Birthday Presents

My Dad's birthday is mere days away and I have nothing for him. Not even a card - yet.

What the hell do you get the man who never needs anything; buys clothes for himself instead of giving us an easy way to get something nice for him? Who always insists he doesn't need anything and doesn't want us to spend our money on him.

What a dope.

It's so bad this year, that my mother's solution for herself was to get him a battery powered toothbrush, which she's sure he'll hate. She told me I could go to a certain ice cream parlor and get a pint of the coconut ice cream which he loves.

Coconut ice cream?

You know I will. I'll go there and get it. But ... c'mon! My creativity in finding things for my Dad which will not just sit in a drawer (or freezer) is being taxed here.

The frustrating thing is... he really doesn't need anything. Except cash. A lot of cash. But that's not to say that there might not be some little luxuries he would enjoy.

Thus, the coconut ice cream.

Sigh.

To Boldy Go, Redux

After hearing a radio ad while in my car yesterday, I made a snap decision to take my kid on a road trip, an hour away, to catch the latest film version of Star Trek which was being presented in IMAX.

Don't you just love run-on sentences?

We'd already seen it, but he had wanted to see it again. Being the diligent parents we are, we never followed through and the film has long since left local theatres.

So when, by chance, I heard on the radio that it was showing, not only in IMAX, but in our old stomping grounds, I thought, "we should do this." Then I thought "if I don't say anything to anyone they'll never know that it's playing there and I won't have to go."

I said something and the surprise road trip was in the works before I could change my mind.
There's something to be said for sponteneity. It happens so quickly that you can't talk yourself out of it. And Junior was overjoyed. He's a good traveler. Always has been. I picked him up from camp, gave him the choice to go or to veto, and needless to say, we were on our way.

The timing was perfect. Just enough time after camp to get down there (in spite of the traffic), grab a quick bite to eat and then go to the theatre.

Did I mention the model of the NCC-1701 accompanied us, not only on this outing, but into the theatre. He couldn't wait to show it off to other potential Trekkies.

The movie was good on the big screen. It had been a couple of months since we'd seen it, so I'd forgotten a few details. The boy was on the edge of his seat for the big scene near the end. Literally. On the edge of his seat, hardly able to sit still and shaking his fists at the bad guy. My one problem with an action film on such a large screen; in spite of sitting in the last row, the images were so big, and some of the editing was so fast, that I couldn't actually see what was going on and I had to close my eyes more than once.

Aside from that, I felt satisfied. I had done my parental duty. I had a happy boy, And I remembered to bring his pajamas so he could sleep in the car and not have to change when we got home.

There's so little sponteneity in my life these days. When it happens, and when it works, it's pretty damn cool.

Airport

We unwittingly moved ourselves to a part of the state in which we are surrounded by all sorts of resources. Natural and otherwise. We have an abundance of state parks. There are camps where the counselors come from all over the world and the children come from all over the country. Or maybe it's just the northeast (I don't really know since I never went there). There are stables and huge tracts of undeveloped land. And agricultural fairs. And an airport.

Right up the road.

We went to check it out on Saturday. We had checked it out a couple of times previous to that last week, but the weather was not conducive to small, light aircraft. Particularly on Friday when the evening thunderstorms were so bad that the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning.

We don't live in tornado country.

It was scary dark. Eclipse dark. Yes, I'm exaggerating. Slightly. But if I was a peasant in medieval times I would definitely have thought the world was coming to an end. Or something equally disastrous. We did have some severe winds, and thunder boomers, and the corn plants didn't fare too well. But we escaped the unpleasant alternitve.

Saturday was a beautiful day. Sunny, breezy, low humidity which made it the first good hair day for me in weeks. In all, a perfect day to check out a small local airport and possibly catch something taking off or landing.

Which we did. As soon as we got there.

We thought we'd take a quick 10 minute peruse and be on our merry way. We were given permission to explore and admire some of the planes parked in the huge, open, carport-like structures. I know virtually nothing about planes beyond their basic function, so after a few they all started to look alike.

Down past the end of the "plane"-port there was a huge propeller/engine sitting on a flatbed and we headed toward that. There were a couple of people sitting out in front of a metal quonset-type hut and our boy greeted them and started sharing his knowledge of planes with them. Before we knew it, he was being given a personal tour of the propeller engine and the contents of the hut.

An hour (or so) later we left; brochure, business card and Pratt & Whitney stickers in hand. Our new friends are there every Saturday and I have a feeling we'll be back soon.

Maybe we'll take a ride in a Biplane.