SWINGERS

You would think that purchasing a swing set for the grand kids to play on in the back yard would be an easy task: find a set, buy it, put it together, enjoy. 

Nope! We can't even get passed the first part. Too many decisions to make:

• Wood or Metal? 

•   Cheap or Expensive?

•  Simple A-frame or attached Club House or Monkey Bars or both? 

• If metal, what color?
• Where would it go in the yard?
• Which direction would it face?
• What about the over hanging telephone and power lines?

•   What kind of seats should the swing have-bucket or strap?

Not to mention:

• Who would put it together?
• Would the grand kids use it more than once?
• Do we really want to rip out the cloths line to make way for it?
• Is it too dangerous?

Isn't grand parenting wonderful?  No need to worry about the state of the economy or the plight of humanity, just keep your mind focused on the really important issues and keep those grand kids happy.

MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS

My last entry had Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey as one of my top ten favorite children's picture books. 

Early this week I went out to the front of my home to do a little extra watering on a patch of lawn my sprinkling system seems to ignore, I bent over and pulled on the hose which was wound up on a reel. The reel made about a half a revolution and a female duck came rushing out from under the apparatus and nearly scared the beejeebers out of me. 

Earlier in the week my wife had seen both a male and a female mallard duck out on our front lawn but we didn't think much about it. I looked to seewhy the duck would be under my hose reel and discovered eight eggs in a nest she had built. Sincethen she has settled back in and we are expecting ducklings in about 28 days.

Here is a picture of the duck just outside of her nest

NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF AN AIRPLANE!

Necessity is the mother of an airplane!
To prove this I give you the following line of logic: 

• If A = B and B = C then A = C
• If necessity (A) is (B) the mother of invention and
• An airplane  (C) is (B) an invention
• Then necessity is the mother of an airplane

The real question is, who is this father. 
 
 The Brazilians say it was Alberto Santos-Dumont and his 14-bis on October 23, 1906 in France.

But we in the US know it was one of the Wright Brothers on December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk with the Wright Flyer I.

I will concede that Santos-Dumont was the first person to get a heavier than air craft to fly by using wheels and an under carriage, and to get it to lift off the ground under its own power and not by the push of a catapult like the Wrights used. However, his plane was uncontrollable in the air and the Wrights invented the system of three axis control necessary to make controlled flight of heavier than air craft possible, and they did get their version of the manned flying machine into the air almost three years before Santos-Dumont.

There will always be disputes about who was first.
See the list at:
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_flying_machines

AND A CHILD SHALL LEAD THEM

Children are a challenge. They can bring the greatest joy and the deepest sorrow. They also create laughter when you think back on some of the shenanigans they got up to while you weren't looking. Here are a few from my own memory bank.

• Filling the the gas tank of a car parked in front of a neighbor's house with dirt and rocks. Needless to say the driver didn't get very far before there were problems with their engine We had to pay for half the repair.

 

• Pulling up all of the newly planted strawberry plants in the garden to "help Daddy." It ended my career as a gardener.

• Painting the neighbor's house with honey and rotting fruit that had been left in their carport to "ripen."

 

• Shooting off bottle rockets in the back yard and causing a fire in the bushes and trees of the houses next door. Thank goodness the fire department was close by.

• Dumping an entire bottle of expensive after shave down the bathroom drain. I never did replace it.

• Drawing and writing on the bottom of anything they could crawl under: bunk beds, piano benches, end tables, etc. It furthered their artistic development.

 A friend pointed out that once his child dumped chocolate milk into their aquarium. I guess these kind of events are universal happenings when you have children and I haven't even scratched the surface of what grandchildren are capable of doing.