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Listening to Art Tatum


Mancub is 18. The neff is back living with us, looks like full time for at least a year, but I suspect until he at least finishes High School. That makes two grown men, two teenage guys, two male dogs, and three chickens. Plus the various spiders, rats, raccoons, and other critters that run about here. I stopped writing here because I wanted to write something brilliant about the Washington DC trip the four XY humans took at the end of July, but it was less than perfect and I wasn't quite sure what to make of it all. Then I thought I should write about my experiences at Bumbershoot, the Seattle "Arts" Festival I loved for a few decades and now feel less than amorous towards. I could have written about Mancub turning 18, which happened during the same weekend as Bumbershoot, or my losing 27 pounds (which I started another blog to write about, and haven't), or my getting a new bicycle or this horrible feeling like I'm running to the finish line, but instead I putter around on Facebook, spilling out all of my computer energy in one spot.

But I gotta get back to this.

Just give me another day.

Where Was I?

Been so long, I've forgotten how to do this. Dang Facebook takes all of my internet time up, and what do I have to show for it? Bloodshot eyes and sore forearms and wrists.

We've taken in one of the nephews, once again. His second "official" living with us period (and then there have been hundreds of shorter unofficial ones). I'll call him The Burr. A week after he moved in, he came down with mono. He had just signed up for, and started, welding classes which he was enjoying. It was a shame he had to drop out. School is not his favorite thing in the world, and finding something that he enjoys that might at some point turn into a job or career is always a goal. We will try to get him in another one soon.

Since he is 15, we are now a two teenager household. With teenagers, you multiply their ages to find out the equivalent of how many adults that would be in your home. We have a 17 year old and a 15 year old, so if you multiply that it comes to...a big number. Like, a lot. There is never a dull moment. Or a stress free one.

I ride the "I feel very fortunate to be able to make a difference" vs "I should never be allowed to do this because I'm terrible at it" roller coaster, which according to a few of the folks I work with is normal for the parent of teenagers. This last week has been rough. We have introduced (reintroduced, really - but this time we are sticking with it) the concept of "bedtime". Now that there are four of us in the house, we need to be a bit more organized, if not respectful. In addition, we have set a maximum number of hours per day to be playing video games during the summer. Four. That seems really generous, but these addicts are coming off of all day and night benders. It has been a learning experience for us all, and by that I mean I've been learning just how good that bottle of Coconut Rum is and how I don't really do a very good job at work on three hours of sleep following a four hour "discussion" with the family in the middle of the night.

Since Mancub will be turning 18 in just over a month, we know we can't come down too hard on the rules. We also really want to get him ready to be an independent person in the next year (and there is a lot of catching up he has to do). He has had it pretty cushy with us so far, which is not how we intended it. In that, we have failed, or at least not lived up to our expectations. Now we are doing that uphill thing getting him to contribute to housework and cooking, taking care of himself, and planning for his future. Way uphill. But, it is very much a two steps forward sometimes two steps and sometimes just one step back. I have to appreciate the forward moves when they happen, and chill around the backword steps.

In addition to Coconut Rum (and Whiskey Sours), I've found solace in Graphic Novels, web surfing, podcasts, and walking. I also bought a bicycle. In just under two weeks, we will be going on a Family Vacation to Washington, DC. This is probably the most ridiculous thing I have ever done. I'm terrified and excited. I have to be there for one day of work, then we will spend a week in the intense heat and humidity taking the video game addicts to museums and monuments, which will excite them as much as the early bedtime I'm sure.

Whadda Day

I struggled to wake up and get out of bed, and felt less than human for the first couple of hours, but today was a good day and not just because I didn't have to use my AK.

Three books I had ordered from amazon.com showed up today. Since I can't do anything without obsessively gathering, I've been bookmarking links, renting videos from the library, and buying books on food. Today the armchair hunter came home with In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, The End of Overeating by David Kessler MD, and Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. This is what I do now instead of plowing through a huge bag of greasy, salty tortilla chips every night - I surround myself with words and images of healthy food, real food, sustainable agriculture, vegetarian and vegan recipes, getting in touch with the earth, natural fitness, being one with the Universe and chanting OM. Actually, the last two - not so much. Yet. And I still have the days when I plow through a half of a large bag of tortilla chips.

Not that I'm going vegan or anything crazy like that. Been there, done that as smartasses used to say even before the generation before the Not Really's said Whatever. But I want to eat less meat, and I want to eat humanely raised meat and I don't want to support, with my hard earned cash, industrial farming.

I'm not aiming for total purity either (yes, that is probably redundant). I hope to hit the target often, but won't always. My Aim Is True.

So after the books showed up, one of my delightful and lovely coworkers shared the web sensation that is sweeping the nation! Several of us spent far too long (actually the right amount of time, but if I was a true professional I'd say far too long) reading The Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt comments. A good time was had by all, but no sooner did we retire from the warm embrace of faith in humankind restored (via carefully crafted biting and hysterical sarcasm en masse), then we started to exchange emails to plan for next weeks Chip Day Potluck. Although we will in fact be dining on potato and corn flats and rounds, for the slightly older folks in the room you can't say "Chips" without thinking Ponch and Jon. This then started an exchange of old television titles, and eventually YouTube vids of great show openings.

The silliness had not yet reached a pinnacle. That didn't come until someone sent out what just may be the funniest blog of all time; Awkward Family Photos. This was wet your pants funny.

I walked to REI to meet up with Papa Seed after work. He got stuck in traffic so I sat on a log bench near the manmade forest (used for trying out walking shoes and hiking boots) and watched some totally wonderful Korean cooking videos I had added to my iPod last night. Back to the food thing. Full circle.

The Long & Winding Staircase

Still walking like an obese crazed middle aged man trying to catch up with his runaway youth. Adding a bit more as I go along. Last weekend decided to find out where the many staircases that are on the east side of Delridge go.

Stairs are difficult for me. I'm trying to use them 50% of the time at work (I work on the second floor, and until two weeks ago I always used the elevator except for the twice a year fire drill). My knees no longer work the way the once did. I guess there isn't a part of me that works the way it once did, but my knees really don't work the way they once did. Not that I didn't get a lot out of them back in the day, but now - not so much. So I'm pretty damn slow on stairs. If I hear that clickclickclick of someone bounding up and down the stairs, I wait 'em out. I would just get in the way, and I don't want them to see me do the hunched over crawl with the forehead spouting like a New York fire hydrant in July. But, I'm not giving up. I will keep using them. 50% of the time.

So Sunday I thought I'd take the pretty big stairs up to where there were trees. But when I got to what I thought was the top, there were more stairs leading up to more trees. And this repeated endless times. I had to stop to hack and choke and sweat and catch my breath, but I finally made it to the last step.


That step took me to a street I would otherwise never have been on. The rewards of walking continue - the revelation of the world outside the front door.

Parent Break

Yesterday Papa Seed and I went to a class that was being offered for folks involved in the Foster care system - either as parents or workers. Although we are no longer "Foster Parents", we want to keep our license current. You never know. It always makes me think of Tammy Wynette, who said she always kept her hairdresser license current in case the music industry gig fell through. That probably isn't the best analogy. Somehow it works for me.

Unlike some of the classes we have been to which are total snooze cruises, this one was very interesting - "The Disruptive Teenager" I think it was called. Something like that. We really liked the slightly crazy, totally energetic, very smart woman who taught the class, especially since she introduced the session by discussing how much she hated pathologizing kids by sticking a label on them that they would carry on their foreheads the rest of their lives. Yep. Papa Seed and I totally agree with that. Everyone has to have a diagnosis, a label, a sickness or mental illness. We wanted to be very careful just to call Mancub by his name. I think we've done pretty good with that piece.

It was also all a bit overwhelming. As the class went on, the stories became more intense - the stories about kids who just have everything going against them. The firestarters, the animal torturers, the suicidal ones. It is all so sad. Lives that are chaotic and insane from the time they land on earth - their version of "normal" is something so very shattered it is hard to wrap our minds around it.

We had a lunch break that we took advantage of by hitting a Vietnamese restaurant nearby. Papa Seed and I never get to have lunch together during the week. That was nice.

Alki Walk V

I got a couple of good shots of Papa Seed on this walk. I usually don't take photos of people, but since I knew this one it felt safe. Plus, at least on the anchor, I told him to get in the camera's view.





Satisfying and more than a bit exhausting, but like a good walk should be it left my spirits lifted and once again feeling so fortunate that we live where we do.

Alki Walk IV