This is a real winter. 5°F outside, and beautiful, fluffy snow falling intermittently every couple of days.
You know I rarely watch movies, but those I have seen I remember pretty well. There's a line that I like from the 1989 movie Parenthood, something like "You need a license to get a dog, but anybody can be a parent." A child does not come with a users manual. You are on your own.
Zoriana was all smiles as her ride dropped her off at the corner after kindergarten yesterday. She immediately asked, in a sort of peremptory manner, for me to buy her something sweet at the store across the street. That tactic has worked once before. My bad! It should have been never.
I said "No!" Zoriana asked why. She asks that question all the time when things go against her. "Because no!" She knows that's the answer. I don't owe her an explanation.
She asked four more times, each time more stridently, and then started howling. She howled all the way home. She hung onto my hand as we walked. When she started to lag, I simply let go and she howled all the louder, running to catch up. I'm easy to catch.
Grandmother asked why she was crying when we got home. It only took about three sentences to explain it to her complete satisfaction. That's how Zoriana is.
Everybody loved the pizza I cooked for dinner. We used grandmother's adzhika sauce since I didn't have any tomato sauce in the freezer. I don't know what goes in hers, but the recipe I find on the Internet includes zucchini, carrots, bell pepper, garlic, tomatoes, chili pepper, sugar, salt and oil. It isn't cooked – the dominant flavors are raw garlic, chili peppers and tomatoes. It was a new take, and the whole pizza disappeared quickly. Nice to flatter Grandma like that.
Zoriana was in a good mood. I sliced the pizza and she got first pick among the slices. She likes that kind of privilege.
After dinner Eddie wanted to read Calvin and Hobbes, but I had already suggested double six dominoes to Zoriana. Naturally, that's what she wanted to do. The compromise was that Eddie would join us for three games of dominoes and then we would read.
Since Zoriana is still learning, even to recognize the number of spots on the dominoes, we played face up so that I could explain my moves and Eddie and I could make suggestions to Zoriana. We played three games in half an hour, each of us winning one, and Zoriana was getting the hang of it a little bit more each time.
Daddy is the official, designated demilitarized zone when we read. Zoriana on one side and Eddie on the other, and no hostilities crossing the DMZ. This rule pretty much worked, although Eddie earned a reprimand by snaking an arm across and poking his sister. We read about 10 pages, a total of 30 strips, and it was time for Zoriana to go to bed.
Zoriana always wants to be read to. Eddie joined us in bed, as I made it clear that Zoriana got to pick the books. DMZ rules still applied. The first book was Weisst du eigentlich, wie lieb ich dich hat? It is the translation of what the Internet assures me is an international classic entitled "Guess how much I love you?" about a daddy hare and his little one. The kids and I love the story, which gets told differently every time due to idiosyncrasies of translation. Next came our "Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooey." A short book about Geraldine the Giraffe that Eddie and I find totally stupid, but Zoriana demands every night. Thank goodness it's short. Then one we all like, an update of Rudyard Kipling's How the Camel got his Hump. Eddie went to bed and Zoriana went to sleep.
This morning Oksana had a doctors appointment, so getting Zoriana out the door was my job alone. Men do things differently. I often see women arguing endlessly with recalcitrant children. What other tool do they have? I think physical strength is an immeasurable benefit. Equally important is the resolve simply not to give in.
Zoriana dawdled, argued and fought as she does most mornings. Oksana had insisted she wear a turtleneck, and given the weather I was absolutely in agreement. After she had resisted putting it on for five minutes, I simply treated her like a baby and started to do so myself, slipping it over her head as she fought. At that point we compromised that she would get her arms in the sleeves herself, which she did, albeit rather slowly. The next fight was her snow pants. Then her sweater. Then her snow hat. At this point she was getting tired of resisting and she actually put her coat and mittens on herself and let me help her with her boots.
Somewhat exhausted, we got to the door right on time at 8:40. I offered to pull her up to the corner on her sled, which she readily accepted. As part of the deal, she was eating a slice of bread spread with butter and jam that I had prepared in advance as a bribe to get her out the door. She ate it happily on the sled. Even though Oksana was not there to remind me, I didn't forget her backpack. Sometimes even a blind pig finds an acorn.
We got to the corner without incident. I left the sled on our side of the street as we walked across to wait for her ride. Zoriana asked if she could take her sled, and I went across and fetched it, almost forgetting again to put the backpack in the car. That was our morning.
These are the little things that make a life. The things that God in his wisdom helps us forget, as an inducement perhaps to have more children. But I have written it down. I expect it will make amusing reading in 20 years.
In other news, Robert Malone says in his Substack blog this morning that "There is so much news hitting the streets that is that is being censored by main stream media and social media today, that it is overwhelming easy comprehension." The latest to turn up is a letter from Marine Major Joseph Murphy of DARPA seeming to indicate that both the virus and the vaccine had been conceived as early as 2018, and that ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were already identified as effective prophylaxis and treatments, and that Fauci knew the whole story. Grab your popcorn.
And speaking of Malone, he has a sense of humor. Maybe the best bet to overcoming these stiff, tyrannical Nurse Racheds.
These pundits observe – I'll just repeat their opinion – that US health officials seem to be starting to backpedal. Europeans still appear intent on pushing forward, although Germany and Austria are delaying their implementation of vaccine mandates. As previously stated, I am happy to be on the periphery just watching.
I got a good workout yesterday for the first time in a month. Eddie, seeing that the old exercise bike was just sitting there, got a hankering to fix it. And he did! Found an appropriate sized bolt, I think it is 8 mm, and some washers and put it back together. He adjusted it for himself and started to pedal. I am immensely pleased that it is now his exercise bicycle. That gives it a much better chance of getting used.
That's the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the men are going to keep themselves strong, the women have some magic that keeps them good-looking without any evidence of working in that direction, and the kids are doing what they will with the laws of averages concerning kids.