It just dawned on me last week, after driving to work on my current route for six months, that I go vaguely by the comic book shop I’ve mentioned before. So this week I decided to drop in one day on my way home from work.

I wasn’t really looking for comic books, actually, I was interested in maybe picking up some old D&D book; nothing particular, just anything missing from my collection. I entered the store and the two guys up at the counter greeted me. The guy on the customer side of the counter was a young kid, maybe 16, maybe younger, (probably younger). They guy on the employee side of the counter was maybe 20.

I returned their hellos and then turned onto the aisle where I previously had seen a shelf of old D&D books. I stood in the area for a minute, looking around, not finding the books I expected, and then the teenager walked up beside me.

“The best graphic novels are all over on this side,” he said, pointing to some shelves. He added a comment that I didn’t catch.

“I was looking for the old D&D stuff,” I said. “It used to be in this area.”

“Oh,” he said, “that’s all back here.” He waved for me to follow him, and he took me to the back of the store. “This is where I buy a lot of my D&D material,” he added. Actually, he added a lot more — he was a talkative kid — but I wasn’t really paying attention to his jabber.

I’m not a real sociable guy to start with, and I was in the store just to look at some old books, in peace and quiet. I may have come across as rude with the kid. I just tuned out most of his talking. When we were standing before the shelf of gaming books, he pointed out, “I’ve been thinking about getting that set of second edition. I bought . . . ,” I wasn’t really listening.

I saw the AD&D [1st edition] Oriental Adventures book that I’ve been wanting for a while, but the spine was damaged. I took it down, looked through it, and found it also had a bit of discoloration in the pages. I put it back on the shelf. The kid was still talking.

He was a nice guy. He just wanted to talk about something he was interested in. Sadly, though, he was chatting up a guy who’s just ass enough to not really care.

He pulled a pristine AD&D1 Fiend Folio off the shelf. “This is the worst cover art of any D&D book,” he said. The way he said it, he was just continuing his chatting, not really being mean.

I just replied, “That’s the first D&D book I ever bought.” That’s true. It was the first D&D book I bought after the Basic D&D boxed set game. It’s a treasured part of my D&D collection, although I didn’t make my comment in defense of the cover art; I just said the first thing I thought when the kid showed it to me.

The kid froze for a moment, then put the book back on the shelf. He turned and walked away, and banged himself on the forehead with his fist. Damn, I’m an ass, I thought. He was just trying to chat, and I made him think he offended me. He hadn’t offended me, (because he hadn’t meant to offend me), even with a negative comment on one of my favorite books.

Alone, with peace and quiet at last, I continued looking through the gaming books. I found the boxes with old Dragon magazines, and started flipping through the oldest issues. The oldest Dragon I own is #68, December 1982. In the box I found a #62 and #55 for cheap. (There were a couple of older mags, but the marked price was too high.)

I took my choices up to the front of the store, but before checking out, I looked over the selection of new comics on the front shelves. (There were a couple more guys in the store at this point, college age guys — the state college is literally across the street.) Nothing on the comics rack jumped out at me.

I heard the kid and the employee talking about Magic: the Gathering. Is that still in print, I wondered. The employee introduced the kid to Feldon’s Cane. “For one colorless mana!?” the kid exclaimed. He’s pure gamer geek, God bless him.

I took my two magazines up to the counter, and the employee rang them up on the register. I handed over my debit card, and the kid looked over at my choices.

“You’re buying back issues of Dragon?” he asked. I smiled and nodded. “Do they still publish Dragon?”

“Not in paper form,” I answered.

The employee quipped at the kid, “These issues are older than you are.”

“Yeah,” I said, smiling, “number 55 is . . . about 1980.” (It’s November 1981.) I didn’t add, Your parents were probably still in puberty when this was published. I was liking the kid. He was interested and enthusiastic. I can’t fault him for being sociable; it’s a good thing. I felt bad for being a surly old man.

With the purchase complete, I picked up my old magazines to leave. As I started walking away, I turned back to the kid to say, “And you’re right. That cover art on the old Fiend Folio is kind of bad.”

I don’t really think the FF cover art is bad, per se. It’s a very different style than is in vogue nowadays. I might not care much for the style, myself, if it didn’t have a strong nostalgic tie for me. But I threw the kid a bone to make up for being gruff earlier.

Bullgrit

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I like to play music while I drive, and I’ve been using family travel time to introduce my boys to my old 70s and 80s tunes. So now, every time we load up in my car to go somewhere, the boys tell me what songs to play and in what order.

Stuff they like and request first every time we get in the car:

Heart - Magic Man
Heart - Barracuda
AC/DC - Back in Black
Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf

Suprising, to me, they don’t care for Wild Boys by Duran Duran.

“Dad, play Magic Man, Hungry Like a Wolf [sic], and then your song,” they tell me. “Dad’s song” is Love’s Theme by Barry White. I’m not sure exactly how that song became known as particularly my song — all the songs are from my CD collection.

I couldn’t get either of them interested in any Waylon Jennings music. They haven’t taken to Rick Springfield, either. Calfgrit9 likes She Blinded Me with Science by Thomas Dolby a little, but Calfgrit5 isn’t taken by it at all, so it doesn’t get played unless I call for it, myself.

I’m still trying to figure out exactly what attracts them to certain songs. They do seem to like rock and roll, and not country or bubblegum pop. Although, Calfgrit9 used to like, (he said it was his favorite), A Horse With No Name by America, when I played in through my cell phone. But I don’t have that song on CD in my car, so we haven’t played it in a long while. And even though they really like two Heart songs, they’re not interested in others — like Crazy on You and Straight On.

I’m thinking that getting them interested in particular music is more a matter of attaching the song to a particular activity the first time than a matter of the qualities of the song itself. Then every time we do the activity, (like just riding in the car), they want the designated music to go with it.

This concept has some serious implications for psychological manipulation. I’m not sure if this potential power, in my hands, as their father, is a good thing or a bad thing. I’m not sinister, but I do have a sense of humor.

Bullgrit

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The past two weeks have been hot as hell. Several days had temps in the low 90s. What is August going to be like when late May and early June are in the 90s already?

I bought a new bathing suit this past Friday. Not only did I need a new size, but my old two pairs are 5 and 10 years old. Something that has annoyed me for several years about men’s bathing suits is why is the style so damn long? I mean, we have disgusting bikini bottoms, or we have freakin’ knee-length pants. Why are women’s swim suits getting smaller and smaller, (no complaint from me about that), and men’s suits are getting longer and longer.

Anyway, I got new trunks. Also, we just joined the local YMCA. We’ve talked about it for years, and the place is really fantastic, huge. When they ran a good deal recently, we decided to go ahead and join in, at last.

The YMCA pool is pretty damn nice. For one thing, it has three pools — a main pool for everyone, a wading pool for young children, (and parents who want to just sit in the water), and a lap pool for the athletes and exercisers. Plus there’s a fountain area with water spraying and geysering up from a couple dozen pipes under the ground. And plus plus, there’s a great water slide — something like an amusement park would have. I’m really impressed with this YMCA.

I took the boys to the Y pool on Saturday. I lathered them up with 50 SPF sunscreen, (30 SPF for myself — I want some sun to get through), and we loaded towels and snacks and water bottles into the car.

We were at the Y for about 3.5 hours, and the boys played in the big pool and in the fountain area. I went down the water slide twice, and then lounged under an umbrella. (Yeah, I know I can’t get a suntan while under an umbrella.)

At the table next to ours was a family of a mom, dad, and little girl. I noticed the dad had on the exact same bathing suit as I did. I mentioned to him, “Hey, cool bathing suit.”

They laughed, and the mom said, “Yeah, we can tell you shop at Target, too.”

During our day at the Y pool, I noticed two other guys (a teenager and another dad) wearing my suit, but in a light blue color rather than my dark blue. I guess I have an eye for what’s the popular style.

The boys kept asking me to get in the water with them, and I did a couple times. But on that hot and crowded day, “playing with Dad” meant “climb and hang all over Dad.” I love my boys, but damn I don’t want to just be a jungle gym in the water the whole time. Either one was wrapped around my chest and the other was wrapped around my back, or they were wrapped around my right and left sides. I couldn’t really swim or play in any way.

After two hours, I reapplied sunscreen to the boys and myself. Unfortunately, we discovered that night that both were mildly sunburned on their shoulders and back. Fortunately, ibuprofen and a slathering of medicated lotion seemed to keep them comfortable. Calfgrit5 says his skin doesn’t hurt. Calfgrit9 says it stings a little, when the meds have worn off.

So, I’m a good dad for taking my kids to the swimming pool for half a day. But I’m a bad dad for letting them get too much sun. I’m a good dad for getting in the water and playing with them for twenty minutes at a time. But I’m a bad dad for getting out of the water after only twenty minutes at a time. I would say +2 and -2 balances out to neutral, but I think the sunburn lingering for day or two pushes the equation over into the bad dad.

I’ve learned my lesson: no matter what advice you’re given about what and when to apply sunscreen to kids, do more and do it more often.

Bullgrit

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I finished my P90X regimen last weekend. Even though I had to push out other things from my life, (like blogging and gaming), to make time for the workouts, I did thoroughly enjoy the whole effort. And boy, was it effort.

P90X is tough, it is intense, and it requires a real adjustment in daily life. Especially eating habits. Working out was the easier part of the whole thing, because it just required physical exertion for 1-1.5 hours each day. The diet took attention every hour of the day.

I’d do well on my diet for 3 or 4 days, but then I’d screw up and eat something I shouldn’t, or eat more than I should. My boys’ favorite restaurants are CiCi’s pizza buffet, Golden Corral buffet, and Moe’s Mexican food. We’d go to one of them at least once a week, and I’d blow my diet right out.

Plus, I like going out to a restaurant for lunch once or twice a week, and sitting down for someone else to cook, serve, and clean up while I just read a good book and eat the food. I continued to do this during P90X, but I’d have a salad or something that seemed low calorie and low fat. It wasn’t till the last few weeks that I really started checking food nutrition information carefully.

I went online to the sites for my favorite lunch-time restaurants, and I got a shock. What I thought had been good choices when eating out, was actually just as bad as any of the obviously bad choices. One salad that I had been eating once every week or two actually has over 1,000 calories and 60 grams of fat! I shit you not. My base diet was 2,000 calories and 40 grams of fat per day. So even when I thought I had been doing well, I was totally screwing it up.

But, despite the epic failure at following the P90X diet, I did manage to loose 18 unneeded pounds of padding. My muscles are firmer, and I feel absolutely great. I’m fit and solid.

I’m no underwear model, but clothes fit better, (I’ve had to buy new, smaller jeans). I have more energy, and playing with my boys is easier, with less exhaustion afterward. And apparently, judging from the pictures, my posture has improved.

Don’t laugh at my farmer’s tan.

No, I don’t have a six-pack. Although, I bet if I had managed my diet better, I would have the ripped abs. But, I’m still working on everything.

I’m moving from working out every day to working out 3-4 times a week. I’ve got a better understanding and grip on my diet now, so I think I may still slim down a bit more. Maybe the abs will start showing through soon.

Bullgrit

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Just a few weeks after getting his new bicycle, Calfgrit5 told me he was ready to take off the training wheels. When I came home from work, it was the first thing he said to me: “Dad, I want to try riding my bike on just two wheels.” I got my tools and took off the training wheels.

I held his bike for him so he could mount up, and then I held onto the back of his seat to help him balance as he started pedaling. I held on for just a few seconds as he rolled into the cul de sac, and then I let go of him. I continued to jog along beside him in case he lost his balance, but he kept going just fine.

I had to explain how to land on one foot after braking, but after a couple more runs beside him, for only a few seconds each time, he was totally able to handle the bike all by himself. Within five minutes, he was riding around the cul de sac, and in and out of the driveway completely on his own. He looked like he had been riding without training wheels for years.

A week later, he rides across grassy fields, he drops down off of curbs, and he races me and Calfgrit9 through the school’s empty parking lot. He’s awesome to behold. I think his practice riding on his scooter built up his balance over the past several months.

With Calfgrit9, when he was 6 years old, it took a lot of convincing, and weeks of repeated practice to get him riding comfortably on his own. But then, he didn’t have the scooter experience beforehand, and he didn’t have a big brother to keep up with.

There’s a kid that lives down the street from us — he’s 6 or 7 years old — who still has training wheels on his bike. He loves to come play with the Calfgrits, and he comes rushing over whenever he sees them outside. He has outgrown his bike by at least a year, and one of the training wheels is bent up in a totally useless position.

The little boy has to ride leaning to one side, with the good training wheel, so he doesn’t fall over. This is rather sad. He comes pedaling up the street to ride around the cul de sac with my boys, and I just want to stop him and fix his training wheels.

I’ve never seen his parents watching, even from their yard down the street, when he’s out riding around. I don’t know if they even know where he is when he comes over to our yard. And what’s wrong with the dad (or mom) that they either haven’t noticed the problem with his bike, or they haven’t bothered fixing it?

I mean, I can understand if someone can’t buy a new bike of the correct size (even though they could get a used bike for cheap), but at least fix his training wheels. If you aren’t going to help him learn to ride without them, don’t leave him struggling with a broken and useless wheel on one side.

Bullgrit

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