Morning Glories

I both love, and hate, getting up early on a day off from work.

I hate it, of course, because I need all the beauty sleep I can possibly get, and so to be up at 7 on MLK Day isn't going to help clear up the "sleep deficit."

But there are advantages. David drove us down to Woodbridge today so he can do his Communications Merit Badge at Occoquan's Merit Badge Day. If he succeeds today, he'll have completed the last one for his Eagle, and can turn to doing his project, which he decided on the way down would be at Pohick Bay Park if he can make the connection.

And so before Grandma's final eye surgeon appointment, I have a few minutes at Stonebridge to sip coffee and watch the sun come up. It's cold today, not even 20 and with a brisk damp wind that truly brings winter into the body. There's hardly anyone out at this time, which means traffic is reasonable and there's plenty of parking near the Starbucks. Coffee's hot, plenty of seats, and the warm sun creeping over the stores across the street reminds me how phototropic I am.

To be sure, the day will evaporate in a haze of activity. Merit Badge Day, Mom's doctor's appointment, picking up the boy, reviewing more of my homework for the FY 2017 and FY 2016 budgets, picking up Sarah from her sleepover last night, working on my writing, working on David's financial aid applications, serving on an Eagle Board of Review and at the Troop meeting with David tonight...much will be packed into just these next 15 hours.

But for right now, I can savor the sun, I can enjoy the calm of the early morning, and I can give thanks and praise for it. And despite getting up early, that's not a bad way to spend a morning.

Troop 688 Court of Honour

Monday night was the final Court of Honour for Troop 688 for the Scout year, and for the first time David was chosen to be one of the Masters of Ceremony for the night. This was necessary for him to advance on his Communications merit badge--one of only two left for him to complete his list of Eagle-required badges. Here are a few pictures of our self-assured MC holding down the fort that night.

Caleb and David opening the Court of Honour

David addresses the Troop

David at the lectern

Driving Lessons in Snow

The snow started coming around 1:45 in the afternoon on President's Day, a few hours earlier than forecast, which augured for a heavy storm to begin. By evening, there was a good inch-and-a-half to two inches of very powdery snow outside, which (I thought) was the perfect chance to let David learn a little about driving in the snow.

We spent an hour in it, mostly between a church parking lot and the high school's parking lot. Some takeaways from our playtime:

• It's a lot harder today to make a car skid than it was when I was learning, when we didn't have ABS and TRAC systems and multiple redundancies and so forth. The Mom-Mobile will only let you turn off so much.
• Plus, fresh tires this fall, and dry, powdery snow (instead of slick wet stuff) doesn't help.
• Despite that, we did get to give him a few experiences. He fishtailed a bit in each parking lot, seeing how the van tried to slide away from him. He also got to feel the shuddering of the ABS system multiple times.
• We went through a fun little slalom at the high school parking lot, and he got to experience how much l-o-n-g-e-r it takes to stop when sliding on the snow.
• He's such a careful driver at this point, it makes me proud. He resolutely kept well below the speed limits on Silverbrook, in an abundance of caution in the new conditions. He didn't really go wild in the parking lots, either--no actual donuts--but still had the chance to see what the various conditions could be like.

Christmas 2014

Finally, I've pulled together some of the pictures from Christmas 2014 and set them in this album. Click and see how our holidays looked!

This was a different Christmas: for the first time in 16 years, we were able to sleep in past 6 am! The kids were completely teenagers this year; Mary and I woke around 8 and had not been nudged at all from them. Sarah was up next, then she awoke David, who sleepily came down to empty his stocking. Ah, the Christmases of yesteryear are ending.

Our Family Portrait

I've had several comments on the family portraits used in this year's Christmas card and letter.

They were part of a series of pictures that we did in October with my brother-from-another-mother, Glenn Cook, who's set himself up as quite the professional photographer in the last couple of years. I mean, if he can get David to smile…  If you're interested in seeing the whole shoot--and, if you didn't like one we gave you for Christmas, you can even order prints of other photos--then click here and visit the SmugMug site to check them all out.

Merry Christmas 2014!

Instead of making copies of our Christmas letter this year and mailing them all, or creating a new site to capture the year, we're listing here some of the highlights so you can get caught up, and dive in more where you like, to learn more about our year.

courtesy Glenn Cook Photography

Our year involved tearing out the master bathroom for a major renovation, but six weeks later it looked better than we had imagined it could. Up next: the kitchen? The kids' bathroom? Our annual ski trip with the Scouts to Canaan Valley was in February, and then in August we flew out West, the kids' first visit someplace west of West Virginia, for a very full experience of Nevada, California and a little of Oregon. We also had a nice weekend in a cabin at Deep Creek Lake in October with our Fergie, who passed a set of milestones this year. Not only was it her first "puppiversary," or a year after we got her, but in June came the time when (we estimate) she had spent more of her life with us than before--I guess that means she's found her Forever Home. She turned three in October, and kept wryly amusing us with her antics throughout the year. Our puppums is a happy doggie and has attached herself quite firmly to Mary lately.

If you look up the address for South County Middle School in the Fairfax County tax records, you will see that yes, in fact, Sarah *does* own the school. She's having a wonderful time as an eighth grader in Advanced Academics, as a Peer Helper at school, playing guitar, doing Girls on Track, and (most recently) being elected the school's Vice President. She rejoined Girl Scouts with her friends, with whom she is surrounded most of her free time. In the summer she had her second mission trip with Jeremiah Project, which she really enjoyed and which has her thinking of going as a counsellor someday.

The theme for the year with David was "adolescence," the one-foot-in-one-foot-out nature of being a high school junior. He earned his driver's permit this year, and is making slow progress in learning to drive--it's just not a huge priority for him to do, which baffles his parents. His burgeoning leadership was recognized in the winter when his Scout troop elected him its Senior Patrol Leader, and he took the first  (quite halting) steps into the world of girls and dating. But by far, his biggest adventures were a weeklong mission trip to Costa Rica in the summer, and beginning the great college hunt--with visits to William and Mary (two stories to tell there), Berkeley, U of Arizona, and his current #1 choice, Arizona State. Where will he end up? Tune in next year!

Mary celebrated her tenth anniversary with American Bankruptcy Institute this year, and accompanied Sarah on her Girl Scout troop's visit to New York City in the fall. Eric remains in Finance Division at the FBI, although at the end of the year is beginning a six-month rotation to work temporarily in Procurement instead of Budget, a new adventure. In the summer, he had a much-appreciated chance to spend a week at Harvard Business School, and is pursuing continuing ed into the new year. He's also still drumming, with Refresh at Sydenstricker UMC as well as with LifeSign at Burke UMC, loving every minute. This year he also began serving as the Chaplain of Boy Scout Troop 688, and will have a chance next summer to take a long walk in the desert with David--they both will be part of a dozen-strong crew hiking Philmont.

As 2014 fades, we hope it's been a good year for you and your family, and we pray for the light of the season to guide you throughout the new year. Join us here throughout 2015 for more of our adventures, and be sure to share your own--and stay in touch! We very much enjoyed the visits we had this year from Courtney, Naomi, Monica, Mom & Dad Tarrier, and many others…come back again!

Merry Christmas and Happy 2015 from us all!

Beginning the College Hunt, Part IV

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new frontrunner in the college sweepstakes.

After touring Arizona State on Monday, David announced that it is now his favorite among the four he's now toured (W&M, U of Arizona, and in distant fourth, Berkeley, round out the list). He likes the feel of the campus and the flexibility with which ASU appears to treat its students: he can build an anthropology degree as a BA or as a BS, and he can focus it towards particular areas (like archaeology), and he can double-major or minor in Native American studies to complement it (or he can minor in Theatre Design and Production). And I think he also likes that ASU's admissions process is noncompetitive (you either meet the thresholds or you don't), and that the freshman dorm for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (read: anthro majors live here) is the brand-newly-remodeled 15-story Manzanita Hall, overlooking the football stadium on one side and campus on the other.

Manzanita Hall (rear) and Palo Verde East dorms

On the ASU bridge, looking back towards dorms and the stadiums.

Palm Walk, the main north-south pathway through campus

He doesn't seem to mind that Tempe and Phoenix are a much busier place; or, that the campus was (or felt to me) a bit crowded--although even at class change, the crowds were very reasonable, despite the size of the school. He also doesn't seem fazed about being one of 9,000+ freshmen--although perhaps that will give others pause.

He does caution, though, that he still wants to see the others on his list--UVA, Radford, and Wake Forest, and last night Texas A&M made a return to the wish list. But if he had to pick right now, my son would want to become a Sun Devil. What will his final pick be? Stay tuned…we've a long way until next fall!

Beginning the College Hunt, Part III

As previously described, David has begun looking for college options he likes, and following on the success of his conversation with a grad student at William and Mary, he had identified both the University of Arizona and Arizona State as two places he wanted to consider. This weekend is the long break between first and second quarters at school, so he and I flew westward on Halloween night.

We toured UA today. The campus reminded me a little of Berkeley, with its gated entrance and Western feel to it. We walked around much of the southern part of campus, including the residence halls, student rec center (wow), student union, and library. Here's some of what we saw:

Main Gate to the University of Arizona

The "Mall" features the single longest strip of grass in Arizona…but also this native display (and one Virginian)

The Mall, looking east

Admin building and part of the student union at left across the Mall

Found his building; lost his sense of exploration somewhere around here though :)

The boy, surveying the campus (and football stadium to the right) from the top of  Likin Hall dorm

David's conclusion: so far this is his favorite out-of-state choice, but he's not yet ready to say which is in the lead, UA or W&M. He liked the atmosphere of the place, feeling more at home than he did at Berkeley, and the people were friendly. I think he also liked that the tour guides were only a couple of years older than him--so he could kinda see himself in their place. He saw three levels of dorm, and says he'd be just as comfortable in the cheaper one (good!). He wishes he had a chance to see more of the archaeology program, but knows we may have more of an opportunity Monday in Tempe.

My takeaways? (1) Campus is d-e-a-d on a Saturday. With 35,000 students in October I had expected to get more of a sense of the atmosphere; we did not count on the fact that only 6,600 of them live on campus, mostly freshmen, who were still sleeping in much of the day. And (2) It didn't feel too large and overwhelming, or too crowded--so, a much different vibe from Berkeley. Closer to a W&M feel, without oak trees and 50 degrees warmer.

ASU, up next on Monday!

The Next Adventure: Driving

As I've said before, the theme of this year is "adolescence," and one of the most significant adolescent rites of passage is learning to drive. We've now begun that phase of life, with David passing his learner's permit test last week, so there is now a new driver in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

I took him by on Tuesday in the early afternoon, and the Lorton DMV station was practically empty. He was immediately called up to the window, and began the initial processing, including the charming DMV photo. After a brief wait, he was called up to go on in to the computer testing lab, and my waiting began.

There was another boy there, who was called into the testing room moments after David. The minutes ticked by, and I have to confess, I didn't look to see how long it was--maybe five minutes? But it felt much longer. Then the other boy emerged, beaming--but not David, not yet. He took a little while longer, then I saw him come out, trying to motion me over as cooly and nonchalantly as possible, but I knew, just knew, that he had passed it--he couldn't hold it in, he was so happy.

I told him how proud I was of him, and after collecting the final paperwork, headed out. He refused to take a celebratory photo outside the DMV, naturally. We then headed home.

Entering our neighborhood, I drove up about a block and a half, so we would be pretty much alone, and pulled to the curb. "Switch with me," I said, and he did, to drive the last block and a half home. He learned in a hurry that it doesn't take a lot of pressure on the accelerator to make a car go, nor does it take a lot of pressure on the brake to make it stop. But he stopped at the stop sign well, and he drove right down the center of the street, making doubly sure he wouldn't hit anything. We turned onto our street, and he spotted neighbor Mark's car parked on the street next to our driveway.

"I'm gonna hit him," he said, and instead from an abundance of caution came to a stop at the entrance to the cul-de-sac proper. I told him he needed just to turn into the driveway, but he took the long way around the cul-de-sac, avoiding hitting anything except the brake pedal in the driveway, leaving two very short skid marks on the blacktop.

Our first chance to drive, and I liked what I saw: he brought a very healthy about of fear to it. There was no bravado, instead just a very, very cautious approach to piloting a car for the first time. He wanted me, when I bragged about it on social media, to use #beafraid or #beveryafraid to describe the fact that he was now on the road. But y'know, I won't. We have a lot to do over the next 45 hours of driving together, but if he can keep that healthy respect for what he's embarked upon, then I think people won't have anything to be afraid about when he's behind the wheel. If anything, the fear I have is more the fear of the idiots out there driving in NoVA who pose the greater risk to him. And so as I posted on Facebook, "To my son, I am very proud of you, and I look forward to this new adventure. To all the yutzes driving badly in NoVA, I love my boy, and if you hurt him I shall hurt you. That is all."

Youth Missions 2014

Erin, the youth ministries director at our church, has created a blog to track the adventures of our two sets of youth missions this summer.  Be sure to follow Never Too Young, where she's going to chronicle the kids' adventures at Jeremiah Project near Winchester, VA (including Sarah's adventures there), and then at Strong Missions in Costa Rica (for which David leaves Sunday morning).  The kids are doing great things as Christ's hands and feet, it's heartwarming to see them in action!

Stepping Out, First Onto A Limb...

This Saturday, one of my children took a first, and big, step into the world of dating.  To avoid embarrassment, I won't name him, apart from saying he is an "avid" fan of the Patriots' "D."

But seriously: he had come to know this young lady through the youth group at church, and over the last few months had developed a pretty serious texting relationship.  (Fortunately texting is on the unlimited plan for us.)  They're both sophomores, although attending two different high schools; his South County green and blue clashes a bit with her West Springfield orange and blue.  But they're both in youth group and church, they both are active behind the scenes in their respective drama departments, and I would have to be even denser than I already am to miss how they look at each other sometimes.

This weekend, though, he made a big step, one reportedly required in her family, and asked her father for permission to date his oldest daughter.  Mind you, that entailed asking a Fairfax County Deputy Sheriff--and a very healthy and fit one at that, think Mr Clean with a weapon--in public, outside church, with any number of witnesses to a potential embarrassment.  Fortunately, however, her dad was quick to offer his approval; having known David now several years and figuring someone from youth group can't be all bad, I suppose.  His bravery earned him a handshake from dad, and a hug from the daughter.  And now we begin thinking of movies or events, and saving up our (non-Costa-Rica-mission-trip-spending-money) cash for a new set of activities in our world.

I had begun this year saying how the theme for the year seems to be adolescence; I smile a little thinking how one more bit of adolescence is coming to pass.  And so let a whole 'nother set of games begin….

Beginning the College Hunt, Part II

When we last left our hero, David had found his way to the basement of Washington Hall on the campus of William and Mary, where he had been told the anthropology department lived.  We passed students on the stairs as we descended, leading us to think a class had just let out; when we arrived at the anthropology lab, the woman there invited us in to look around.

For the next hour, hour and a half, David was truly in his element.

The woman he met, Ms Victor, is a graduate student going for her PhD, and she began showing David around the lab and pulling out samples of their work.  She shared with him bits of pottery, and a collection of handmade nails she pulled from a recent dig in Montana, and David was engaging right back with her on her finds.  He was asking questions, and commenting on the artifacts in his confident way, showing he knew a thing or two about history and how these artifacts connected with others.  (Knowing this could take awhile, I sent Anna and Megan off to go explore the business school; I tried to fade into the walls as much as I could, to let the two of them talk.)

Ms. Victor showing David some pottery samples from a recent dig.

Ms. Victor was terrific: she gave David a lot to think about in terms of the field of archaeology and what the good programs are around the country that he should look into.  We learned a lot about the branches of the field that we'd never known before: for instance, a good general overview of anthropological archaeology would be found at Michigan, Michigan State, Berkeley, Syracuse, maybe Santa Clara; David should not apply to Boston University unless he only wanted to work in Europe for a career.  But if he wanted to study prehistoric archaeology, especially focused on Mesoamerican cultures (Inca, Aztec, etc.), then Arizona and Arizona State are the places to go.  And we'd never heard of "nautical archaeology," but I guess it makes sense: if the river's changed course and has now overrun the site you want to explore, you need to be scuba-certified and you need to know how to work underwater in the silt of a river or ocean bed.  And that's taught at Texas A&M, of all places.

She talked with him about careers in the field, and what each degree would allow him to do.  If all he wants to do is dig in the dirt, and work on a site as part of a team, then a bachelors will suffice; if he wants to be a project lead or work in "cultural resource management" (i.e., the people who go through before a freeway gets built, to make sure there's nothing there), then the MA is needed; and if he wants to explore his own interests and build his own program, then that's the PhD.

I think David added someone new to his fan club that day; on discovering he was "only" a sophomore, she twice commented how she was blown away at how well he carried himself in this professional encounter and how his passion for archaeology came through.  And by the end of their time together, he came away with two huge opportunities.  One was, she invited him to come down sometime, even on a weekend, and help her in the lab: cleaning, coding, labeling the artifacts, and learning what the lab experience is like.  And she also gave us a copy of a flyer for a summer dig that W&M undergraduates are doing in conjunction with Colonial Williamsburg.  She told him she knows the project director and she thought he'd be thrilled to have David maybe come down for a few days out of the 10-week project and gain some fieldwork experience too.

We both left there flying.  So let me see if I got this straight: a professional in David's chosen field took him seriously enough to have extended offers and opportunities for him to gain practical experience the summer before his junior year.  We also got about a half-dozen other colleges David needs to look into, to see whether they interest him; and, perhaps most importantly, he had such a positive, inspiring experience with his first contact with a college.

The whole day could not have gone any better; it truly felt God-blessed.  He commented later that there wasn't anything he didn't like about W&M, and so now he has something good to compare other colleges to.  And perhaps most importantly, he got to see what terrific experiences he could be getting into, and what it'll take for him to be admitted into that world.  Maybe this will help him focus and pour some more energy into studies and tests, to help get him positioned for all that he had the merest taste of that afternoon in the basement of Washington Hall.  Let the hunt begin!

Beginning the College Hunt, Part I

This past Friday, Anna and Megan Schipono and David and I went to the kids' first college tour experience, and it was probably just about everything I could have secretly hoped it would be.

When I began my college hunt, back in the days when dinosaurs roamed the earth and great flocks of wild chickens darkened the skies, college tours were *maybe* the summer between sophomore and junior year, but certainly a spring-break-junior-year activity.  These days, and with this boy, it's better to start sooner.  One of his (now college-attending) Boy Scout friends had confided in me that when he was a sophomore, his folks took him on a tour, and it sharpened his desire: Yes, I really want that, and so I'd better start getting serious about studying in order to get it.  Can't hurt to get started, then.

The proto-archaeologist had become aware that William and Mary, down at Williamsburg, had an excellent archaeology/anthropology program on the colonial period (duh), so he asked to visit.  Unbeknownst to us, Megan had discovered their marketing program and also asked for a tour.  Which both sets of parents independently set up for the exact same day and hour during spring break.

After arriving and parking and lunch at the Cheese Shop, we walked onto campus and into the oldest part of campus, the iconic Wren Building (oldest extant academic building in America) dead ahead.  We explored that, then wandered through the old campus and onto the newer pieces, eventually discovering the marble floors of the business school.

Megan and David in front of the Wren Building

Our tour lasted a shade over two hours; 45 minutes of overview by the school in an auditorium at the student center, then off with our senior tour guide, Max, who walked us through many features of the campus.  We saw the cafeteria, the Crim Dell and learned of its curse, then saw the library, the chemistry building, and eventually over to a dorm room, before finishing with English lit and returning through the Wren Building's arched passageway.

Max leading the tour, with Megan, David, and Anna

At the conclusion, Max told a story about convocation: arriving freshmen have to endure a speech by the president in the oldest part of the campus, out where the kids had their picture taken.  Then the new freshmen walk through Wren Building to the growing sound of applause, and on reaching the other side, they find the entirety of the rest of the University there, all green and gold, clapping, high-fiving, welcoming them to W&M, and from that moment on, he said, "you are Tribe."  That really resonated with David, and I have to confess, with me too.

On parting, Max told us where to find the anthropology department, and we headed to the basement of Washington Building.  A class had just let out, and when we poked our head into the lab, the woman there called out, "Come on in and look around!"

That began an hour-and-a-half conversation I'm still processing.   (To Be Continued)

Canaan Valley 2014

This past weekend was the annual Troop 688 family ski trip to Canaan Valley, WV.  After all the snow and cold here this winter, I was really looking forward to this: then it became 60 degrees for the few days ahead of the trip.  My timing just stinks sometimes.

The drive up went well; leaving after school meant we got there around 8 and had time to relax.  David used his evening to connect with some friends and go ice skating, demonstrating what the concept of "awkward" looks like:

Saturday was skiing for David; we hardly saw him at all all day.  Sarah took a lesson again on the snowboard, and while she did that I got in a few runs on the "loose granular" (read: icy) trails.  Then she and I spent the afternoon together on the training slope, rehearsing what she'd learned.  As you may recall, last year Sarah also had snowboarding lessons, then wiped out in the afternoon.  Not so this year!  Instead, she did really, really well, and didn't push herself beyond her comfort zone.  See how well she boards this slope:

David only has two more years to go as a Scout on these weekends, and despite the 52-degree weather I don't think he'd trade it for anything.  Sarah's still circumspect: enjoyed getting back on the horse again and doing well with the snowboard, but I don't think she'll be clamoring for lessons apart from this annual exposure.  But at least we got to spend a weekend together, and even though I didn't get a lot of skiing in myself, for hanging with her, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Senior Patrol Leader

When I was in Boy Scouts, back when dinosaurs roamed the savannah plains, I was awkward, not beloved, and so never even got elected to Patrol Leader; I remember being upset at not being named an Assistant Patrol Leader even.  The Senior Patrol Leader, the SPL, the chief Scout--that, I knew, was never to be me.  More likely John Hagen or one of the other really good Scouts.  I'm sure that fed into my decision to step out of Scouting as a freshman, having made only First Class.

Last Monday, when picking up David (the Life Scout) from his Troop meeting, he announced he'd thrown his name into contention to be SPL for his Troop at their elections.  He was one of four candidates, including his best-friend John; the top vote getter this week would be SPL, and the #s 2 and 3 would be Assistant SPLs; the fourth-place finisher was out of a job.  I remember being a little cautious: after all, his attendance over the fall hadn't been stellar, would folks want to elect him if his commitment wasn't there?

This week, he climbed into the car and said he had one of the jobs, but didn't know which yet.  They announced one boy had lost, but since the Scoutmaster himself wasn't there, they were going to let Mr Sciacca announce the name when he returned.  I was relieved; at least he wasn't fourth.  On the strength of that alone, we got Dairy Queen for the family on the way home, to celebrate.

Tuesday morning came the e-mail from Mr Sciacca: David had won.  He will be responsible for leading his Troop of 90-some Scouts, including welcoming this year's crop of Brownseas as the new boys rise from Cub Scouts in the later winter.  His pride was palpable last night.  When I came home, he came upstairs without being called, to show me the message from Mr Sciacca.  We hugged and I told him how happy I was and proud I was.

He immediately started settling into his new role.  Mr Sciacca said there were two boys who needed staff jobs; David jumped right in and gave them each a call to offer them the job.  He's started thinking of meetings he can have, and activities to do, and how he wants to go to each of the Cub Scout crossing-over ceremonies to welcome his new Scouts personally.  If he can keep up this level of commitment, I think he'll do a great job.

I'm beginning to see a theme for the year--the meaning of adolescence, the one-foot-in-one-foot-out aspect of this stage of life.  Here he is, honored and elected and chosen by his Troop as the one they want to see him as a leader for the next six months; here I am awash in pride for what he's been able to earn, in terms of respect and trust, over the past nearly five years in the Troop.  And in the next minute, as we try to salvage the wreckage of homework and prepare for the Geometry midterm today (oy…), we see the, um, still-developing nature of his maturity.  I suppose I had my own similar stage.  I suppose his sister will have hers, in her own unique way.

Today, though, is all about David and the honor he's achieved.  This coming Monday he goes to a merit badge day to earn two more of the last badges he needs for Eagle; at the winter court of honor he could earn as many as four of them, leaving only two to go (one of which he's in the middle of).  This could be a truly great year for him; I hope and pray the one-foot-in nature prevails.

Learning to Drive: Making the Leap

The process by which David will begin to join the 210 million licensed drivers in the United States began this Wednesday night, an evening that was almost a perfect illustration of the concept of "adolescence."

Virginia mandates that parents and their teens must attend a 90-minute briefing before the teen can be licensed.  The doors to the auditorium locked promptly at 7, and for the next 90 minutes the hair-raising ride began.  David's PE teachers double as the driver's ed teachers, and they alternated with a FCPD officer in providing lectures and videos about driver's ed.  Some of it was helpful, like how the licensure process works in the Commonwealth.  Some of it was scary, such as the statistics about accident rates among male drivers aged 18-19.  And some of it was absolutely heart-rending, such as the video about texting and driving, which related three stories of lives cut down or torn apart.  

I have always had a nightmare in which we open our front door to find a FCPD officer standing there to bring our world crashing down.  I now have to face that over the next few months we will be equipping David to deal with the lunacy of traffic and driving in NoVA, and pray we will do well enough to keep that wolf from our door.  More than once in the evening I felt guilt, over not being an ideal role model for him to copy from; and wistfulness, as the boy whose birth I remember as being just a couple of days ago is now shaving and getting ready to pilot a two-ton vehicle at highway speeds.

It's hard to say what his reaction was to the night: he didn't betray much at the videos.  He hasn't seemed in a rush to study his driver's manual, or indeed to get started on this process.  But in his own way--trying desperately to hide it beneath that teen boy mask of cool--I sensed anticipation, anxiousness to get started, and yes, a respectable amount of intimidation at the prospect of what he's about to undertake and how incredibly bad things can break if they go wrong.  If I read him right, then, I think that's a pretty constructive place to start.

An evening that began with one foot cautiously edging into deeply adult waters--conversations and videos all about responsibilities and consequences--changed when we got home and David wanted to power-down before heading to bed.  His vehicle for doing so? Old reruns of The Kids Next Door.  How very much like a teen: one moment on the verge of adulthood, the next, retreating into the familiar warm confines of childhood.  I had to smile.  We'll have our challenges, getting ready for the next few months and the driving tests still ahead.  But he's still my little boy after all, for one more night.

Christmas 2013

We've posted a set of pictures from our Christmas morning adventures; click here or on the link at right, and come see our holiday!

Maturing Pride

Over the summer, when we replaced the carpet in the house, David laid claim to the computer desk that had been in the study; we moved it into his room in place of the one he'd had from Mary from when she was a girl.  As summer ended, we helped him clear it off and make a study spot for him in his room, so he had a place (other than in front of the Xbox) to do homework.

I am shocked to report that for the first two weeks, it has worked!

David's laptop and AP World History texts live up there, and each night we see signs that he's using them both--and taking notes, and writing, and reading.  He seems to have started the year by making a conscious, concerted effort to tend to his homework.

Moreover, he has volunteered (!) to give up several of his Saturdays for a project, organized through the school, called "Capturing the Voices of WWII."  He and some of his friends will be trained, then spend their days at the World War II memorial downtown conducting oral history interviews of surviving WWII veterans who come to the memorial.  He is really looking forward to an opportunity to capture the voices, and video, of the last survivors of the Greatest Generation--conducting interviews, learning their stories, and capturing them for the ages to come, so others can remember the sacrifices they made and what it was like to serve 70 years ago in the hell of WWII.

The boy is maturing.  He is more willing than ever before to set aside the immediate pleasures and to think of his responsibilities, and of something larger than himself. Oh, sure, we have our moments of teenage attitude, but on the whole, this has been a tremendous start to his sophomore year.  He is maturing, and he is taking pride in his work and in what he can bring to the world.

And as a father I find myself experiencing my own maturing pride in the young man he is becoming.  I can probably count on one hand the number of times my dad said he was proud of me.  In looking at these first couple of weeks of school, I can see multiple reasons for pride in my son, and it reminds me of the need to let him know how proud I am of the man he's emerging into.

Our Family Ski Weekend

This past weekend, the four of us drove to wild, wonderful West Virginia to the annual Troop 688 ski weekend at Canaan Valley.  This was the first time that the ladies had joined David and me; Mary is not a skier and doesn't enjoy getting cold, and Sarah had not previously been interested, but this year announced she wanted to try to learn snowboarding.

Confidentially, I had low expectations for her snowboarding adventure; I thought that despite the 90-minute lesson, the repeated face-plants into the snow, and a little snow down the parka, would quickly turn her interest into tubing or just watching TV at the lodge.  How little credit I gave her!  Sarah gamely strapped into her snowboard, and I caught up with her at one point during her lesson, as she was maneuvering quite impressively.  After her lesson, over lunch she enthused about the experience; after lunch, she and I headed to the bunny trails and lift to ski/snowboard together.

During our first run together, she impressed with how long she was able to stay up before catching an edge and tumbling over; I managed to catch this particular run on video:

We then made a second run together, to the two bunny trails that make the long loop from the top of the bunny lift to the bottom.  Not only did she stay upright coming off the lift, but she completed the top leg of the trail without falling, and nearly made it to the bottom of the second without falling as well!  This with only one 90-minute lesson: color me impressed!

However, the next time wasn't as fortunate.  She elected to try the broad trail that runs directly underneath the bunny lift; it turned out to be a bit steeper than she had expected, and she lost control and fell nearly at the bottom, bruising her left knee and taking her out of snowboarding for the rest of the afternoon.  Before the weekend was over, though, she did say she thought she'd be back next year, and I certainly hope so, as it was a special time skiing with my daughter.

David, of course, continues skiing and trying to win races among his fellow Scouts.  Their favorite trail to do so winds from the top of the mountain to the bottom, and is called Timber Ridge.  Once, I tried to stay caught up with him on Sunday, and this was the result:

David is the skier principally in the frame, but several times his speed takes him far off or around his friend John on the snowboard; once, he soars up through a wooded cut-through onto the bottom part of a black-diamond trail, Gravity, that I finally mastered this weekend; he is next seen as the rocket shooting through the frame in a tuck, and well off into the distance for the final sprint to the finish.  By my rough back-of-the-envelope calculation, he's averaging about 18 mph on this run...not Olympic speed, but fast enough for his little 14-year-old heart to get a thrill.

Despite Sarah's injury we all enjoyed the weekend.  It's nice to get away as the four of us and to try new things, again continuing with the theme of 2013: there's gonna be some changes!