Timmy And The Hershey Bar

 My nephew was always getting into mischief. He was a good boy. He just had a lot of energy. As you know an energetic child needs to be busy. 

If he is not given something constrictive to do he will find something to do. And his something will probably get him in trouble.

Timmy was about 8 years old. He loved watching movies using the VCR

Timmy had a Hershey chocolate bar. Hershey bars are a flat piece of chocolate. The VCR tape is flat.

Why he put the bar into the machine we will probably never know. The chocolate melted everywhere.

My sister tried her best to clean it out. That VCR never worked right again.

Timmy is in his mid forties now. He does not remember why he did it. I think it was because it was there.

The Ly Situation

I have another complaint. Ly.

Two innocent little letters. They are so often misused.

My example is the word bad.

If you feel bad you might be ill. Feel better soon.

If you feel badly you are not doing a good job. Think about it for a second. If you are holding a baby badly you might drop it. If you are bad at holding the baby have someone show you how. (Or you might drop it.)

To explain better bad is an adjective used to describe a thing. Badly is an adverb which describes an action.

I hope I was clear enough. We all need to speak more correctly.

The Movie

I am embarrassingly emotional at times. Just ask my children. 

I am not a fan of science fiction movies. I do not care about the doo-hicky that they invented that can transport people to somewhere else. I am not interested in all that mechanical stuff.

So when the first Star Wars movie came out my mother kept telling me that I should take my kids to see it. I was not interested. Who cares about life in the future in outer space?

Mom gave us each a ticket to see Star Wars as a Christmas gift. I was not thrilled. However I did take all four of my children to see the movie. 

I loved it! We actually went to see it several times.

It was such a popular movie that they began making the sequel and its sequel immediately. And of course we saw them as soon as they were available.

In the movies Luke Skywalker was the hero. He had been raised by his aunt and uncle. Darth Vader was the bad guy. 

Through three movies Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader were trying to eliminate each other. Even after they discovered they were father and son.

Needless to say there were many MANY battles between them. 

In the third movie Darth Vader was killed... not by his son. They had a touching reunion before he expired.

In my family we each have a favorite place to sit in the theater, I sit a little bit ahead of the very middle of the seats. Each child has a favorite place and I know where they are.

It was such a loving scene between Luke and Darth when the father dies that I began to cry.

Soon I hear my youngest son who sat more toward the back and the left call in a loud whisper to his brother sitting more toward the front and to the right. "Hey! Look at Mom. She's crying because Darth Vader died." Not all the snickers came from my children.

But wait. There's more.

After the movie we went to the ethnic festival. It was being held beside the Detroit River in downtown Detroit.

As we walked along my adorable son would greet people saying, "That's my mom. She cried because Darth Vader got killed."

Isn't he cute???????

Do Not Be Afraid To Ask

I received a bill from the hospital after my baby was born. As I do with all bills I read it carefully.

I do not know medical billing but I did find something that puzzled me. There was a tray with a number that was charged twice. 

I had no idea what it was so I called the hospital and asked. The woman was very nice while letting me know that I was interfering with her day.

She looked in her list of medical terms. Then she looked at her copy of my bill. 

Tray number whatever was for performing a circumcision. They were charging me twice for my son's circumcision.

She very kindly took it from the bill.

If I had been afraid to ask I would have been overcharged.

A good thing to remember is that if you ask you will get one of two responses. In the case above the response was positive. I saved some money.

If the response had been negative the charge would have stayed on the bill. and I would have paid it. I would only have lost some time.

If you have a question always ask. You never know which answer will come but it is better than not knowing.

IT IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE

My son liked to watch Star Trek. All of them.

The second incarnation was Star Trek: The Next Generation. It introduced a character named Worf.

Worf is a Klingon. Klingons live for battle. When barging into war a Klingon screams IT IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE. It is a way of saying that if the warrior is brave in battle there is no more honorable way to die.

My son has an affinity for gadgets. He had one of the first home computers. He was on the internet as soon as it was available to him.

He kept telling me about all the interesting things he was doing. I really was not interested at all.

Finally one day he talked me into looking at it. He found a site I was willing to look at. I read it and learned a few things. Soon I was on the computer often reading that site.

Then I discovered these things called links. If I clicked on a link it would take me to a different site. Wow. I could find stuff. I would sit and click away. 

I found some things I liked. I found some things I did not like. I found some things that embarrassed me. I still clicked away.

Until... one day I clicked on a link. What appeared was a totally black page that somehow had a red tint to it. I was puzzled.

Then a loud deep voice told me IT IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE!

I ran to get my son. I was terrified. I thought somehow I had clicked onto a curse of some sort.

My son just laughed at me. He explained that he had installed Worf's voice to sound if the computer crashed.

It's not funny!

Bored

Are you sick of having the kids underfoot all the time yet? Are they constantly whining about having nothing to do? I have a solution.

Find a nice roomy spot that is out of your way. Cover the table and/or floor with newspapers. Set out a few items that you have laying around. Examples are macaroni, string, toilet paper and paper towel tubes, glitter, paste, rubber bands, used wrapping paper, and any other 'useless' items. Tell the children to have fun and walk away.

I advise quietly peeking in from time to time. We want to make sure the dog is not pasted to the ceiling. Otherwise leave them alone until you are ready to feed them.

My feeling is that a bored child will find something to do. That something usually gets them in trouble. If you give them something to do they are entertained and not misbehaving.

Enjoy your cup of tea.

Merry Christmas