Uncle Cliff...

A little while back I blogged about my brother and his family coming to visit.

It was nice to see them as they both work and rarely have days off together and live an hour or so away from me here in Ripon. The drive is difficult for me at best so it was really cool that they drove here.

We were waiting patiently for a table large enough to accommodate our party of seven and everyone was getting bored.
For the 4 yr old and me, that spells trouble.

My brothers kid is great. He has the energy of a 4 yr old, as he should.
He was running around meeting people, having a great time.

I soon was overcome by the boredom and my inner child overtook whatever adult was ever in me and and idea came to me. I thought to myself, What an excellent opportunity to teach my young nephew something cute. This will surely get a response from his father, and his mother will appreciate me more than ever!

"Hey Brian, Tell Daddy, "Please don't hit me anymore Daddy, Please~!"
We had a captive audience of all the other people waiting for a table that Easter Day.
It took a few tries, but it wasn't long before we all heard "Please don't hit me anymore Daddy, Please~!" roll off his innocent tongue. Music to my ears. I was sure (hoping) that this lesson would stay with him well enough to be performed at another, equally opportune time and place.

Time will tell.

Whether or not my lesson that day will be remembered by my nephew, and whether or not my brother ever shows up at my place again.

A sign of the times?

Coming home from a trip to Modesto the other day...

My daughter driving (of course), we were driving past an elementary school.
I noticed several of the children, or groups of children had adult males walking with them.

Cool ! I thought to myself. All these guys are walking their kids home from school !
Being a single Dad, I am sensitive to father/child stuff and like seeing the relationship between fathers and children being cultivated in positive ways.
Great~! All these Dads out here meeting their kids getting out of school and walking them home.

Then I had to wonder, Do all of these guys work a swing or night shift that allows them such a wonderful luxury? Crap, maybe they are laid off or furloughed or some other corporate treachery that has them out on such a fantastic afternoon. (The weather this day was great!)
Maybe the neighborhood thugs, or traffic's disregard for pedestrian safety necessitated their presence.

Crap. I'll try to ignore the pessimist in me that thought anything past "Cool ! All these guys are walking their kids home from school ! " and just stay with that...happy thoughts.