Jim Dalrymple.com

I’m home one day from San Francisco’s warmth and sunshine and what happens? We get hammered with a winter storm. Not just any first of the year winter storm, this was a dandy.

Nicole and Michael came out to help shovel the side deck, which helped out a lot. Actually, Nicole did most of the work and seemed to have a good time doing it.

Twiggy had a blast. She has a habit of jumping in front of you when shoveling snow getting a face—and mouth—full of snow every time you try to clear the walk.

I hate snow. I hate winter.

Michael’s favorite subject is definitely not math—turns out it isn’t his math teachers either. Michael brought home his test today that he studied really hard and was disappointed with his B-.

Monique took a look at the test and noticed that the teacher miss counted by 10 points. What does this mean? Michael deserves an A+ instead of a B-. He was much happier when we told him that.

We put a note in with his school work so the teacher could see it tomorrow.

Sometimes no matter what you do, it’s just wrong. That’s what happened to Monique and I on Sunday when friends of ours and their kids came up to the cottage for the day.

Nicole and Michael were lobbying for their friends to stay overnight at the cottage even before we left for vacation. We said that we would think about it and let them know the day they came up.

Dave and Brenda showed up and we sat around talking and had a few drinks. Later in the day we had a few burgers on the grill. The whole time Nicole and Lindsey were hinting about the sleepover.

It didn’t matter to us if the kids stayed or not, but Dave and Brenda couldn’t come back on Monday and pick them up. They decided to just take the kids home and we could arrange for a sleepover some other time at home.

Michael and his friend Andrew were disappointed, but accepted the news. Nicole and Lindsey on the other hand started crying and wailing like two year olds.

It was so bad, it was actually funny at first, but then it got old really quick. They wouldn’t stop and it was one of those stupid crying fits that you knew was planned if the news didn’t go their way.

Monique and I have never allowed ourselves to fall victim to such antics, so Nicole should have known a temper tantrum was not the way to win us over. Instead, acting like that only strengthens our resolve.

To make matters worse for Nicole, she will be punished for her actions. I’m not sure what yet, but I believe that she has to learn that there are consequences for her actions, good or bad.

Well, that news didn’t go over well with her, but I’m her parent, which means I’m not always her friend. That also means that I do what I think is right. If she thinks she can get her way by pulling stunts like this now, she may pull stupid stuff like this again.

Not on my watch!

If there were a theme for today it would have to be lazy. Besides taking the dog for a walk we didn’t venture to far away from the cottage all day. Most of the day we sat on the wharf and just talked.

We did manage to pile everyone in the car and go to the farmers market after supper to get an ice cream, but that was the extent of our driving today.

Michael and I went in the paddleboat and went across the lake—that was damn tough on an old guy like me. Michael was just paddling along with no problem at all. Meanwhile I had to stop several times.

When Michael saw Nicole and Monique going for a swim, he wanted to go back, which was just fine with me. We cut across the lake and put in for day. I was never so happy to see land.

Of course, there was lots of time set aside for throwing sticks in the water for the crazy dog. She just won’t stop! We have to physically make her lay down before she will take a rest. A couple of times we were concerned she was getting too tired.

All in all another good day for everyone.

Michael is such a good kid. He really deserves some good news, but this summer seems to be a non-stop run of bad news for the poor kid. The latest came today when he had another appointment at the dentist.

When Michael went to the dentist for a follow-up after the accident, he had feeling in his teeth, so he canceled the planned root canals. He told us to come back in two months and we would see how things were going.

After receiving the report from the ER doctor, they decided to do another check-up. Sadly, Michael had some discoloration in two of his teeth. While he could feel cold in a couple of the teeth, he lost all sensation in the others.

That means he will have to go for several root canals. The doctor said he isn’t giving up yet, but with discoloration it’s pretty much over.

Friday night my father, Michael and I went to the stock car races about 15 minutes from our house. This is the second time this season that we went and it was more fun this time than the last.

Michael really likes to watch the “junkers.” You know, the $300 cars that are held together with string and bubble gum. There may not be much money in the cars, but the drivers sure do take the race seriously. They are banging in the corners and jockeying for position every single lap.

Of course, this usually leads to many accidents—that in turn gets Michael laughing and jumping. All three of us pick a car in every race—we don’t bet or anything, but we have a lot of fun picking on each other when we don’t finish well.

The Sportsman series was there this weekend, which is a step down from the MASCAR. These guys put a lot of time, energy and money into their race teams and it shows. Very serious racers in this class, but the accidents are few and far between. Unfortunately for a few, one car lost its engine going into turn three on the last lap and sent three cars flying off the end of the race track.

My father was very involved in racing when he was younger, so he knows a lot about the cars and the setup. He said on Friday that he never raced one, but I think he was probably in one driving at one time or another.

I would love to get behind the wheel and race. I probably wouldn’t last long after bumping a few people off the track, but at least Michael would be screaming and laughing the whole time.

After knocking out his teeth a few weeks ago and spending more than his share of time in the doctor’s office, Michael is doing so much better. In fact, tonight he went for a ride on his bike for the first time since he went down.

It seems that Michael’s face took the full force of the impact in his accident. The bike is fine except for twisted handle bars and from what I can tell he didn’t damage the road at all.

He was hesitant to get back on the bike—and I don’t blame him—but he strapped on the helmet and started up the street. He decided to walk the bike down the hill (next to the one he fell on) and ride on the straight stretches. That was fine with me—it was just good to see him riding again.

Besides a car that almost backed over him, the ride was a complete success. He said he felt a lot better about riding and I feel better getting that first one out of the way too.