A couple of firsts...or lasts

Last week Teri finally took down Sebastian's aqua-blue baby swing. He'd protested every time she'd suggested doing it before, but this time apparently he had no objection; it's just too small for him now. In its place she put up an odd thing with handles that you hang from. She found it in the shed; I had no idea that we even had it.

Last night Sebastian and I read our last Tim book: Tim's Last Voyage. If you don't know them (and you probably don't, unless you're old and/or a Brit) Edward Ardizzone illustrated a lot of books, particularly for children. He also wrote some wonderful books of his own.

His best-known books are the Tim series, about a little English boy who loves the sea. In fact, he loves it so much that he often runs away to become a sailor, at times even stowing away on ocean-bound ships. At other times his parents, oddly enough, give Tim permission to sign on as a ship's boy for his holidays. It seems equally odd that the captains of so many ships are willing to hire a young boy without checking with his parents.

Unfortunately Tim's proper name should probably be Jonah, because disaster seems to follow his every footstep. One of these days I should count the number of ships that have sunk while Tim was on them; I imagine it's at least half a dozen. Perhaps Tim was working for the Kaiser. :D

Anyway, my parents read some of the Tim books to me when I was little, and I quickly memorized them; either that, or I learned to read them, I'm not sure. But in any case I had fond memories, and made sure to buy some to read to Sebastian.

Most of them are out of print, of course. The first one was published in 1936(!), and the last one in 1977 - just two years before Ardizzone's death.

Anyway, the Tim books all occupy our special book pile, the collection that I pick from when I read to Sebastian at night. We have seven of the books, and recently I was browsing the electronic catalog at the library and was delighted to find three more Tim books that we didn't have. I ordered them all via inter-library loan, and they all came in pretty quickly.

And last night we read the last one: Tim's Last Voyage. It was good, though sad; Tim ends up on another wrecked ship, and finally his mother gets him to promise that he won't go on any more voyages. The final page is a picture of Tim as a rather effeminate-looking adult, now the captain of a ship.

But Ardizzone actually wrote another Tim book after that, Ship's Cook Ginger, and that's another one of the three that we got from the library. I'm going to have to buy a copy of it (and of all three, actually), because it's high on Sebastian's list of favorites. Why?

"What's this in my stew?"

"Mice are very nourishing."

Maybe I should do a web page about the Tim books. It's a pity that so many of them are out of print.

A couple of firsts...or lasts

Last week Teri finally took down Sebastian's aqua-blue baby swing. He'd protested every time she'd suggested doing it before, but this time apparently he had no objection; it's just too small for him now. In its place she put up an odd thing with handles that you hang from. She found it in the shed; I had no idea that we even had it.

Last night Sebastian and I read our last Tim book: Tim's Last Voyage. If you don't know them (and you probably don't, unless you're old and/or a Brit) Edward Ardizzone illustrated a lot of books, particularly for children. He also wrote some wonderful books of his own.

His best-known books are the Tim series, about a little English boy who loves the sea. In fact, he loves it so much that he often runs away to become a sailor, at times even stowing away on ocean-bound ships. At other times his parents, oddly enough, give Tim permission to sign on as a ship's boy for his holidays. It seems equally odd that the captains of so many ships are willing to hire a young boy without checking with his parents.

Unfortunately Tim's proper name should probably be Jonah, because disaster seems to follow his every footstep. One of these days I should count the number of ships that have sunk while Tim was on them; I imagine it's at least half a dozen. Perhaps Tim was working for the Kaiser. :D

Anyway, my parents read some of the Tim books to me when I was little, and I quickly memorized them; either that, or I learned to read them, I'm not sure. But in any case I had fond memories, and made sure to buy some to read to Sebastian.

Most of them are out of print, of course. The first one was published in 1936(!), and the last one in 1977 - just two years before Ardizzone's death.

Anyway, the Tim books all occupy our special book pile, the collection that I pick from when I read to Sebastian at night. We have seven of the books, and recently I was browsing the electronic catalog at the library and was delighted to find three more Tim books that we didn't have. I ordered them all via inter-library loan, and they all came in pretty quickly.

And last night we read the last one: Tim's Last Voyage. It was good, though sad; Tim ends up on another wrecked ship, and finally his mother gets him to promise that he won't go on any more voyages. The final page is a picture of Tim as a rather effeminate-looking adult, now the captain of a ship.

But Ardizzone actually wrote another Tim book after that, Ship's Cook Ginger, and that's another one of the three that we got from the library. I'm going to have to buy a copy of it (and of all three, actually), because it's high on Sebastian's list of favorites. Why?

"What's this in my stew?"

"Mice are very nourishing."

Maybe I should do a web page about the Tim books. It's a pity that so many of them are out of print.

Complications, catch-up

There's too much to catch up on, so I'm going to do it in terse mode.

Friday:

You can skip this part if you already listened to my whiny voice posts from that day.

There was a new driver on the shuttle to Ruggles who didn't know that he was supposed to GO to Ruggles. He also got a bit lost. So I missed my train for the first time in quite a while. That pissed me off a lot.

I took the subway to South Station and caught the 5:10 train instead. Half-way through the trip, there was an announcement that there was a fire on both sides of the tracks further down; we'd be stopping at the next station, and we should try to make "alternate arrangements".

Eventually a bunch of school buses came by and took us to the next stop past the fire. It was weird; I hadn't been in a school bus in decades. I ended up getting home at about 7:30.

Saturday

Sebastian had his second soccer game. There's no way to put it nicely; he's a terrible soccer player, at least so far. He runs away from the ball, looks away when it's being thrown on the field, gets silly, chats with other kids, and sometimes sits down on the field. I spent a lot of my time shouting "Look at the ball, Sebastian! Kick it!", and I know I shouldn't. It's not his fault; athleticism just doesn't run in our family.

They lost, 3-4.

Sunday

I played a fair amount of Zelda: The Twilight Princess on the Wii. But that will be a separate entry later, I suspect. So far I've had a lot of fun with it, and I've done quite well. Both Teri and Sebastian have been a bit difficult as kibitzers, though. Whenever I hit a tough spot Sebastian urges me to "cheat and look it up online". Teri just doubts my judgment in the game, although so far I've been right every time; I do understand the designers approach to the game (to be fair, Teri has also made some extremely insightful and helpful comments, and she's usually right in her guesses).

Right now I'm in the Goron mines of Death Mountain. The magnetic effects are totally cool.

Late Sunday night I heard Sebastian cough again and again. I managed to get to his room and get the trash can under his mouth in time to keep him from messing everything up, fortunately - that's a first. But it was pretty violent, and he was quite upset.

Monday

He couldn't go to school the next day; you're not allowed to if you've thrown up in the past 24 hours. Teri's car had to go into the shop (a woman had backed into it with her SUV and did some body damage). The rental wouldn't be ready until 10 AM, so I was stuck at home.

And then Teri said "Do you smell gas?".

We ended up calling the number for gas leak emergencies. Had to leave everything exactly as is. Even the phone had to stay off the hook. And we all waited outside for the technician to arrive.

Sure enough, we had a small leak in the valve connecting to our stove. Some of the hardware was extremely old, so old that replacement parts were no longer available; we'd have to have the valve and connector replaced. The technician turned off our gas and told us to call the company back once the repairs had been done. They don't do the repairs themselves; we would have to call (and pay) a plumber to do it.

Long story short, $388 later our gas piping was up to code. But our gas company (National Grid, for the record) won't give a time window for reconnection. Their technician could arrive any time between 8 AM and 8 PM, and possibly even later! They'll give a call up to an hour before they arrive, but that's it.

Teri was busy on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we had to book the appointment for Thursday. Until then, we can't use the stove or oven.

Oh well.

Complications, catch-up

There's too much to catch up on, so I'm going to do it in terse mode.

Friday:

You can skip this part if you already listened to my whiny voice posts from that day.

There was a new driver on the shuttle to Ruggles who didn't know that he was supposed to GO to Ruggles. He also got a bit lost. So I missed my train for the first time in quite a while. That pissed me off a lot.

I took the subway to South Station and caught the 5:10 train instead. Half-way through the trip, there was an announcement that there was a fire on both sides of the tracks further down; we'd be stopping at the next station, and we should try to make "alternate arrangements".

Eventually a bunch of school buses came by and took us to the next stop past the fire. It was weird; I hadn't been in a school bus in decades. I ended up getting home at about 7:30.

Saturday

Sebastian had his second soccer game. There's no way to put it nicely; he's a terrible soccer player, at least so far. He runs away from the ball, looks away when it's being thrown on the field, gets silly, chats with other kids, and sometimes sits down on the field. I spent a lot of my time shouting "Look at the ball, Sebastian! Kick it!", and I know I shouldn't. It's not his fault; athleticism just doesn't run in our family.

They lost, 3-4.

Sunday

I played a fair amount of Zelda: The Twilight Princess on the Wii. But that will be a separate entry later, I suspect. So far I've had a lot of fun with it, and I've done quite well. Both Teri and Sebastian have been a bit difficult as kibitzers, though. Whenever I hit a tough spot Sebastian urges me to "cheat and look it up online". Teri just doubts my judgment in the game, although so far I've been right every time; I do understand the designers approach to the game (to be fair, Teri has also made some extremely insightful and helpful comments, and she's usually right in her guesses).

Right now I'm in the Goron mines of Death Mountain. The magnetic effects are totally cool.

Late Sunday night I heard Sebastian cough again and again. I managed to get to his room and get the trash can under his mouth in time to keep him from messing everything up, fortunately - that's a first. But it was pretty violent, and he was quite upset.

Monday

He couldn't go to school the next day; you're not allowed to if you've thrown up in the past 24 hours. Teri's car had to go into the shop (a woman had backed into it with her SUV and did some body damage). The rental wouldn't be ready until 10 AM, so I was stuck at home.

And then Teri said "Do you smell gas?".

We ended up calling the number for gas leak emergencies. Had to leave everything exactly as is. Even the phone had to stay off the hook. And we all waited outside for the technician to arrive.

Sure enough, we had a small leak in the valve connecting to our stove. Some of the hardware was extremely old, so old that replacement parts were no longer available; we'd have to have the valve and connector replaced. The technician turned off our gas and told us to call the company back once the repairs had been done. They don't do the repairs themselves; we would have to call (and pay) a plumber to do it.

Long story short, $388 later our gas piping was up to code. But our gas company (National Grid, for the record) won't give a time window for reconnection. Their technician could arrive any time between 8 AM and 8 PM, and possibly even later! They'll give a call up to an hour before they arrive, but that's it.

Teri was busy on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we had to book the appointment for Thursday. Until then, we can't use the stove or oven.

Oh well.

Argh - gas

National Grid called today and cancelled our gas re-connection appointment for tomorrow. They say we have to have a mechanical inspector from the city inspect the new work, and then he has to contact them before they'll make a new appointment.

I don't know how long it will take to get an appointment from the city, nor what, if anything, it will cost. But it doesn't seem unimaginable that we'll be waiting another week, or more, before we can cook in the house.

Hell, I can imagine it taking another month!

Argh - gas

National Grid called today and cancelled our gas re-connection appointment for tomorrow. They say we have to have a mechanical inspector from the city inspect the new work, and then he has to contact them before they'll make a new appointment.

I don't know how long it will take to get an appointment from the city, nor what, if anything, it will cost. But it doesn't seem unimaginable that we'll be waiting another week, or more, before we can cook in the house.

Hell, I can imagine it taking another month!