Ready Or Not...

Yesterday was our first day of Kindergarten.

How, when, who...

Our Mr. Man can not possibly be old enough for school. I'm not ready for this.

Of course he took it all in stride. Barely a moment of apprehension. Turns out I was making him nervous all week with the constant questions. "Are you excited?", "Are you ready?", "Can we practice your writing and reading again?"

Daaaaaaad! Can we stop now? Let's play something. I'll be fine.

But you...but, but...

I'm ready already.

And he was. We took a few packs of glue sticks for the class. It was the only thing I could remember from the 'needs' list. Mr. Man handed them to his new teacher and told her, "You can keep these. My dad said we have more for home." as he wandered off to find a tiny chair.

He sat between two other boys. On his right was the class crier. On the left...(I'm sure he's a nice kid, but his parents had shaved his head. Who shaves a 5 year olds head?)was the kid totally opposite from crier. Out going and excited.

Mr. Man looked at the crier, looked up at me with a look of "WTH?" and then to Buzz. Buzz looked at Mr. Man and said,"Hey, do you want to play with these blocks?

"Sure, that'd be great.

"Ya. We should be friends."

"Ok. Let's play."

And that was that. The pure simplicity of childhood. It was beautiful. Except for the crier. He just would not stop. I sort of felt bad, but you have to learn to face the world or those other kids will eat him alive. Kids can be brutal.

I was one the last parents to leave after drop off. I wanted to make sure everything was alright and check out the other kids. I wanted to check out the other parents and see how they handled it all.

Other people frighten me. That's all I gong to say for now. They frighten me.

The very worst part of watching my son grow up, is knowing that one day, that pure simplicity that can and should make childhood the most wonderful place in the world, will be gone. Eventually, he will forget those simple pleasures and be like most all of us. That I find painful and very sad. I hate that I even think about such things.

I should just let it all be and encourage him to be a kid, and enjoy all of those simple things, as best he can, for as long as he can. I will remember his childhood forever, even if he doesn't. And I have pictures.

It just pisses me off feeling like this. It totally justifies a lot of what my mother does. I can just hear her voice, " You just wait..."

I hate it when she's right.

Not, ready.

Dear Apple,

Steve,

I wanted you to know, I love almost everything you do. I am a huge fan of the machines, gadgets, browsers and everything else you do and have done. And I very much appreciate the six months of free service with Mobileme.

However, Mobileme is still one giant pile of steamy crap!

Mobileme has NEVER worked the way we were told it would. There are CONSTANT disruptions to service, it is down more than a two dollar whore and I am forever getting error messages for absolutely everything I need to do, not to mention how often I am just disconnected for no reason what so ever.

Even though the error messages say that a copy has been save to drafts or where ever it should be saved, do know what? IT NEVER SAVES SHIT!

Please, Steve, have at least one of your minions spend some time working on the numerous bugs and glitches that Mobileme still has. Or at least put dot mac back on line. In all the years I used dot mac, I never had a problem. EVER.

The few bells and whistles that mobileme has that do work are not enough to make up for the amount that still doesn't, and hasn't ever worked.

Steve, you're better than this. And quite frankly, I expect more from you. If this was MS, I would take it in stride because we expect MS to suck. But you're Apple baby. Please, do something.

Sincerely,

A once satisfied, growing ever pissed off customer.


Story Time...

It has been brought to my attention that my posting has slowed. Thank you Christine, I'm alright.
So to speak.

Let me share a story.

A piece of paper is relatively strong and equally as fragile. It can be used over and over if it's cared for. Use a soft pencil to write and it can be erased and written on again and again before it wears out. You can fill the paper with everything important.

The paper can be used for a variety of other things besides writing and drawing, such as wrapping for other objects. It can be wadded up and used for padding or filler. You can fold it to make shapes or objects. Of course if you wad or fold, the paper will never fully recover. The wrinkles and folds will always be a part of the paper from that point on. Some will fade over time, but they're still there.

Some times the paper gets torn. You can leave the tear and work around it. You can continue the tear until you have two pieces of paper. You can tape it back together.

If you tape the paper, it can be stronger and last longer than the original paper. Of course it will never be the same. You will have to use something a little more permanent it you want to write over the tape and you might never get the writing or tape off again.

At times there are many other people that all want a piece of your paper. They get grabby and pieces of your paper might get torn off. Sometimes, you can get those pieces back. Other times, they will be lost forever. Your paper will never be quite whole again.

You can even burn your paper to provide heat or light. All be it fleeting as your paper will burn and disappear quickly. You can even use to ash to draw decorate or even fertilize or compost.

Functional but not the best use of your paper.

The only way to keep the paper safe is to file it away someplace where it will never be used. No writing drawing folding wadding ripping tearing taping losing fading ever.

Safe.

But then you have taken away every thing the paper was supposed to be. It will never see it's potential. Never see joy sorrow pain pleasure love hate ugly beauty ever.

Sad.

If you can remember what's important, and care for your paper, be firmly gentle, your paper will bring years of pleasure and fond memories until it's recycled and used again or returned to the earth to feed a future piece of paper.

Unless it's just dumped in the trash and wasted.




Life On The Line...

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