Bullgrit

My boys have taken an obsessive like of the Maroon 5 song Payphone. They heard it on the radio sometime when I wasn’t around, (I rarely listen to the radio anymore), and then asked me to buy it for my iPhone so we can play it in my truck when we’re out driving.

At the time I bought the song, I didn’t know there were two versions — radio edit and explicit. Fortunately I downloaded the radio edit version, so I haven’t had to explain what “shit” means.

Anyway, Calfgrit7 asked me what a payphone is. Neither of them have ever lived in a world without ubiquitous cell phones, so the concept of a payphone is nonsense to them. But I happen to know there is such an artifact near our home, so I took them around to it. It’s a phone box in the parking lot of a gas station (in the parking lot of a grocery store).

I explained the concept of how a payphone works, and how before they were born, people didn’t have cell phones. If we were away from home, and needed to call someone, we used a payphone. Put a quarter in the slot, punch in the number, and talk while standing right there.

They’ve also never seen a phone book, like that one hanging underneath the payphone. So I had to explain the concept of having every person’s and every business’s phone number listed in a large book. Both boys seemed to understand what I was telling them, but their expressions seemed to show they thought this thing was some archeological find. I mean, there’s even a cord on the phone, what’s that for?

You know, the 21st century is really different than I expected it to be when I was 7 and 11 years old. I never imagined cell phones, and things I did imagine, (the cliché flying cars), are still complete fantasies.

Bullgrit

Calfgrit11 came home this week with the results of his first math quiz of the year: he failed it. Wifegrit and I were shocked. He was good in math throughout elementary, and, in fact, is actually in the advanced placement math in middle school.

So Thursday night I sat down with him to go over the test. He also had some math homework and I helped him with that. The homework was working with exponents and order of operations. He claimed to not understand what some of the terms were, like squared and cubed, but I think he just isn’t paying attention in class. I think he’s daydreaming, or sneak-reading a book, or something. But anyway, I went over it all with him. I explained what squared and cubed meant, and why those terms are used — squaring a number is how you get the area of a square, and cubing is how you get the area/volume of a cube. He likes learning the whys of things.

I don’t know where this cartoon comes from, so I don’t know how to properly credit it.

On his math class web site, there’s a cartoon illustration with an equation:

Although the cartoon had nothing to do with his homework, I thought it would be fun to explain it to him and let him work it out on paper. I explained how to convert a whole number to a fraction, reminded him how to change a fraction to a decimal, and I explained what pi is, (its value and its meaning). He did all the calculations on paper, himself, and I checked him on paper and then checked us both with a calculator. He wrote the answer, (169.69697, if I remember correctly — I’m not going to do the calc again, right now), on a piece of paper to take to school with him the next day. He wanted to show his teacher.

So we got his homework all done, and he went off to play before bedtime. The next afternoon, (Friday), Wifegrit called me after picking Calfgrit11 up from school.

“I want to congratulate you,” she said.

“Thanks,” I said, “for what?”

“For being a good daddy. Calfgrit11 got an A on his math test today. He said it was because you helped him learn his homework last night.”

Boom! From an F to an A in two days. My boy just needed someone to get and hold his undivided attention. He can understand and learn anything when he actually puts his mind to it. But when he has distractions, or just doesn’t have someone to focus his attention, he wanders and gets lost in his own world. I have no idea where he gets that. <looks away and whistles innocently>

Bullgrit

Another birthday, so it’s time for another “flash my torso” post:

I’m over two years past finishing my first round of P90X, and I’ve since done several more rounds of it, plus two rounds of Insanity, and (recently) one round of Jillian Michaels Body Revolution. I’ve also started running 2-3 times a week, (usually in place of a P90X cardio routine).

I once complained, “Where’s My Six-Pack!?” Well, it took a while, but I found it. It’s still not as visually obvious as I want it, but beneath that thin layer of the last couple of percentages of body fat, my abs are solid and tight.

I’m not posting a pic of my body to show off or brag, (though I am proud of my accomplishment). I’m showing this to say, if I can do it, anyone can do it, including you. I’m not selling or advertising (or getting any pay of any kind from) the DVD programs I’ve mentioned here. I’m just blogging about what I’ve done, and how I’ve done it.

I’m 45 years old, with a wife, two young sons, a full-time job, and this blogging part-time job/hobby. It’s damn, damn hard to work a middle-aged body to this extreme. And as hard as the physical working out is, the hardest part for me is maintaining a proper diet. God, the crap I eat sometimes kills me while I’m trying to carefully track and control calories, fats, carbs, and proteins.

But the effort is so totally worth it. I couldn’t imagine three years ago just how amazing it feels to be in this good a shape, especially at this age. I was thin/skinny in my 20s, but not really fit, so I can honestly say I’m in better shape, now, at going on half a century old than I was then.

So, there. This concludes my annual “look at my body” post. Next time I’ll go back to my usual telling how my kids are driving me insane.

Bullgrit