Journal perfessor multigeek's Journal: Who need televison when you've got children?
I just spent the day at a big (by my standards) suburban barbeque. Brand new swing set with the wood chips just put in today (and the husband and wife still enjoying razzing each other about how long it took). Big plastic-part house closer to the real one (about seven feet tall by about fifteen feet long with slides, doors, openings, bridge, etc.). A lawn; a _ r e a l l y _ b i g _ l a w n.
Wow, This stuff really exists.
For crying out loud, I just spent the day at a house with outbuildings. Sheds. Plural.
Now to put this in perspective, I was, for all intents and purposes, an only child (two half siblings and one step but I saw them an average of about twenty hours a year) and I grew up in a highrise apartment in Manhattan. In elementary school my classmates had shrinks. I learned who Johnny Carson was when I was in college. We went through at least three expresso makers when I was a kid but never seriously considered getting a car.
So this stuff blows my mind.
And you know what? I love it.
I mean, I could never live there. My allergies to grass alone would kill me in five years (doctor's estimate, stretched out by my scepticism). The lack of take out Ethiopian food would make me screwy in a place that didn't have deep woods either. And yeah, there are certain serious limits to the conversation and it's not a coincidence that the best conversations I had today were with a guy who lives in my neighborhood and a woman who works here.
But for a day? With a roaming, shifting herd of children happily running around and a pile of burgers big enough to hide an SUV behind? It was great.
So *this* is what most of America is working for. Huh.
And the real punchline is that this is the rambling, gas eating, uninsulated, big screen TV, not a vegetable in the place home of a guy I went to high school with. He grew up eight blocks from where I'm sitting now. And I have not a doubt that he is happier this way. Considerably.
And, more significantly to me, his kids are delighted and delightful. Sweet as country pie.
They *must* be doing something right out there.
Promising to be my usual cynical self by morning,
Rustin
Wow, This stuff really exists.
For crying out loud, I just spent the day at a house with outbuildings. Sheds. Plural.
Now to put this in perspective, I was, for all intents and purposes, an only child (two half siblings and one step but I saw them an average of about twenty hours a year) and I grew up in a highrise apartment in Manhattan. In elementary school my classmates had shrinks. I learned who Johnny Carson was when I was in college. We went through at least three expresso makers when I was a kid but never seriously considered getting a car.
So this stuff blows my mind.
And you know what? I love it.
I mean, I could never live there. My allergies to grass alone would kill me in five years (doctor's estimate, stretched out by my scepticism). The lack of take out Ethiopian food would make me screwy in a place that didn't have deep woods either. And yeah, there are certain serious limits to the conversation and it's not a coincidence that the best conversations I had today were with a guy who lives in my neighborhood and a woman who works here.
But for a day? With a roaming, shifting herd of children happily running around and a pile of burgers big enough to hide an SUV behind? It was great.
So *this* is what most of America is working for. Huh.
And the real punchline is that this is the rambling, gas eating, uninsulated, big screen TV, not a vegetable in the place home of a guy I went to high school with. He grew up eight blocks from where I'm sitting now. And I have not a doubt that he is happier this way. Considerably.
And, more significantly to me, his kids are delighted and delightful. Sweet as country pie.
They *must* be doing something right out there.
Promising to be my usual cynical self by morning,
Rustin
Who need televison when you've got children? More Login
Who need televison when you've got children?
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