Walnuts On My Windshield

#17, October 22, 2004

I have been trying to figure out what it is with the fall and the higher than usual incidence of road kill in our neighborhood. Just one trip to and from Springfield yields numerous raccoons, squirrels, things that look like hedgehogs, an occasional young deer; and a couple days ago, I even saw a red fox! Road kill is generally not too upsetting, particularly because one whizzes by at a fair rate of speed and forgets what one sees.

However, and I warn you that this is not for the squeamish, I walked out to the mail box the day before yesterday, and at the foot of our sidewalk, a full 20 feet from the road, almost stepped on the front half of a possum! Why do all the animals feel compelled to be on the road so much (pun intended) in the fall? I suppose it is one of those sexual drive things. I'm really glad that such feelings in humans are not so frequently fatal!

Andrew experienced a sinking - but not fatal! - feeling later that same day. Someone, who shall remain nameless, is responsible for cleaning up the stairs and hall each day. Someone else, who shall also remain nameless, left his or her church shoes on the floor in the hall outside our second floor office door. I, the mom who is always trying to develop character in her offspring, chose to leave the shoes where they were, hoping that either the owner would put them away, or the stairs-and-hall-cleaner would toss them into the owner's room. I waited three days, and neither of those things happened.

On Wednesday, Andrew, who is strongly attracted to shoes anyway, decided to put them on. He then began clomping down the stairs in them. I was at my desk, and because the stairs are carpeted, I did not know of his progress. In fact, the first thing I heard was a crash of glass and that telltale "tinkle" of small pieces of glass meeting a hard surface.

We have a number of framed family photos hanging on the walls of the stairwell, and from time to time, someone knocks one off the wall, shattering the glass. I assumed that was what had happened. However, in the case of a falling picture, most of the glass ends up in the carpet and one doesn't really hear much. In this case, the sound effect was pretty loud, so I ran out and hollered, "Are you OK? What happened?!?" No answer, but Andrew was standing about two thirds of the way down the stairs and staring toward the front door. I asked him again what happened and he calmly replied, " I threw the shoe at the door and I didn't think it would break the window, but it did." Hmmmmmmm. . . .

It was an accurate description of the event. He actually "threw" the shoe with his foot. That is to say, he was wearing the shoe; it was (obviously) too large for his foot; he wanted to see what would happen to the shoe if he kicked his leg forward; he hypothesized it that would hit the lower (wood) part of the door and bounce back onto the floor; his training in physics is deficient; the trajectory of said slip-on shoe leaving the foot with a fair amount of force in an upward motion was higher than expected; the course of the projectile intersected the lower half of a strategically-located pane of glass (leaving a slightly larger than shoe-sized hole in said pane of glass); the result of which was the shattering and tinkling sound I heard.

Thankfully, no one was hurt, at least most of the broken glass has been cleaned up, we have a lovely piece of cardboard taped into our front door, and my husband has agreed to make repairs, once the young child funds a replacement glass pane.

Andrew has been chastened and has agreed that the money he weekly allocates for candy will now have to go toward buying glass. The stairs-and-hall cleaner has been chastened and has agreed to do his or her chores diligently and thoroughly. The shoe owner has been chastened and has agreed to diligently put away his or her stuff. I am pleased that we were able to accomplish all that character training with only ONE event! Usually more effort is required achieve those same results.

There are many pieces of information that are NOT included in that little bag of brochures they send home with you after your child is born. This is wise, because if we knew at the beginning all that parenting would really involve, we would be totally overwhelmed!

Until next time,
Patty

From My Bookshelf:

One Year Off:: Leaving it All Behind for a Round-the-World Journey with Our Children by David Elliot Cohen, rank: 10. I admit it; I loved this book! Now, I never could and never would do this, but it sounded so fun and so downright homeschool-ish! This family (dad 41, mom 36, girl 8, boys 7 and 2) really did travel around the world in a year. They started and ended in Marin County, California and traveled to places in South America, Europe, Africa, Australia, and Asia. This man writes like I do, so I really enjoyed it. It was funny and informative - just my kind of book. By the way, the trip cost them about $125,000, and they are still a fairly sane and happy family.

Quote of the Week:

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual-or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country." ~ Samuel Adams

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