. I don't know anything about them except that I've been told they are a "sect" family and it's clear that they are religious. Whatever be the case, the kids are really nice, and very mature. I've actually danced with one of the boys, who is I believe a tween, and we had to hold hands when we danced - this is the nature of contradance, lots of hand holding and switching partners. To his credit, he didn't blink and eye and just went with it. When I was his age I would have run from the room screaming. We also danced with the one girl in the family, a teenager I believe, and she was very sweet and very spunky. A really cute kid, with loads of personality. Go figure.

Today is Saturday, market day, but I've got to also stop by Lavalley's and get more i&w shield, and then to the WRJ Coop to get our copy of Transition Towns. Later in the day we'll head over to Hanover for some work and library time, then off to our favorite eating digs, Boloco. We love those Summer and Classic burritos. It's when school's out so the place isn't such a zoo.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to our kids for the great pics.

Friday Night Live

We finally made it to Contradance on Friday night, and as usual, the kids had a blast and we all very much enjoyed ourselves. Contradance is such an interesting scene, though I have to confess there are some colorful characters, some of whom I can't quite get a handle on, though I'm sure they think the same of me. It's such a throwback to another time, and though I think it's steeped in nostalgia, it's a fun time. And it's nice that kids can do something that's wholesome and fun without all the techno stuff and overt sexuality that's so prevalent in pop culture. That is not to say, however, that crazy stuff doesn't go on in the Contradance community, but I won't get into that.

What we also really like about it is that we see so many of our friends. There are so many regulars who attend, and after awhile you begin to develop relationships with them because you see them over and over. What really surprises me are the young, hip girls. Mostly girls, not to many guys, but they find it fun and hip enough to attend on a Friday night. If I were a single, young guy, I'd check it out.

I took the kids earlier and my wife met up with us later. We went early to get some soup and bread. Killer soup, BTW, made by JD, and the bread is sometimes donated by Umpleby's, who have killer bread, though I'm not sure if that was the case. The whole scene I believe is driven by volunteers, so it's also a great community event. I don't know if the musicians even get paid, but they do a good job and the dancing is a lot of fun, though our son doesn't like to dance so we just hang out, with all the other young boys, who also don't like to dance. What is it with guys? If they would just dance, it would open them up to unlimited social possibilities with the girls, but maybe that's the hard lessons men need to learn.

We hadn't been in a long time, we'd missed the last three, I believe, and they only come around once a month. We also didn't get to see our friends R&J, but we did see CH and C, who is a good buddy to our kids. Actually one of the few boys well confident enough to dance with the girls. He'll go far in life. We also had a playdate with them earlier that day, so we were lucky enough to get a double dose of our friends. Those days don't come around often.

I've been trying to write but have fallen behind on it all. Plugging away at the blogsites but have been slacking on my blogs. In fact, I've got a queue of drafts that need to be published.

I did have this brilliant notion, inspired by my wife, the photog, that pics help make the blogs more interesting, so I'm giving it a try. It makes it a little harder, but what's a little more work?

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Adrian for the pic.

Out Of It, Timing in LIfe, Skiing Like Crazy, and Contradance

I haven't been blogging as diligently because I've been dealing with assorted issues, and sometimes the blog just has to be put aside. From there, it's a slippery slope and days can pass before I get back in the swing of things. Funny how that works. I'm also working on modifying my blog a bit, but that's a long term gig.

We have been skiing for about six days straight, and I can't even begin to tell you how far along the kids have come. It's been a blast and we are all definitely hooked. Even I, who has been a reasonably avid snowboarder for the past few years, have re-discovered my love of skiing, and sort of prefer it now. But, in typical fashion, when I see other snowboarders on the hill, they look cool, and wanting to be cool, like most guys, have this urge to snowboard as well. Just might do that if we make it to the hill today.

It was a Quechee reunion yesterday, and we saw bunch of our old friends from the days on the Green. Unfortunately, being the neurotic nut that I am, I was so focused on getting as much skiing in as I could that we didn't spend as much time hanging with friends, not that they wanted to hang out with us. The biggest bummer is missing out a on chance to chat with J, and A and I didn't get to really ski together, but sometimes things just don't work out. Hope to see J, A, and S soon and hope the kids can have a playdate, or at least hang out.

We did, however, have a blast skiing. The kids are getting a bit daring and search out the trails through the trees. There are times when I completely lose track of them, and have to come to terms with the fact that I'm beginning to get in the way. Then again, I guess as a parent, that's the goal. Either way, I prefer to have at least N in my sights at some point, and to be there for him if he falls, but he's perfectly capable of taking care of himself and has in fact recovered from assorted spills and skiied down the hill by himself. I.e., I'm worrying too much, but how can you not?

I still can't get over how much the kids love skiing, and it really boils down to timing. Something just clicked, and suddenly the love it. It's the same with music. I've tried to expose them to all sorts of music and encourage them to have eclectic taste, but most of it just becomes background sounds to the day. Just recently both the kids have shown an increased interest in music, and are forming their favorite bands and songs. It's kind of cool to see, and the precursor, in my opinion, of an interest in playing an instrument. We'll work on that one next. Right now, we're listening to a lot of oldies, and that's a good intro to pop music.

Today is Friday, and tonight is contradance. We haven't been to the past few, and feel like we should make an appearance because not only do we enjoy it, but feel like we should support JD because she works so hard on it. Had a beer with PD last night and he said he wasn't going, which is fine. We did the Skunk Hollow with GS and it was actually a fun evening, even though all I wanted to do was go to sleep after a long day of skiing. No rest for the weary.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.