The leaper

My wife was born on leap day. February 29 is a national holiday in my house. She has a fun time of it. She turned 20 on her 5th birthday. She was at six and a half birthdays when we got married. When we watched the world transition into the digital age, she couldn't find her birthday in a dropdown menu, but that's largely been fixed over time.

What it means, though, is she has four years to plan a birthday party, and we have no excuses. The first birthday we celebrated together, we threw a masquerade ball. The friend I asked to do music showed up with a band when I was expecting a stereo. It was awesome. Another year, she got a handful of free passes to a number of entertainment venues and we spent the day goofing off.

Fun in various degrees.

This time around, she wanted to do what we did last time. We went to an indoor water park. Great Wolf Lodge in Poconos PA. Same thing twice in a row, I asked? Well, last time we were there, we mused over how it was a good thing we were there when we were, because it sure looked like everything was about to close for awhile.

We had to go back to finish this game of Jumanji and put it all back in the board.

School internot

My kids had an impromptu half day of school because the district had network issues.

Yes. The internet went down and they sent them home.

They just had a week off, and the district did an overhaul of their network equipment. It failed last week, and even after fixing it, it failed again today. Apparently their mandatory security is compromised without the network online, so they were sent home.

Whatever.

Just got an email from the schools - closed again tomorrow because it won't be back up by then.

They're thrilled. This has no effect on my life whatsoever. My wife, however, might find herself with a full house when she's not in the tax office.

Yearly downtime

Every year I get some type of illness that hits me first in my sinuses, then in my chest. About 80% of my random illnesses I can just push through with little to no consequence, but these yearly bouts are what amount to downtime and heavy training exercises for my immune system. I left work after only an hour on Friday. I went in Monday, but suffered through on cold medicine and caffeine (all the while my co workers were concerned for my well-being). Woke up Tuesday to find half of my body was on strike, and there was no crossing the picket line. After tough negotiation, we're most of the way there but there's no going anywhere today either.

At some point in my old age, I might have to move to a warmer climate so this yearly downtime won't be the death of me.

Unsnowed

I blog about the weather a lot, but nobody cares.

In the absence of my kids electronic babysitters, I've found myself needing to interact with them more. Don't get me wrong, they can certainly take care of themselves, but some of them simply choose not to.

Whatever.

They like going sledding, which is fine. They wear themselves out and they're outdoors for awhile. I even enjoy it at my age.

There's no friggin snow. There hasn't been. We got maybe two feet this entire season, and it's gone. I think it snowed a few weeks ago Monday, but it was gone by Wednesday morning. I can take the kids out, but I'd have better luck bringing a wagon and rolling them down a hill at this rate.

Meanwhile, my kids are starting to sound like Calvin.

Feral gaming

All things in moderation, or so we hear. My kids do not believe this. No, they want all the video games and they want them now. 

I enjoyed video games growing up, but my parents merely tolerated them. I would get a new one rarely, and my opportunities to play were limited. First by parental mandate, then just by the increasing demands of my busy life.

Then I had kids, and oh boy do I like to live vicariously. 

At first it was fine, we would play together (the early Lego games were notoriously kid friendly), but over time their tastes started to diverge from mine. And while I lack the same appreciation for the games they enjoy, I at least understand them.

Until they went feral.

When everything shut down four years ago, they had nothing to do and nowhere to go. It was all closed, so I simply unleashed what indoor entertainment I had and they let loose. Pulling back from that has been a gradual challenge, and a moderately unsuccessful one at that. As their own lives have grown busier what with clubs and other outside activities creeping into their lives, the dominance of screens has waned over the years, but we noticed it in their behavior.

They turned into monsters.

When they don't have an endless supply of the games, they turn into regular people. With them? They become unhinged devils. So I did what any maniac father would do and packed them all up.

It helps that all the games and consoles are mine, and I just let them use it. (You gave your kids a Switch? That was your mistake. I got myself one and reminded them that I merely let them use it)

That was a few weeks ago, and they're acting like normal people again, despite the daily whining from my oldest, blaming the behavior of his youngest brother, but that's almost expected.

We'll see how it goes.