Calfgrit7 got undressed for his bath, and I checked his clothes pockets to make sure nothing “extra” would get in the washing machine. From one pocket I pulled out a bullet. A bullet.

It isn’t a live cartridge, it’s just a spent and deformed bullet.* It’s sliced in half diagonally, and the bottom is slightly smushed into an oval shape. Looking at in my hand, it’s a right good sized caliber; I figured it might be a .44 or .45, but when I checked in on a ruler, it’s at least .50. Its size, the three rings around the bottom, and the hollow base (not the point) made me think it might be a Minié ball. [I just looked up pictures of Minié balls through Google, and now I’m certain this is such.]

Calfgrit7 was excited when I said it was a bullet. I wasn’t upset or anything, I was just surprised. I mean, we’ve found all kinds of things in his pockets over the years, but I didn’t expect to find a bullet. Especially a Civil War-style bullet. (I don’t expect it’s actually from the Civil War.) He said he found it on the playground at school. Wow.

I’m considering taking it to his school office just to let them know what was found. It’s not a big deal in itself, and I don’t expect anything to “be done” about it. But my pointing it out to them might be of use if some other kid finds one or if anything weird or “suspicious” comes up about kids finding bullets on the playground. Who knows, some other kid may find one (one more easily recognizable as a bullet) and show it around to his classmates. I can imagine the uproar that could follow such an event.

Thinking about the potential for things to get blown out of proportion is what makes me think twice about telling the school. I can just see the newspaper headlines, “FIRST GRADER FINDS BULLET ON SCHOOL PLAYGROUND”.

* For those who aren’t familiar with guns and bullets, a bullet is the lead projectile that comes out of the gun. By itself, with no powder and no gun, it is no more dangerous than a small rock.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

It’s was a long and active weekend, and it wore me out. After we put the boys to bed Monday night, it was another half hour before both were asleep — Calfgrit7 passed out almost immediately, but Calfgrit3 just would not fall asleep. Cowgrit and I had to wait nearly an hour after putting them to bed before we could turn on the movie we wanted to watch.

We didn’t do anything particularly interesting this weekend, just played mostly, and painted one bathroom. It was warm enough that the boys could get wet in the backyard. We set up a new play table that’s designed for sand and water, and the boys played with that just on and on. I grilled some burgers and hotdogs and a steak skewer for dinner Monday night.

So, like I said, nothing really interesting. Just some normal Memorial Day weekend activities around the house. I’d like to thank all our service men and women who put themselves on the line to let all the rest of us have the freedom to have mundane weekends. Thank you.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Calfgrit7 has mentioned wanting to get a watch for the past few weeks, so a few days ago, Cowgrit got him one. She surprised him with it one morning, and he was really excited.

It was an analog clock (dial & hands) with a black plastic band with red flames. It did look pretty cool. He put it on immediately, and I asked him the time. He looked at his watch intently and counted the little lines past the hour. “Seven fourteen,” he told me.

After breakfast, he went to brush his teeth. “Is the watch okay to get wet?” he asked me. I told him to try to keep it dry, as it might stop working if it got wet. So he took it off while brushing his teeth.

He wore the watch to school and loved it. He was so proud to have it, and I was proud of how well he was trying to take care of it. That evening he and I and another father and son went to watch a semi-pro soccer game. A strong rain storm came through before the game started, so it was canceled. When we were out in the rain, rushing back to the truck, Calfgrit7 took off the watch and put it in his pocket, to keep it from getting wet. I told him how proud I was of him for taking care of his new watch.

The next day at school, he fell in some mud on the playground. When he went to the restroom to wash up, he took off his watch and set it on top of the towel holder. After washing up, he left the restroom, but he forgot his watch. Sadly, when he remembered and went back later in the day, it was gone.

It never turned up in the school lost and found, and he was pretty sad. He’d only had the thing a little over 24 hours, and despite his best effort to take care of it, it was gone. Cowgrit and I both reiterated how proud we were for his effort, but we consoled him that mistakes happen sometimes. He offered to use his own money, out of his piggy bank to buy another watch, but we told him we’d get him another one.

It’s a sad story. Despite his best effort to take care of it, it got forgotten and then apparently stolen. A sad life lesson for a 7 year old.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

One of Calfgrit7’s friends had a birthday party at a new small amusement park. For the party, the kids — 6 boys, 1 girl (the sister of the birthday boy) — road the bumper boats, drove go-carts, and played minature golf.

After pizza and cake, the party ended and most parents and kids went away. CG7 and I toured the huge arcade area. I haven’t been in an arcade that big in years. They had everything from the old classic Donkey Kong and Galaga to new, high-graphic games I hadn’t seen before.

Instead of quarters or tokens, this arcade took swipe cards. You can get a swipe card at the counters or at self-service machines — I used a machine, and I put $10.00 on a card. I figured that would give us plenty of game play even if the games were 50 cents a play.

I quickly discovered most of the games were $1 a play. Well, okay, we’d get 10 games on the card. Calfgrit7 got to drive in a NASCAR race, I flew a WWII fighter plane, and we hunted deer and buffalo together. This was Calfgrit7’s first time playing a shooting video game. I was hesitant at first, but I’d rather him have his first shooting game experience with me than with his little friends.

I’ve always had a draw to shooting games; I like to shoot real guns, and I’m a pretty good aim. But arcade shooting games have always been frustrating. The guns are always badly aligned, and my first quarter (or dollar) is always wasted on trying to figure out how the gun is aligned — a game gun’s alignment can vary greatly depending on distance from the screen, closeness to the edge of the screen, angle to the screen. (And sometimes I think they have some random variability.)

We played the hunting game three times, and Calfgrit7 loved it. After the first game, I had figured out the alignment of my gun, and I was racking up the hits and trophies. We chose team play, so my shooting could keep us both in the game for a decent amount of time.

One thing that quietly tickled me about this game was the eye-candy girls that came out on the screen and posed between the hunting rounds. Totally unnecessary for the game, but completely playing to the target demographic (no pun intended). It was a different girl every time, but they all wore the same outfit and held that gun like the plastic prop it must have been.

I would love to have been in the game development meeting where the idea to put these girls in the break scenes came up. How hard or easy was it to convince the producer to allow the extra budget to pay the models and video photographer. I mean, the girls add absolutely nothing to the game play aspect of the program, but they probably do draw in more eyes from male players looking for the next machine to slide a buck in. (Was that a Freudian pun?)

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com