22 thoughts on “January 31, 2023: Extra-Curriculars”

  1. Both boys are in basketball, and I'm very glad their practices are only a 5-minute drive from where we live. Games, however, are more of a drive. The peperoncino also has ukulele; I bring my laptop and try to get through a bunch of email replies during his lesson. Part of me misses not having to keep track of who needs to be where when; another part of me is glad to get them out of the house and staying busy.

    1. The Poissonnière’s piano teacher lives around the corner & up the street one block, and she makes house calls for lessons. Very grateful for the simplicity.

      It looks like baseball will be 3x/week, about ten minutes’ drive from home. Gymnastics are in a warehouse in an industrial park on the northern outskirts of the People’s Republic. Not too far away (15-20 minutes, depending on route), but enough that getting back at 19:45 makes for a slightly hectic evening routine. (I insist on showers; lots of feet see those mats.)

      I’m considering adding martial arts to the mix. Her enthusiasm for gymnastics and interest in learning to wrestle suggests BJJ might be where I look.

      1. This has been quite the (school) year for activities. Aquinas hit junior high, which opened up a whole new world of extra cirriculars and events. Plus Neitzsche moved up to third grade, which is when we start offering a lot of the extra cirriculars, so now we've got kids 1, 2 & 3 with full calendars, and kid #4 just a couple years away. Philosofette and I don't see a whole lot of each other on Mondays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays.

      2. lots of feet see those mats. You might consider having some Tinactin spray available (tolnaftate).
        It's a must for me after swimming at the club.

  2. Oh, I remember those days. When the oldest got his drivers license it was a game changer. Other parents used to complain about 6 am hockey practices. I loved them as it was one less interruption during the afternoon.

    1. Pa used to love suggesting that I just run to cross country practice in the morning. It would have added two miles to the total distance. Not a bad warm up on the way there, but when you’ve run 9 miles in practice, adding an eleventh loses its appeal. I usually ride my bike or caught a ride with a friend.

      1. My folks both worked at the joint my family owned. They both pretty much worked 7 days a week. As a result, they could not give any of us a ride to, or from, activities. For a while our district had an activities bus that helped a bit. Mostly, we basically had to find our own ride after practice or games, or not play sports at all. My older brother and I played 3 sports from 7th-10th grade. We were both very fortunate that parents of friends helped us out.

  3. Back in Alex after our trip to Pensacola for my uncle's funeral. Drive down included battling slick roads a good chunk of the way. On the way back, I drove 14 hours straight. When we were 2 hours away from Iowa City, we called the Radisson to see if they had a room available and if their kitchen would still be open, as we were due to arrive at 9pm. They answered yes to both. Got to the hotel and the kitchen was closed... grrrr. Also asked for a King bed and entered our room to find 2 queen beds. Too tired to go back down and switch. We ate out probably 10 times during our trip. Not a single time did we have an above average experience, despite purposely choosing highly rated joints wherever we were. That was a bummer.

    My uncle's celebration of life was held about 10 miles from the Barrancas National Cemetery. The local police gave our procession an escort the entire 10 miles. Mostly on a 4 lane divided highway, in which all cars in both directions stopped to let us pass, with many drivers getting out of their vehicles to salute our group. My uncle was a Master Chief in the Navy and was "the" guy when it came to fixing helicopters (according to his shipmates). Not sure if every seaman receives the same honors that my uncle received that day, but I was proud of the way he was honored as he was put to rest. My father is buried at Fort Snelling and we were also impressed back then at the way he was taken care of.

    1. Our trips up to God's Country is 14 hrs (if we take it straight through) which is killer on the lower back, even with a couple alternate drivers to help out. I hope you got out and stretched appropriately and often.

      1. We stop somewhere between 2 and 4 hours depending on bathroom breaks and food breaks. I did drive my truck, mostly for comfort. I came out fairly unscathed. We drove through St. Louis at 1 am on the way down and on the way back we were trying to beat the freezing rain that was rolling in.

          1. We got to St. Louis (drove the west side bypass) right when it started to mist out. My truck showed 27-29 degrees temperature outside and people were still flying down the interstate. It felt a bit hairy at times, but by the time we got 30 miles North, it was dry pavement the rest of the way.

    2. I must have missed that you were headed to the p-cola area. I have learned the hard way what a good review in Florida means…. Though there are some really, truly great places down there but they’re far between.

      1. We went to McGuire's, which seems much bigger than my previous visit (31 years ago). It has become a tourist trap and the food was marginal at best. We also went to Flounder's on Pensacola beach. Same owners as McGuire's I discovered later. Similar experience. I will say, this is unusual for us on trips. Typically, we have at least a handful of memorable meals.

    3. zoomx, glad to hear about the honor offered to your uncle and father. Generally speaking, the veterans cemetery staff and honor guards are above reproach - I know it to be true for our staff at the State Veterans Cemeteries.

      I can’t say whether it was out of the ordinary or not, but given that your uncle was a big time Master Chief (surface fleet and airdale-type sailors would know), and you were in the Navy town of P-cola, I would simply note that whatever your family experienced was well deserved. Thanks for sharing your story.

          1. At work, the IRS just finished up with our 945 for 2021. They forgave the fees & penalties of $38. I think 2 of our deposits were 1 day late. I'm thinking they could make better use of their time.

    2. WTF, Rhu? Is this even legal to file in January?

      (I just got the W-2s in the last few days and will start working on our return soonish).

Comments are closed.