I’ve mentioned that Calfgrit8 is in Cub Scouts, and this coming weekend is the Pinewood Derby races for the local pack. We got the car kit (a block of wood, four plastic wheels & nails) several weeks ago, but we hadn’t started on actually making the car until last week.

CG8 just hasn’t shown much interest in the event or in the idea of creating the car. He’s been attentive when I’ve mentioned it and talked about ideas, but he hasn’t brought up anything about it on his own. I think he just doesn’t have a real understanding of what the whole event is. I’ve tried explaining it to him, going off just what I remember from my Scout days — 30-some years ago. But I think it’s still only a vague concept for him.

I remember participating in a Pinewood Derby at least twice as a boy. My step-dad got the block of wood carved and sanded at the local community college, where he worked as a teacher (he wasn’t the carpentry teacher, though). I can only remember little snippets of making the car and of racing the car. When my mom moved out of her old house last year, we found one of my old derby cars. I don’t remember what we did with it — I might have just thrown it away, although, now, I wish I had it.

I don’t have any wood-working tools. I’ve got a bunch of useful household tools, but nothing really for woodworking other than a handsaw and a standard cordless drill. I have no carpentry machines. Two weeks ago at a Scout meeting, I talked to a couple of dads and asked them how they carved their cars.

“Oh, I just ran it through the shozim, edged it with my harriror, and then smoothed it over with my xizigy.” Yeah, I had no idea what they were talking about.

So last weekend I went to work on the block of wood with my handsaw, my drill, and some sandpaper. It took me an hour, but I managed to shape the thing into a decent car shape. CG8 came up with the ideas of adding a Lego figure driver, painting it red, and he picked out the flame decals for it.

I drilled big holes underneath the car to add metal washers to bring it up to the 5 ounces weight limit, and I think it’s shaping up to be a decent race car. Having seen a couple of other cars in our pack, and some of the design examples on the Internet, I have no hope that this car will win the derby, but it’s not a really bad looking piece of work.

Right now it’s still disassembled, waiting for the clear coat of gloss to dry, so I can’t get a picture of it. But the race is this Saturday, so I’ll have some pictures of the completed project to show next week. I hope after he sees what the whole derby event is like this time, next year he’ll have more interest in directly working on it.

Bullgrit

A few days before Christmas, I was out with Cowgrit and Calfgrit4. (Calfgrit7 was with a friend.) Cowgrit wanted to stop by a dollar store for something — I don’t remember what, maybe to look for stocking stuffers? — so we three went in.

My job was mostly to just entertain CG4 while Cowgrit looked around. But I spied something I couldn’t pass up: a whoopie cushion. For only a buck, I had to get it.

I distracted CG4 for a moment, and I grabbed the package. I held it around my back so he couldn’t see it. Then when my real intended target came back to us, I had to be more subtle and clever with my concealment. But Cowgrit’s not easy to fool.

I pretended to buy some candy while she took our littlest boy out of the store. She had noticed I was hiding something, but she thought I had picked up something for the boys’ Christmas. If only I was that thoughtful.

Once outside the store, Cowgrit wanted to see what I had bought. I tried not showing it to her, but my secrecy just made her curiosity even stronger. “Why won’t you show me what you got them?” she whispered.

We got back to our van, and while I was making sure CG4 was buckled in, Cowgrit took a peek in the dollar store plastic bag sitting on my driver seat. I discovered her investigation when I opened my door. “Well,” I moaned, “I just lost my first surprise victim.”

Cowgrit gave me that look that asks, “How old are you?” Then she laughed.

To be continued…

Bullgrit

I don’t mean to be an ass, but sometimes . . . I just am. Sometimes my don’t-say-it filter just fails me and I say, or do, something I really shouldn’t. Cowgrit is usually pretty good about letting me know when I’ve said or done something stupid, after the event — like at night when we’re going to bed.

So I’ve requested that she let me know when I’m being an ass, right at the time I’m saying or doing the wrong thing. But she said she doesn’t want to just tell me in front of other people. “Bullgrit, you’re being stupid,” may be the best way to bring the situation to my attention, but she doesn’t want to embarrass me.

That’s cool, and I appreciate her empathy for my feelings. So I had to think of some way she could let me know without being rude to me. I suggested we use a sign. I told her to use her index finger to just gently pull down the corner of her eye, like she’s scratching her face.

“But,” she said, “you’ll give me wrinkles.”

Bullgrit

In the spirit of my post back in June, Questions From a 3 Year Old, here are some questions Cowgrit has heard recently from our youngest boy (since he turned 4 in October):

We were dining at a local restaurant, and Calfgrit4 asked about the waitress: “Mommy, is she a stranger?”

“Yes,” Cowgrit answered.

“Then why does she bring us food?”

* * *

While sitting at an intersection in town: “Mommy, how do the red, yellow, and green lights work?”

* * *

“Mommy, what makes us have to go to the bathroom?”

Cowgrit explained the biology.

“Why?”

* * *

Sitting at the kitchen table during dinner: “Mommy, you don’t have a penis? Daddy has one, why don’t you?”

Cowgrit replied, “I am a girl, and girls don’t have one.”

Later, while getting ready for bed, he asked a follow up: “If you don’t have a penis, how do you go to the bathroom? Do you have a hole?”

Cowgrit: “Yes.”

Calfgrit4: “Well pull down your pants and show me.”

Cowgrit mentioned out how late it was getting, and he needed to hurry and brush his teeth before they ran out of time to read a book.

She advises: Long distraction speeches work best to make them forget a question.

* * *

Bullgrit