My 6 year old, his best friend, my 2 year old, and I went out in the back yard last evening with water balloons. The boys were very excited, and were very anxious to play immediately, but I found filling balloons with water is not an easy task. It’s aggravatingly difficult, in fact.

The package of balloons came with a special nozel that attaches to the water hose, but there was no shut off for the water other than at the wall. I filled the first balloon easily, but then struggled to tie off the end. I struggled and struggled and struggled and &%$*##@* struggled. All the while, the water is flowing from the hose. And the boys were coming up to me wanting to play with everything every 10 seconds.

I eventually rigged up a system of filling the balloons without wasting too much water (much water was still wasted, just not “too much”). I never managed to get good or fast with tying off a small balloon filled with water, but I at least got about a dozen balloons filled and tied.

Preparation took about 20 minutes. Destruction took about 2 minutes. Unfortunately, most of the balloons would not pop when they hit a kid’s body—they would bounce off a boy’s back, fall into the grass, and burst on the ground. Rather disappointing. I threw one at my 6 year old’s chest, but he scrunched down instinctively, so the balloon hit him right on the nose. It bounced off and burst on the ground. Fortunately he was not hurt by the smack to the face, and just continued running and laughing.

I think water balloons might be more fun with older kids, so they and I can throw them hard enough to burst on a body. Watching them wet only the ground was just disappointing. So I ended up taking the hose to the boys to get them good and wet.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

I hadn’t played World of Warcraft in a couple weeks. I really wanted to get into the game last night to adventure some, and build on my game character. I logged in about 8:00 p.m., and had a total escapist fun time for three and a half hours. With the kids in bed, the wife reading a book, and the headphones on my ears, I could really get into the world and adventure of Azeroth (the name of the game world).

But when I logged out, at around 11:30 p.m., I thought about my daily blog. I hadn’t written anything yet. I was tired, and really didn’t feel real creative right then. So, rather than stress over something that I do because it’s supposed to be fun, let this be my post for today:

<insert witty, insightful, and entertaining thought and/or opinion>

Thank you for your understanding.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

First grade. I can only very vaguely remember anything about my first grade days. I remember first learning to read and write, having nap time, and that’s about it. My 6 year old started first grade yesterday.

He’s been a bit anxious about the new grade. Many people talk of first grade as the first level of “real school”, but the kids started learning to read and write, add and subtract in kindergarten. First grade is just a continuation of and building on what the kids have already been learning. First grade is really not that different from kindergarten. They just won’t have nap time in class anymore. But still, my son is a little worried.

We’ve talked regularly about first grade over the past few weeks, and we’ve been to the classroom to meet the teacher together. Unfortunately, only one of his kindergarten classmates is in his first grade class. I don’t know who is more upset that his best friend from kindergarten wound up in a different first grade class: my son or my wife and I.

He woke up at 5:00 a.m. yesterday morning. He was thinking about first grade. We brought him into our bed and talked with him, with the lights out, till 6:00 when the 2 year old woke up. The morning went fine, and he got out of the car in the carpool line, and went in the school without a problem.

When he got off the bus in the afternoon, he was just bubbling with excitement. He wanted to tell us all about school. We listened as he just rambled on and on. It was all a good sign.

He had his last tee-ball game last night at 6:00 p.m. We left home early to pick up some dinner on the way, and he fell asleep in the van. He woke up and ate, then went out and played ball.

When we got home and he wanted to talk about school. We had concerns about all the new kids in his class. It’s interesting to hear this stuff. It’s easy to forget how scary the world can be to a young child. Things that we just ignore or shrug off can really stick in a kid’s mind and worry them. A classroom of 20-some new faces is daunting to a kid; stack on to that all the new lessons and learning from the teachers, and the first few days in a new grade can be overwhelming.

About an hour after we put him to bed last night, he got up and came into the den. He was worrying about school again. We talked with him and his mom held him for a few minutes. Eventually he fell to sleep.

We’ve talked with other parents, and our son’s anxiety is normal and common. But it still puts a lump in our throats when we hear and see how nervous thinking about the new experience makes him. We just remember how excited he was to tell us about his day when he came off the bus, and we know he’ll do just fine tomorrow. In a week, he’ll have made new friends in his class, and he’ll be asking if they can come over to play on the weekends.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

As of today, over 300 different people have come to this site. The exact number of distinct hosts (computers on an Internet connection) is 330. This excites me more than I expected it to.

I realize that 300 visitors is less than negligible to most Web sites. But for this site, with no marketing and no content other than my rambling thoughts, 300 is an enormous audience.

I know not everyone who has come here once, comes back regularly, but even a few is very encouraging and exciting. My latest report says that 18 pages were opened from this site yesterday—and 18 is among the fewest for a single day—there have been several days in the past couple months with numbers in the 60s.

When I started this blog site, I wanted to see if I could keep up a regular, daily routine of posting outside of a job schedule. I love to write. I’ve written for publication, I’ve written in a corporate job, and I’ve written as a hobby. I created this site for hobby writing.

My emails to friends, about things that happened in my daily life and things I experienced in my game playing, tend to be long and detailed. When I was playing World of Warcraft more regularly, I wrote a regular email to my friends titled “Weekly WoW.” When I started this site, I transferred those emails to this site, in the Computer Games section. Over the years, I’ve made many posts to a role playing game message forum. I transferred some of those posts to this site, in the Table Games section. Since starting this site in June, I’ve added all new stuff to those sections, and everything in this General section is completely new.

Writing something completely new every day, drawing from just mundane life experiences, has sometimes been a challenge. Trying to find something interesting, but not too personal, in my daily life is not always easy. I’m sure there’s been many times that what I thought was interesting probably wasn’t to many readers. But even so, it’s really fun to write all this. Sometimes I start with no idea what to write, but then I end up writing a whole article length piece. Sometimes I have a specific idea, but then realize that the subject really is boring or doesn’t really go anywhere as a story. I have about a dozen “almost” posts that I’ve written but ended up not posting, or not even finishing. I also have a few that I’ve written to completion but just haven’t posted.

I also have a back log of posts to make on my computer and table gaming. The past couple weeks have been rather busy, so I haven’t had the time in the evenings to get them together in a postable state. Some posts take 10 minutes to write, but most take at least 30 minutes. A few take an hour or more to write. And then there’s the 5-20 minutes to proofread and edit them the next morning before actually posting them.

You see, I write my posts in the evening but I post them the next morning. As both writer and editor, I need some time between the writing and the proofreading. Proofreading right after writing is called, “still writing.” I could “still write” a post for hours if I let myself. More than once, I’ve gone back and made a slight correction or edit to a post weeks after it was posted. I’m rarely perfectly satisfied with something I’ve written. There are things I’ve had published in hard form that I wish I could go back and edit just one more time. There’s always a better way to phrase something, always a better description, always a better way of expressing a thought. I’m envious of those writers who can write a perfect line in their first try. (There may actually be no such writers.)

Anyway. See, this post is a good example. I started out just wanting to mention my excitement at having over 300 visitors to this site, and that was covered in the first three paragraphs. I got on a roll and have ended up with 9 paragraphs of rambling on about writing.

And now the 10th paragraph—for the most important comment: Thanks to everyone who has visited this site, and especially thanks to everyone who has repeatedly visited. I hope it’s entertaining. I’m still sort of trying to find my “voice” for this whole thing, so I hope it isn’t too amatuerish. I’m a professional writer, but I’ve never written a daily “column” like this. It’s a great experience for me, and I want it to be an interesting read for you.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com