Wandering Wahls

It was a great day to be associated with the military yesterday. We took the kids out of school and attended the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation ceremony. This year, the President was speaking. Therefore, we felt it was worthwhile for the kids to have an opportunity to see the President of the United States speak, especially in a fairly intimate setting (or at least the most intimate we’ll ever get).

Our kids’ schools and teachers were more than willing to work with us. Joe, our freshman at St. Mary’s High School in Colorado Springs (is that a gratuitous plug or what?), was the primary concern since he was in the midst of Finals. However, one teacher kindly agreed to come in for him on a different day at 6:30am and another agreed to stay late after the normally scheduled exams. That was really nice of them. I was also very glad they appreciated the opportunity we had to see the President.

Even if one disagrees with a President, seeing him (or her) is a special moment.

Now, if you haven’t seen a President officiating at an Academy graduation, let me give you a brief description because it is a great ceremony and a memorable event to attend.

First came the goose bump-inducing entrance of the cadets as they slowly marched in sync to their seats. Everyone watched in awe as they made their way into the stadium. Then, after the march, seeing them seated in a sea of white hats was very inspirational – especially knowing what they went through for 4 years, and knowing what they may be about to go through.

Next, President Obama strolled to the stage – no Secret Service agents (I won’t touch on any jokes here): just the President walking a few hundred feet to the stage, waving to everyone, smiling, and saluting the cadets (I won’t touch on the quality of the salute either). He presented a great picture of our President.

I thought he gave a good speech. It was personable, humorous, and he had a sincere interest in the cadets. More impressive though was that he stood for a couple of hours and shook the hands of each cadet. The cadets approached from both sides of the stage so he was turning back and forth on his heels every couple of minutes. He also took an extended moment with each cadet to obviously say something to him or her, and then give them a nice, personal handshake and slap on the shoulder.

As a side story about the greetings, a cadet we quasi-sponsored, Kelly Bieber, was one of the graduates. When she met the President, he asked her how she was feeling. She told us all she could say was: “Wow.” She then thanked the President for being there, and he replied that she was due the thank you for serving the country. Actually, the most impressive thing about President Obama’s performance was his bladder control. He stayed up there for 2 hours shaking hands and chatting with 1,073 cadets. Heck, I went the restroom twice during this time, and he never left the stage!

Finally, the Thunderbirds flew over as the cadets tossed their hats into the air as freshly minted officers – great timing!

However, the hat throwing did leas to the only disappointment of the day. The cadets put $20.12 and a note into their hats in preparation for throwing the hats into the air. The Academy then allows kids ages 7-10 to come down to the field and pick up only 1 hat each (explained clearly in an announcement and notices in the program and ceremony website). A great idea, right?

My youngest boy Sam excitedly went down but came back with only an empty hat and a sad face. It turns out that older kids snuck in, trampled over the little kids, took money from 4 to 5 hats, and then tossed the empty hats back for the little kids (I was witnessing all of this in disbelief from the stands).

As a parent I was aghast at these kids’ behavior – what are they taught at home?! One has to wonder too about the parents who knowingly allowed their overage kids to go on the field in the first place (and if they said anything when their kids told them they picked up five $20 bills).

What is really disappointing though is that this behavior is going on at a ceremony celebrating the graduation of a sibling, relative or friend from a school where honor and adherence to rules is upheld so stringently. Yet, here are kids breaking an honor code while the cadets are Academy are providing young kids such a fun opportunity.

It was very tough to see Sam’s sad face as he described being run over and finding only empty hats. But overall, it was a great day: Sam did get a hat, my kids got inspired (Joe is even more intent on attending the Academy now), and we all got to see the President.

Off we go into the wild blue yonder…

Good Friday and Easter weekend have taken on new meaning to us. Of course, as Catholics, we still appreciate the meaning of Easter and the idea of long church services. But now that we have added Marcus (our Weimaraner and Lab mix) as part of our extended family, he has been trying to ensure we remember him on this holy weekend.

It was a year ago that he unknowingly ate a rag and walked off to the scrub oak in our backyard. Luckily Mary Claire noticed what he was doing and we took him to the Doggie ER. A house payment later (after x-rays, medicine, and a weekend overnight stay) we had him back, along with the sock he ate.

Forward to Easter weekend 2012, and give Marcus credit for remembering this special time of year.

On Saturday we discovered 30 protein and energy bars missing from their container. The only evidence we had of the perpetrator was a muddy paw print on the ledge where we stored the items. So, another Easter weekend – another call to the doggie ER.

They urged us to bring him in because of the toxicity of chocolate and the higher rates for weekend care (I added that last part). The vet did find a wrapper and so they kept him overnight and made sure he was comfortable (we really didn’t want him to be comfortable, we wanted Marcus to feel a little of the pain of his escapade).

Fortunately though, after the last house payment to the vet, we bought insurance. We’ll be covered this time. We’re only out the cost of 30 protein and energy bars. Which in itself is kind of ironic. We feed Marcus only 2 times a day or else his weight will balloon. The protein bars were meant to add weight, but not to Marcus – Joe needs them. He has spurted 6 inches in a year and his weight is far behind. We are giving him protein bars so he can add some weight and some muscle with his track and field training.

I can only wait for next Easter to see what he brings us then.

It’s officially spring today, but I’m inside by the fire clutching a hot cup of coffee trying to stay warm.  The wind is howling outside—last night our patio table blew over and we have thousands of glass shards on the deck and grass. I was browsing through Better Homes and Gardens only getting depressed looking at beautiful spring gardens and families out walking on a spring day.

I am learning that spring in Colorado is a little different.  This is the season of wind, wind, snow, and more wind here. At 7,300 feet, we can’t grow beautiful spring gardens—or at least I can’t!

I probably have done a little too much complaining because Tom asked me if I’ll ever forgive him for choosing Colorado over California! So I think I need to focus on the “subtle” signs of spring here:

• Rocky Mountain snow is still plentiful and so much fun to ski on!
• The birds don’t realize we don’t have Better Homes and Gardens styled gardens—they are singing and enjoying my bird feeder when they don’t get blown off of it (or the feeder isn’t blown off).
• The bears are waking up! Even though I know they can be dangerous, my family would really like to see one visit our property.
• The season of Lent is here, and Easter is just around the corner.  The promise of hope and new life is what it is all about, and I’ll rejoice in that even without tulips.

For us, this is truly the season of shopping. In addition to Christmas, we have two kids with birthdays in late December (Joe turns 15 and Anna 13).

Given this theme, I got a kick out of reading about Ikea shopping experiences. In their stores in Australia, there are special areas called “Manland.” These are similar to their “Smallland” areas except the “Manland” areas are for husbands instead of kids.

Men get to play foosball, video games, watch movies, etc. while their wives shop. The funny thing about this idea is that the wives are given beepers to remind them that they have men in “Manland” – can you imagine at closing time if a husband is the only one left and the attendants have to console him (“It’s okay, you’re wife just forgot, she’ll be back – have another tissue.”).

In China, families have been known to take over the rooms where Ikea sets up a “model” room display – they lie in the bed, sit at the desk (the perfect place to get those late holiday cards completed), and watch TV. Regarding the last item, aren’t those fake TVs? No wonder these people linger in the rooms, they’re waiting for the TV to warm up.

Why do I bring up Ikea? Well, in these few rushed days before Christmas, I thought I’d give my readers some light hearted stories as the two of you run around doing your Christmas shopping (I’m a L in shirts and XL in sweaters by the way).

This year though, I have surprisingly found that the shopping is not so rushed – few crowds, easy parking. It does help though that I’m using Amazon. But even with venturing out to the malls, the experience has been acceptable. I did notice this year that since we’re in a military-friendly area, the phrase I’ve been saying most often is not “Merry Christmas” but “Do you offer a military discount?”

The retailers in Colorado Springs show a lot of love to the military, which is nice for military members, but bad for AAFES.

So then, have a merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a great New Year! Enjoy the season – it is a special time of the year. And don’t forget to step outside around midnight on Christmas Eve to look at the sky, imagine that the lights of the plane you see are actually Santa’s sleigh, and enjoy the special tranquility.

We started early for Christmas decorations — at least for us it’s early. I dropped Joe off at a local high school for a forensics tournament Saturday (it was called debate when I went to high school). It was a horrible morning with a lot of tall snowdrifts in our yard, temps in the teens, and the wind howling. There was even the chance that the tournament might be canceled.

Naturally then, after dropping him off, I decided to buy a Christmas tree at Home Depot. I figured: no crowds and a nice warm warehouse to shop inside. I was right about one thing – there was no one there: who goes out at 7am in this weather? I was wrong about one thing too – the warm building: nobody told me that Home Depot sold their trees in the outdoor Garden Center.

After 45 minutes of blissful shopping in blizzard conditions without gloves or a hat, we had a tree and could begin enjoying the Christmas joys. Let me describe these:

• Shopping at Home Depot for Christmas trees in 15 degree weather with blizzard conditions
• Frozen ears and hands
• One 9 ft/90 lb tree loaded onto the top of my vehicle in 15 degree weather with blizzard conditions without gloves or a hat
• One 9 ft/90 lb tree knocked off the top of my vehicle by driving into my garage and forgetting I have a tree on my vehicle
• Learning an easy way to take a 9 ft/90 lb tree off of my vehicle (see above for instructions)
• Buying, returning, or borrowing 3 tree stands to find one that could hold a 9 ft/90 lb tree
• 6 tipped over tree incidents
• 1 tree stand screwed into a homemade tree stand base
• Carrying 2 large wooden planks from the barn to the garage in 3 ft of snow and sawing them into a homemade tree stand base in blizzard conditions (the sweet combination of snow and sawdust in the air – it must be Christmas)
• 1 beautiful really big Christmas tree standing tall and secure, ready to be decorated by the family
• 1 beautiful but puny 5 ft Christmas tree decorated by Mary Claire
• Many egg nogs

There may be a trend developing with that next to last item. Mary Claire recently left our family Facebook page to have her own account, and now she wants her own Christmas tree. I’m still contemplating these actions.

Mary Claire and I have always tried to put a little culture into our children’s lives, be it John Wayne westerns or walking through the Louvre. When we were stationed at Landstuhl, Germany, we were fortunate enough to get to London. While there, we took the kids to see two plays, Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In addition to being one of our kid’s more expensive naps (Anna fell asleep after intermission during Mary Poppins), it was a great experience to get dressed up, have some local British cuisine for dinner (Indian curry), and then hit the theatre district.

Now that we’re in the states, we thought it would be fun to see a play here and see if U.S. theatre seats were just as comfy for naps. Anna read “To Kill a Mockingbird” over the summer and it happened that the Denver Center for the Performing Arts was offering this play for as part of their Fall schedule. In addition to the book, we’ve all liked the movie; so we made a day of it and went up for a Saturday matinee.

First, we took a backstage tour. This is better described as a “multiple backstage tour” because the Denver Center is made up of numerous venues hosting local productions, ballet, opera, Broadway plays, and theatre in the round. Afterward, we strolled the Denver streets, had a nice lunch, and then went back for the play. The performance was phenomenal, and closely followed the book. All actors were flawless, and the actor playing Atticus was spot-on in recreating Gregory Peck’s role from the movie, from the mannerism to his looks.

For me though, the most exciting part of our theatre experience was seeing our kids enthralled by the play and the story. The performance did not slack off one bit in terms of racially tinged language, the message, or the sadness of the story. Plus, the atmosphere of the theatre, the proximity to the actors, and the element of watching live acting all created an element of excitement that Netflix can’t offer.

Even Sam, our 9 year-old, followed the whole play intently – and without any electronic wizardry or effects; just plot and character development – go figure.

My wife and I are now looking for the next event we can take the kids to at DCPA (hey, Bill Cosby is coming – okay, I know it’s not a play, but what better comedic entertainment exists for a whole family, and his fatherhood stories could have been mine). For all parents who are searching for something to do with the kids, I strongly recommend finding a local stage play for your family to attend. The only downside you might find though, like I did, is the thought that: “my kids could be up there doing that part!”

Photo via Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Have you had this children-related dilemma: you want time with them?

No, we haven’t gone off the deep end. Mary Claire and I keep desiring a weekend with the kids. Since the schools have started (Joe is at high school and Anna and Sam are at middle school), the weeknights are all taken with cross-country, soccer, Scouts, and homework. So, we keep waiting for the weekend to do something as a family.

However, MC and I come up with an idea for an upcoming weekend – but then the dreaded activity-creep slithers its way into someone’s schedule and our plans go out the window. The activity-creep has run the gamut: forgotten scouting events (ok, that’s my fault); rescheduled soccer games; Student Senate dance cleanups (is this what Joe got elected to do?); Mary Claire doing nursing shifts, and required weekend cross-country runs.

As you can see, the problem is that we can’t have relaxing family weekend with the kids (and yes, it is possible to consider relaxing and kids in the same phrase – we like our kids). Also, we bought the cozy little Four Winds Class C RV for weekend trips and these activities have not cooperated with our intent to put the RV on the road.

Drastic action was needed to get the kids away. So, to circumvent the kids’ activity conflicts and implement our desires, Mary Claire and I hatched a plan: we’d kidnap the kids! We didn’t use guns, ropes, the lure of Water World, or the techniques of a retired special-forces friend. Instead, we simply found a weekend a few weeks out that was free, we blocked it, and we just told the kids we were going away. We set up plans on where to go and brought up the topic as a done deal – no “hopefully,” or “if everything works” wishy-washy type of phrasing. It was presented as a done deal (we felt so bold).

So what happened? It worked! Events came up, but we had to say no because we had plans made. Saturday came and we loaded up the RV and headed to the front range of the Rockies to do a little hot springing among the changing colors of the Aspens.

But, more on the trip later – the purpose here is to provide parents an idea on how to escape the dreaded activity-creep and have a family outing once in a while.

Oh, one last note: Congratulations to Air Force for their victory over Navy! Sorry the Navy QB had to blame the refs for noticing his taunting, but one shouldn’t behave in that manner.

Now: onto the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy. Oh, that’s right; Army still plays football – one more victory to go then.

Joe went to Homecoming this Saturday – and had the three D’s: dinner, date and dance (they were going as friends, but even so, I’m just not ready for this yet).

He’s 14 so I had to drive, which worked well with my wanting to check out who this girl was. The evening was good. Joe had a nice time, he didn’t smell of cigarette smoke, and I got him home before midnight.

Then came the next run. While the two of us ate leftover Chicken Lettuce Wraps from Pei Wei the phone rang. I half expected it to be a parent wondering if I took their kid home from the dance (with 12 kids having arranged the evening, the evening had had a few driving logistic “problems”). Instead, it was my dad’s retirement community telling me that he would be at the ER in about 10 minutes.

I drove back into Colorado Springs to the ER. My dad had woken with blurred vision in his good eye and there was a worry of a detached retina. Fortunately though, he had seemingly only burst a blood vessel. After an hour, my dad was released, but with a referral. The ER doc said he couldn’t get a hold of my dad’s ophthalmologist but contacted one of his “associates” who my dad should call in the morning for a follow up.

The whole follow up cements my appreciation for our military health care system – even if just for the efficiency and lack of a profit motive. Far from going to an “associate” who had access to my dad’s records and billing info, the referral was to a doc who had a contract with the hospital.

Then, at his office, we went through the whole process of completing umpteen pages of essentially the same information (why is it docs can have the most updated equipment but can’t figure out a digital option to bypass filling out repetitive info on various forms). Then, because he didn’t have my dad’s records, we went through time explaining to the doc my dad’s history with this problem.

I’m the first to admit that no system is perfect. But, I’m more than happy with the military medical system – the records access providers have in the military health system and the time that it saves patients keeps me happily coming back again and again. If we could replicate the military health system in the civilian sector, we’d get rid of a lot of wasted time and expense (not to mention trees). I have to add that I also enjoy having all providers in one building. Okay, I’ll add the quality of the providers too.

We are at the tail end of our summer vacation. We have been spending a glorious week exploring Grand Teton National Park. So far, wildlife sightings have included a black bear (too close for my comfort, as I was taking a peaceful stroll along Leigh Lake by myself!), black tailed deer, a bald eagle, and an osprey. The only unwelcome wildlife are the mosquitos, which are quite healthy this year. They don’t seem to mind citronella or “Off”, and we’ve escalated the percentage of DEET in every bottle we’ve bought this week. But if that’s the price to pay for this beautiful area, I can live with a few bug bites.

Yesterday we had to check out of Colter Bay RV Park inside the national park, as they were full and our reservations had ended. We had reserved a spot only 20 miles up the road at Flagg Ranch RV Park. This is on the north end of Grand Teton NP, and just a few miles south of Yellowstone NP.

We checked in, set up camp, then set out on a bike ride along the Snake River. A few miles down a dirt road we discovered a primitive campground (for those non-campers this means no electricity, no water, and no sewage – or “real camping” to some). There were only 4 simple campsites, with a picnic table, fire pit, and a chemical toilet.

However, the view was unbelievable. We sat along the edge of the Snake River, admiring the mountains and the Bald Eagle perched atop a tree. Tom thought this was a much better place to camp for the night. Although we had already paid for 2 nights at Flagg Ranch (non-refundable by the way), this campsite was free. So the kids and I staked out our spot while Tom biked back to the RV to pack up and move.

An hour later we were swimming in the Snake, enjoying the activities of our Bald Eagle friend, and taking in the peacefulness and quiet that only comes with finding these “primitive” camp sites.

Happy hour came, and I sipped Chardonnay with my toes in the river. I was a bit startled when I almost put down my plastic wine glass on a pile of some sort of animal droppings…I was told by one of my family scat experts, “Moose scat, Mom!”

Speaking about transitioning to raising kids in the States, one of our forays into the youth summer camp transition is Joe’s weeklong Boy Scout camp. For the trip, his troop chose to go to a Scout camp in the Tetons, east of Driggs, Idaho and just on the Wyoming border.

Two things have come to mind from this trip. First, we, as a family, took the opportunity of having to deliver Joe to Scout camp to take out the RV and see one of America’s greatest sites, Grand Teton National Park (I’m writing this from their RV park).

There are a lot of great things about America, but the one truly exceptional item is our National Park system. I don’t have the space to fully describe all of the parks and what they have to offer, but from national monuments to national trails to national parks, one can cover our country’s wildlife, geography, history, and culture – if you’re thinking of what to do on a holiday, go to nps.gov. They have a state-by-state map of all parks!

Within the National Park system, I think Grand Teton National Park is at the top of the list. Okay, you Acadia, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Everglade fans relax – we can all have a favorite. But, for myself, I can never get over how majestic the Tetons look towering over the green pastures and glacial lakes.

The second “thing” (my mother would be all over me for my lack of creative wording) is the Boy Scouts. I was never a Boy Scout, and living overseas did not afford the chance to get the boys into scouting. So, when we came back to the states, the Boy Scouts weren’t really on my personal GPS (they don’t call it TomTom for nothing – my name is Tom by the way). Mary Claire, though, was a Girl Scout so she was the one who got Joe into Boy Scouts and Sam into Cub Scouts (and me into being Assistant Scout Master – I’m still trying to figure out how she did that).

I am very happy she put our kids into this ritual of American youth. Not only does it give me an excuse to shop at REI; but Joe has matured and become independent as a result of learning how to backpack overnight, camp, survive in the wilderness, start a fire, use a knife, make smores, etc. He had already developed this interest in outdoors as a result of our trips to 50+ national parks on our RV trip (and his interest in the Bear Grylls’ survival shows – Joe once made me pine needle tea, it wasn’t too bad). So, his time in the Scouts is really helping him take his interest to a higher level.

Joe’s scouting has a couple of side benefits as well. First, I never knew how highly employers and colleges regarded achieving Eagle Scout status. Second though, instead of him spending his money on the latest fashions, he’d rather buy a new knife – and I’m okay with that.