Category: Aside

Seems unlikely that we’re going to head south this week to look at colleges. We’ve just agreed which we’re interested in, and it takes some time to arrange travel and tours.

Ann and I had talked about going up to Healdsburg today — and we likely will. Will has agreed to crank on his sit-down work, like: summer AP homework, and prepping for college applications (drafting essays, etc). Supposedly Lauren is busy for the next five days, which frees him up to focus on what needs doing. He’s off this morning helping his soccer coach with a  clinic — a good wholesome activity (that looks good on a college application).

We also remembered that we want to hang in the south bay sometime, likely an overnight. See the girls, maybe visit a school or two down there. We’ll have to plan that in.

We ducked out yesterday to the coast to visit a ‘meadworks’ — a winery that makes alcohol from honey — and to grab some oysters. We had an awesome time. The weather was fantastic, and both places  — the mead place and the oyster place — were amazing and special.

It’s great being a local tourist. Since I’m on sabbatical, we have the advantage of doing visits like this during weekday business hours, so there are no crowds to contend with.

We’ve left the definition of our southern California trip to Will — so that we end up with something that works for him. We’ll see whether he engages enough to make it happen.

We’re planning to head south this week to enjoy some new scenery, warm weather, and see a school or two for Will. We’ve decided that it’s pointless to attempt to visit all the schools that he might attend — rather, we’ll visit a few possible schools that are varied enough to help him narrow down the kind of school he wants.

Today, I need to do some admin stuff, and do less writing and fun.

Good news! Will’s team finished in first place in their grouping and now has games on Sunday. We’re driving right now to an 8am semifinal in Davis. If they win this morning, they are in the final this afternoon .

We got the benefit of having some fun time over the past two days, and Will has been spending time with his teammates including overnighting last night without us.

I see it as a win-win scenario — more fun all around. This entry title is also our rally cry for today “Win! Win!”

[ADDENDUM: Will’s team did make it to the final, and they won! Very exciting and cool.]

We’ve again sent Will with someone for today’s soccer games. In a way I feel guilty — it’s a little sad to choose not to attend your child’s game. On the other had, I’m certain that over the years we’ve attended more of Will’s games than other parents — usually as a pair. We definitely have a very high ratio of parent-to-child attendance.

Further, Will’s team lost their first game today — which is both bad and good, with the good being that they may not be required to play tomorrow. Sunday’s games are conditional, and only the top four teams progress.

So we’ll use today to enjoy ourselves, probably doing something outdoors, and will attend games tomorrow (Sunday) if there are any.

We’ve sent Will with another family to today’s soccer game in Davis. This gives us most of the day to continue our ‘vacation’ and do something memorable without having to worry about what he’s up to. His games this weekend are against some capable older teams (his team is now ‘U19’ since they have one older player). He needs to play hard and not get injured.

I’ve realized that I need to limit the time I spend writing each day. I have other things I need to get done, and can’t avoid them forever.

We’re still trying to ‘be on vacation’ to ensure we take full advantage of my sabbatical. Yesterday, we went on the tour of the Lagunitas brewery. It was fantastic — the tour was low key and very fun. And free, though I would have paid some money to take it. The tour guide was a riot, and had a beer in his hand the entire tour.

They do the tour daily, and it includes free beer tasting equal in total to maybe a pint. They would probably not want us showing up every day, but we could. 🙂

I need to spend some time today planning out the remainder of my sabbatical. I have multiple ‘threads’ of things I want to accomplish, and all need some structure to ensure they happen. (Sadly) most revolve around Will, ensuring that he gets what he needs from the summer including some college visits, some advance work for classes and his college essay,  and some other meaningful accomplishment(s) to mention on college applications.

In parallel, I need to make sure both Ann and I enjoy my sabbatical so that we don’t have any regrets once it’s over.

We have a dying bird in the backyard. Yesterday, Stanley caught a bird and was playing with it — tossing it around, etc. We were sure he had killed it (bad Stanley).

I went out later to throw the body away only to discover that the bird was not dead, just wounded. So the question became — how badly wounded was it? If the bird were near death, then we (I) would probably be doing it a favor by killing it and relieving it of its misery.

But when I checked, the bird didn’t look that badly wounded, which suggested a new course of action — allowing the bird an opportunity to heal. If I killed the bird, and it were capable of fully healing, then the action of killing it would itself be a bad thing.

So the new plan is to see if the bird is still alive this morning then, if so, take it to Songbird Rescue in Sebastopol — which takes in found injured wild birds. I’m not sure what they do with the birds, but I’m happy to pass the life-and-death decision to someone else.

[ADDENDUM: I checked this morning, and the bird was dead. Ants were crawling on its lifeless body. I feel really bad, but I know I would have had a difficult time killing it even if I knew it were dying. We need to better manage Stanley so he doesn’t regularly hurt birds.]

[ADDENDUM 2: See my poem from yesterday about Stanley: Shall We Play?]

We’ve left Will in San Jose with his sisters, so Ann and I have the day to ourselves. Need to do something fun! We also need to plan out the second half of my sabbatical to ensure that we squeeze in whatever additional trips that we should.

On other fronts: my step average is the pits since Paris (too much hanging and/or driving), and I’m working on my haircut using my new razor (trying to get the right hair length for the different parts of my head). The haircut thing is funny because I’ve gone from a razor that has only five length settings to one with nearly 20 — so the possibilities are almost overwhelming  (do I make the sideburns 3 mm or 3.5mm?, etc).