Good morning all:

Weekly wisdom from the city:

”May you live in interesting times.” proverbial Chinese curse

Well, the parties are continuing in city streets and parks; from sea to shining sea. Wouldn’t these folk have more fun at Legoland in Winter Haven, FL which is opening this weekend?

Since I am getting a bit tired hearing and seeing all the hubbub from Tea Party to Flea Party I thought that this week I’d focus on the grandkids.

First let me get started by brewing the morning coffee.

Opa, you have hairs in your ears – When everything about you is new there is a natural wonderment that accompanies such exhilaration. Some examples:

Earlier this week I was talking with Marin and asked him that now that he is in third grade what is his favorite subject. No hesitation; “science, about everything but mostly about space,” came the response. Whereas I grew up in a time when we were expected to use updated variants of an old “field glass”, Marin and his friends have never known a time without a Hubble telescope floating above us.

What is more exciting is that, just this month, the world’s most powerful radio telescope, ALMA, started functioning.  When fully up and running it will have an array of 60 ten ton dishes pointing at the dark outer portions of the universe. Wow, stuff we could barely dream about. By the way, a great video clip is available. The detail ALMA will generate will come just in time for him to analyze; glad I was able to share the details of this new observatory with him.

Viliami is now screeching with excitement. You see, he has discovered that he has mastery of his small world and can reach out and touch and move a rubber ball. Not only that, but at six months of age can roll from front to back and even raise himself on his hands and knees where he rocks forwards and back. Truly he has entered the ‘rock’ and ‘roll’ age and he loves it.

Derek has discovered that while school is good, it is the afterschool activities which are spectacular. Also a third grader he has begun to play basketball and the world of team sports has opened up. However, what has really grabbed his imagination is the after-school session of making a mini-movie using Lego characters. Now, how neat is that! I can’t wait to see it on YouTube (maybe even the big screen).

Dinah is our princess. Every time she visits her entry becomes a stunning, self assembled, flash of color and patterns. It makes little difference to her whether her outfit comes from an upscale store, are hand me downs, or is a special find at a thrift store; as long as it meets Dinah’s sense of complementing her look then it’s great. And then she is so proud. Add to it her relaying to Vai what ‘really’ goes on in pre-school is an extra bonus.

Kellen is learning that there is a world away from just his big brother. He can actually ‘hang’ with his other Kindergarten buds. This also means that at the same time you are exploring a broader world such as T-ball and Marshal Arts—maybe even getting a white-belt by spring. He proudly informed the rest of the family that by the end of this session he would break a board!

Vaioleti is starting pre-school and did her ‘intro’ session earlier this week. Sitting in a circle the teacher asked the other students why they had to cross their legs. Hands flew into the air and answers were given, one by one, as each hand was recognized. After a couple of responses the answer the teacher was looking for was offered; “so we don’t kick and cause other kids to trip.”

Vai had been observing and thought that maybe she too would raise her hand. Then was stunned when the teacher recognized her and said; “yes Vai, do you have something to say?”

A somewhat taken aback Vai popped out the first thing to come to mind; “I like monkeys.”

It took a few minutes for the teacher to move the class away from the ensuing monkey discussion.

A day or two later I wanted to hear the story from Vai herself and asked how school had gone. Looking at me she changed to a much more interesting topic; “Opa, why do you have hairs in your ears?”

Animal Planet – stopping by for a few minutes after school it was Marin who discovered a Black and Yellow Argiope spider weaving its orb shaped web on the garage door. Marcia thought it better not to hang on a door and moved the spider and its web to a nearby trellis.

Later that evening it was happily eating some little insect on a new web. By morning it had moved on. Lucky that I took a picture when I did.

Closing – This past week there were Birthday wishes to Paul and to Lori. And good wishes to Tevita as he starts his new job.

Make it a great week everyone.

Cheers,
Dirk