Monthly Archive for January, 2010

Brett is going through a change of life. His “aha” moment came during the move Up in the Air. The question was posed to the George Clooney character:

“How much does your life weigh?”

Brett decided his needed a weight reallocation and says he is going to give it a go.

I’m slowly starting to remove things from my life that take away from time I can spend with my children.

Since I’m old enough to be Brett’s dad – or much older brother – I recalled how when our kids were growing up, there was no internet and only 3 channels on the television.

As a result, when I got bored, I would snatch the kids and we would have an “adventure” as we called them. At times they would bring it up – and we were off.

Our adventures consisted of lots of planning. This is key. Not because I needed clock-work precision, but because the girls had to think and roam around the house or garage gathering the essential ingredients for the adventure.

If we decided to build a “fort” – a blanket thrown over a card-table – we had to make sure we had proper lighting and sustenance. Who we invited to join us was important too. Would a Cabbage Patch kid fit in? or would this be a Barbie adventure?

When I felt like wandering around the outdoors, our adventure was often to a nearby field. Since we were going to be gone for a “long time” I told the girls, we would always have to carry enough supplies to have a snack.  Usually this was one hot-dog, a Bert ‘n’ Ernie jug of Kool-aid and some Fritoes in a baggie.

We would traipse just over a little rise to get out of sight of the houses, find a spot, clear the area of bugs, study a few ants and spiders, gather twigs and then build a tiny little fire to “cook” the hot dog.

But most often our adventure would be in the sandpile.  I built a 12′ x 12′ sandpile under the deck to the second level so it was in the shade. I can’t to begin to recall all the projects that we planned and constructed and played with in the sandpile.

I do recall that in the end a monster or earthquake usually destroyed everything.

That was my idea.