Why women are smarter

By lex, on July 10th, 2007

That’s a strange title for what is in essence a “thank you” note, expressing my gratitude for yesterday’s generosity, but I’ll get around to it.

Your kindness – those who have corresponded with me here previously, and those who I have only now “met” – really was overwhelming. There’s no other word for it. The Kat can go to camp this year and then some, meaning that that we ourselves might even be able to shake out a few reefs in our mainsails this weekend. There ought to be a better word than “thank you,” but that’s what I’m stuck with.

Thank you.

When I get a spare, I’ll send the edited version of “Rhythms” along to each who either donated or expressed an interest. It will be before the week’s end in any case, I promise. I think I’ll probably put it in pdf format, make the moving of it around easier.

We were sitting down to table last night, just the three of us as the Biscuit had sought her entertainments elsewhere and son number one is re-embarked aboard the good ship Kitty Hawk, having blown out his gaff in Sydney. The Kat asked me to explain how this unanticipated boon had come about, and I reminded her how I had spent last Christmas leave feverishly editing my “manuscript” to make it ready for the Valour-IT * donor – an effort which none had failed to notice even as they watched with a certain degree of enviably detached amusement. I told her that I’d offered up a copy of the revised work for those as who might consider a donation towards sending her to camp, and that I was very pleasantly surprised – before becoming almost astonished – at the level of support.

She was exuberantly pleased too of course, but then also I saw a certain degree of calculation in her eye:

“Is you book ready for publishing, dad?”

“Not yet, kiddo.”

“Well,” clearly thinking through the possibilities, “when will it be?”

It’s a good question.

That’s why women are smarter.

* 08-10-2018 Link Gone; no replacements found – Ed.

 

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Another parental letter

Posted July 10th, 2007 by lex

 

From a blogger this time, whose son is also joining the service:

Make you a deal… Update – All done!

By lex, on July 9th, 2007

Deeply personal bleg follows, below the fold. Casual readers should probably skip ahead – I’m going to ask a favor of friends.

Tough Weekend

By lex, on October 6th, 2009

One of the Kat’s best friends had an unwelcome knock on the door Sunday morning at 0800. Cuppla local PD come to tell her that her brother had been killed in a car crash in a wealthy exurb at 0145 earlier that same day. Twisty road, not well lit. Going too fast. Left the pavement, through a fence, back onto the tarmac to roll over a couple of times. The young man ejected from the back seat, unstrapped. Killed pretty much instantly. Another kid seriously injured. Head trauma. The driver drunk, 17. Off to juvie on charges of negligent homicide and DUI. Had a full ride to Duke, but not any more. And where are your parents?

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By lex, on December 14th, 2008

Rained much of the day yesterday, the wind blowing hard. Turned the heat on for the first time in the morning, just to take the chill off. The year has been an eventful one, but know it’s winding down, groping its way into a new year that holds perhaps less hope than trepidation. Foreign wars, economic malaise, politics as usual. Everyone wondering if this is the bottom, and if not, how much worse will it get. Wondering, when it’s finally over, what will emerge. Our “exceptionalism”, such as it is, I think was always based not so much on a certainty of rectitude – we’ve far too much experience being wrong – as a certain confidence that we’d figure it out in time. Now that confidence is badly shaken, and we have gone from young to late middle age in a seeming blink of an eye, harboring doubts and regrets, in debt up to our ears, no real way of knowing how we’re going to pull this off.

Or maybe that’s just me.

Well, That Went Over Like a Lead Balloon

By lex, on November 23rd, 2008

Broke the news to the Kat that your correspondent was heading to Texas next weekend for to discuss a potentially lucrative opportunity. Resettlement involved of course, but a day’s work for a day’s pay, summat to call my own and none of your confiscatory taxation. Intimated that there might be horseflesh in it for her, not to mention a severe reduction in the amount of paternal angst seeping through the floorboards. What with the crushing burden of debt, and that.

And acreage. I did not neglect to mention the acreage. Asked if she’d like to join me, just to have a look around. See for herself. Make an informed decision.

Her response?

Doing Something Wrong

 

By lex, on November 10th, 2008

All your correspondent really wanted for his birthday * – which was very nice, by the way: Brunch at La Valencia in La Jolla with the whole clan, and 50 rounds through a borrowed H&K USP .45 at the American Shooting Center *** while Son Number One broke in his newest acquisition, a Rock Island Armory M1911 clone that sold at a price found hard to resist (and lucky to have found it, the store’s shelves utterly innocent of new firearms for sale, and nothing on offer but a few previously owned Glocks), a little R&R around the house (including the fabrication of a cat house [shush!] intended for the crazy old homeless man in the cat suit that hangs around the back yard muttering to himself, the creation of which was a task well within these our austere woodworking talents), and a slice or four at the Pizza Port, with a pint of their ESB that went down ever so kindly, followed up by cutting up a bit of wood for the fireplace, the better for to warm our creaking limbs in anticipation of the cruel, San Diego winter that stands a tip-toe on our doorstep – but all I really wanted, as I was saying, was full ownership of an Aviat Husky for to take us to the back places where a four-weight line might profitably be wet, and, quarter shares, say in a Pitts Special for those moments where we are feeling a little too well grounded.