So where have we been?

Have we fallen off the side of the Earth? (long-live the flat earth society!)  Did a herd of buffalo’s trample our computers into teeny tiny bits?  Did I just get lazy and say forget this whole blogging thing?

Nope.  None of the above.  We undertook a HUGE project, that looking back was insane, looking forward, totally worth it.  We basically gutted our whole house, put on an addition, and re-did just about everything inside.  Yes, I realize that I should probably have blogged all about the experience along the way.  Let me tell you something:  when you work a full day, then go home and work another 4-8 hours on your house, you’re way too tired to bother blogging.

So let’s play catch-up shall we?

Here’s what we started with:

this is what we were doing to the house:

This is how we did it:

Demo!

The bathroom and kitchen became the kitchen, the old master bedroom became the kids bath and laundry room.

Framing and roof trusses:

Out with the old, in with the new:

Roof is on:

flooring starts to go in:

siding is up:

I install the kitchen:

drawers and doors:

counters

almost ready for the sink:

now with more sink!

Were there trials and tribulations along the way?  You betcha.  Our electrician was a half-wit.  Our builder was 6 weeks past his deadline.  The floors in the kitchen didn’t match up to the hall, meaning I had to put in a threshold.

Oh, and some drunk did this to my car:

It’s okay, ’cause now I drive this:

Okay, if you’ve stayed with me this long, here comes the cool stuff (to me).

We’re wrapping our kitchen bar 1/2 wall in this:

So what is it you ask?  It’s 150 year old flooring from an old mill.  It’s beautiful, and so totally cool.

In the master bedroom we’re doing wainscoting from 100 year old flooring we got from The Bosses great-aunts house:

So that’s about where we’re at.  After almost a year of cleaning, renovations, building, and cursing our failed electrician, we’re back in business.

 

For Jonah…

… And the millions of other kids who are bullied and abused every day.

For those of you not in the know, Jonah is a kid who has been bullied for years.  This is his story:

Like Jonah, I was tortured / bullied throughout middle school. Not because I was any different from anyone else in my school. Not because I was gay (although it was certainly said often enough). Not because I was anything. I was a Nothing. And Nothings get teased, picked on, poked, prodded, laughed at, and kicked to the curb on a regular basis. We Nothings are the kids who are beneath “regular” members of society. We are made to feel like we deserve the treatment we are getting.  There were plenty of times when I thought about ending it all.  Fortunately for me, I had a few great friends who got through to me and convinced me that things would get better.

Even being convinced that things would get better didn’t cure things.  For me, things didn’t get better until someone took things too far. After 2 and a half years of being bullied verbally, mentally, and emotionally, they got physical. I was pushed from behind in the locker room after gym class. I turned around and started swinging. I swung at the first kid standing behind me. A kid I easily out weighed by 20 pounds. I punched him, hit him in the chest. He punched me back. Several punches were exchanged, then I took a step back and kicked him. I put every bit of anger I had into that kick. I lifted him off the ground (not really surprising as I could leg press 500 pounds when I was 14). Yes, I got in trouble. Yes, it was worth it. Suddenly, I wasn’t a Nothing anymore. I was a Something. I’m not sure if I liked what I had become, however, I did like that I was FINALLY left alone.

Please note: I’m not trying to trivialize what is happening to Jonah.  What I am getting at is, that sometimes standing up for yourself is what it takes. Sometimes going with the status quo isn’t enough. Sometimes action is required. I’m not saying that Jonah should take up fighting. Something has to be done for that poor kid and the millions who are bullied who don’t speak out.

I know there are a lot of other videos out there saying he faked the video.  So what.  If that kid was acting, then he is taking an important step to bring the effects of bullying into the mainstream.  People need to see what bullying does to kids.

How can you help?  Simple.  If you see someone being bullied, put a stop to it.  Go to that bullied kid and introduce yourself.  Be their friend.  Be there for them.  Honestly, what can it hurt?  Are you afraid that you will be bullied as well?  I know if ONE, just one of the kids who stood by had stood up to the bullies, I would have felt amazing.  They say that two wrongs don’t make a right.  Standing by while someone is bullied is just as wrong as being a bully.  Stand up to bullying and put a stop to it.

Sort of proud…

I think we’ve been over this before:  I’m a horrible person.  H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E.

Last week was parent-teacher conferences for Thing 1.  She’s in middle school now, so I guess they’re sort of a big deal…  So The Boss and I go to the conference (leaving Thing 1 at a soccer game with some friends/family) to meet and talk with her teachers.  Of course The Boss works in the school, so she already knows everyone.  Me?  Not so much.  On the way The Boss tells me that Thing 1 told someone in band that she was afraid she was failing Social Studies.  Well turns out, she was right.  She got an A-.  For reference, see the first 2-3 seconds here:

Her teacher said she was doing great, and was an awesome kid to have in her class.  All good things.  Whew!  To be fair, the Social Studies curriculum is very difficult and she has one of the top grades in her class.

We go around to most of her other teachers and as it turns out in her core subjects she is a straight A student.  The important (to me) classes:  math and science she has a 95 and a 98 respectively.  Woot!  I am so proud of my little girl for really blossoming this year and for doing so well.  Of course I’m a cynical pain-in-the-butt and can’t ever actually say that I’m proud of her without first poking fun and/or making a joke of things.

Back to the soccer game we go.

I walk right up to her majesty, Thing 1, and beckon her to come see me.

“What!?!”

“Come. Here.”

“What?!?”

“I. SAID. COME. HERE.”  At this point her friends have shocked looks on their faces.

She gets up and walks the couple of steps to me “What?”

“Why are you failing Social Studies?!?”  Her friends jaws drop to the bottom of the bleachers

“WHAT!?!”

“You heard me:  WHY ARE YOU FAILING SOCIAL STUDIES?!?”  Yes, I did raise my voice a bit.

A terrified 12 year old responds:  ”Daddy, I’msosorryit’sreallyhardandI’mdoingmybest,honestlyit’shardandI’mdoingtheverybestIcan!!!!!”

“A 92 is unacceptable!  How could you only get an A-!”  A smile ghosts across her face

“Daddy!”  Her friends, relieved, bust out laughing.  ”That was the best thing I’ve ever seen” – Thing 1′s friend

I get a hug and go back to my seat.  Later, I told her the rest of her grades and how proud of her I was/am.

This weekend, I learned some things

That’s right.  Things.  Many, many things.  Yes, I will of course tell you all about them.  Let me build this up will you?

Now, where was I?  Ah, yes.  Things.  So in order of their happening, here are the things I learned this weekend:

1.  When my father-in-law and his brother are together eating at Wind Tiki, hilarity ensues.  My father-in-law is usually a pretty funny guy.  Get his brother and a few Mai Tai’s in them and he becomes hilarious.  I think I may have peed my pants.  Just a little.

2.  Installing a new front door is not too difficult.  Removing the old door prior to installing the new?  Not. Fun.  At least I remembered to remove the old one before installing the new one….

3.  Weddings can actually be fun.  After spending the entire morning, and some of the afternoon installing a door, the last thing I wanted to do was go to a wedding that we had RSVP’d to 6 months ago and I had completely forgotten about.  I didn’t even remember what I had put down for my dinner…  Turns out I had the steak.  And what a steak.  Perfectly cooked (rare thank you very much), with garlic mashed potatoes (with a bit of skin in there for good measure and the potatoes actually mashed not whipped).  A couple of Jerry Collins and a beer to round things off, and I was very content.  Getting to spend time with The Bosses family was awesome.  They are good people.  We should get together more often.  I’m not sure if my sides can handle it though.  I was laughing way too much.

4.  This may be the most important lesson I learned this weekend:  CHECK THE WATER DEPTH PRIOR TO DOING AN OTTER SLIDE WITH YOUR KAYAK.  Knowing me, I will have completely forgotten this the next time I try it.  Rather than sliding gracefully into the water and popping back up without getting wet, I torpedo’d.

Instead of doing this:

I did more like this:

Did any of the people I was with happen to get a picture, or even more funny a video?  No.  Of course not.  I guess I really will have to try it again….

Why can’t I find work that…

… would allow me to indulge in my hobbies 90% of the time?

How wrong is it that all I want to do is go fly fishing, take photos, wakeboard, and snowmobile?  Anyone got any ideas about what sort of jobs would allow me to take part in those activities on a regular basis?  Preferably while getting paid…  I’m not asking for much in the way of payment, either.  Just enough to pay the bills, put food on the table, and gas in the boat/car/snowmobile.  Is that too much to ask, really?

Okay, enough whining.  Back to reality.

Things have been insanely busy around our house.  I guess it’s that time of year.  A new school year has started.  That means the Boss is back to work, Thing 1 and 2 are back in school, and I’m finally able to get some peace and quiet before going to work.  Right?  Wrong.  Stupid school changed the start times of the middle and elementary schools.  Big deal you may say, but I say it is a big deal.  That means that the Boss and Thing 1 leave early, leaving me to bring Thing 2 to school on my way to work. (Man, I’m being SUCH a whiner today)  Eh, it’s not all bad.  Thing 2 is pretty low-key and usually is ready to go about 10 minutes before Thing 1 is (and she leaves an hour before we do…).  He pretty much leaves me alone to read the news, check my email, etc.

In addition to bringing Thing 2 to school every day I’m also coaching his soccer team.  For the past 5 seasons I’ve been coaching Thing 1′s team.  She decided to try out for the middle school team (and made the team).  It’s a nice change of pace coaching boys rather than girls.  There is no gossiping, no stupid girl fights, etc.  They just get right down to business.  They are there for one purpose:  to play soccer.  They play soccer quite well.  Our first game last Saturday our boys won 7-1.

I got nothing so here’s some photos I’ve taken

Yeah, that’s right, I’ve got nothing.  Nothing to write about.  I could write about the aftermath of “Hurricane” Irene, but no one wants to hear about having to pick some twigs off the ground because the “Hurricane” was a disappointment at my house (and I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who were injured, or had actual losses from the hurricane).  So, here are some of my photos for you to look at.  With your eyes.

I do shoot some in color also

Hope you enjoy my photos.  If you feel inclined to purchase a print of any of these please contact me:  erumsey@gmail dot com.  How’s that for a plug?  Pretty good, right?

 

 

 

Dedicated to Mr. B

This is in response to a comment I made in regards to today’s blog post at Lessons from Teachers and Twits.

I wrote that I had a teacher who pushed me to do my best, and challenged me to go above and beyond.  I also wrote that I had an awesome teacher who let me cheat on my final in freshman English.  I was asked to provide some details, so here they are:

My freshman year of high school I had quite possibly the best English teacher I’ve ever had.  Mr. B wasn’t a great teacher, inspiring me to write, to read, or to actually learn the material.  He was a good teacher.  He was a great drama teacher, a great director of plays, and an all around great guy.  I read some awesome books in his class, and did learn quite a bit, mostly about life rather than about English.  Sure we had to read a bunch, write papers, etc.  I think that’s the basic requirement of English class.  We also had vocabulary tests.  He would give us a list of words from some stupid vocab book and require us to learn each definition and how to use the words in a sentence.  Now, my vocabulary was pretty darn good, but HAVING to learn vocabulary words is BOOOOOOORING!  I hated that part of class.  Let me read a book of my choosing and write a paper on it, I can do all day long.  Make me actually have to learn new words?  Fugetaboutit.

So let’s skip forward to the final.  It’s one of the last days of school and I’m about to head off to camp to work for the summer.  I have visions of white water rafting, waterskiing, boating, etc in my head, not some stupid English test.  Our final consisted of 50 vocabulary words which we had to define and use in a sentence and a couple of essay questions.  What. A. Bore.  At the beginning of the test he asked that we all pass our vocab books up to the front of the class where he would collect them.  My best friend (who of course I sat next to) kept his.  I don’t know why, I don’t think he needed to cheat on this stupid test.  As I recall, he had great grades in English (compared to my solid B-).  I saw the book sitting there between the two of us and grabbed it.  I lift it up, show it to Mr. B, and proceed to open it and copy word-for-word each and every definition / sentence for each word on our final.  He looks up when I show him the book, shrugs, and goes back to doing whatever it is that English teachers do when a test is going on.  As I finish, I pass the book to my bud who does the exact same thing as I did.

Years later, when I was a tutor for an alternative education classroom, Mr. B was teaching English.  I sat in our office with the teacher grading math or something like that when Mr. B walks in and shuts the door.  We’re all looking out at our students, some of whom are cheating.  ”Look at that!”  Mr. B exclaims.  ”Those kids are blatantly cheating!  Eric, did you ever cheat in high school?”  ”Yeah.  In your class for the final and in Biology.”  ”WHAT!  What do you mean?”  So I refresh his memory about how I had cheated on the vocab portion of the final.  ”Oh.  Yeah…  I guess I just didn’t care about what the two of you did.”

Here’s to you Mr. B.  For not caring what I did, and allowing me to pass your final with flying colors.  Any bets on how long before my mom calls to yell at me for something that happened 16 years ago?