I had the good fortune to spend the afternoon with my grandsons Hurricane and Tornado today. I always have a good time and I think they do as well. They never say how much fun they have out right, but that is probably because their mouths are filled with chocolate and candy.
Hurricane is the oldest at just under five years old and it is interesting how much more time he spends on his own. He gets involved in whatever it is with total concentration and it can be a challenge to actually get his attention. I suppose that it is just another step in the process of growing up.
Tornado is coming up on two and keeping track of him is still a full time job. Today we were playing chase me around the house which is where he takes off and I am supposed to know we are playing a game. I am actually faster than him, but he is tricky and devious. We play this until Poppa gets too tired and sits down. Tornado still runs around a couple of times, but he pretty much knows that the old chubby guy is done for now. We like to play with blocks. I build a tower and he knocks it down if it gets higher than 2 blocks. Since I am lying down doing this, we can play this until Tornado gets bored. The other game we played was “ready, set, go!” We would say ready, set, go and take turns falling in the others lap and laughing like idiots. It’s a pretty addictive game, you should try it sometime.
The point that I am working my way towards is that kids can do the same thing over and over and over again without ever seeming to get bored. When my kids were small, we read the “Lorax” by Dr. Seuss every night for years! I really like the “Lorax”, but I have taken a break for about twenty years and am ready to start reading it again. We would watch the same VHS movies until they literally wore out. I recorded the kids favourite TV shows so that they could see them whenever they wanted which was all of the time. I still have a lot of them downstairs, and I am debating if it is worth digitizing them or not. I wonder why kids do the same thing over all of the time. Sometimes it just doesn’t make sense. You wouldn’t see adults doing the same thing over and over and over.
Maybe you would. I have a buddy that has been watching and cheering for the Leafs since he could first focus on that flickering image that came off of the TV. Every time they play, he is there, probably wearing his blue jersey and tearing his hair out. I suppose it is possible he is watching just until they win a Stanley Cup. I wonder if you can get cable in a coffin.
I spent the better part of my life walking along the same streets every day and going up to the same houses day in and day out, month after month, year after year. Whenever I met anyone I would greet them in the same way. “How’s it going? Nice day for a walk.” It was designed to be friendly but not friendly enough to encourage further conversation. I had a deadline. Well, I had an afternoon nap to get to. I still walk most every day and I have two routes that I take. Whenever I meet someone I will usually say “How’s it going? Nice day for a walk.” Who wants to talk to weirdos on the street?
We watch the same TV shows, or certainly shows that are similar and we wonder about those that are hooked on shows that we don’t like. “How could they watch such shit?” I read the same kind of books and even some of the same books over and over. I have read the Lord of The Rings more than 20 times and I read one or two of Jean Auel’s books yearly. Robert Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love” has been a staple for me since I found it as a teenager in a puddle all swollen and missing the back third. By then I was hooked and had to buy my own copy.
I guess in the end we are very much like kids. We know what we like and pretty much stick to it. “The Lorax” animated movie opens in theatres this March and Hurricane told me that we will be going. I’m looking forward to it.
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