Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Captain Hiram's
Methinks we have sent similar pictures in 2011 and 2010. As you notice, Crispin tends to sit in a place where I cannot assist him, which turns out to be just right because he does just fine on his own. Grandpop again commented on Liam's interest in eating salad (Liam chose salad as his entree for both meals today), and I've noticed that now that Crispin prefers to choose his own carb-heavy food off the children's menu, I am eating much more Snapper and Grouper as my entrees (rather than suffering through eating a steak to share with Crispin).
For the first time in years, it was cool and almost rainy during a day of one of our visits to Florida (fortune has smiled on us), and we enjoyed the indoor spaces of our hotel room. Here, the boys are enjoying fruit
acquired from Publix, at which we made almost daily trips for years to pick up bread and cold cuts for Grandpop and Grandmom when the "light lunch" of sandwiches ("Bill, here's what's going to happen today. We're going out to Hiram's for a big dinner, so we'll just have sandwiches for lunch.") was de rigueur.
The fruit helped the boys to acquire enough energy to practice destroying their grandparents' beds on their next visits to Virginia and Connecticut.
Crispin was assisting with my fitness program by letting me know I could use the hotel bed as a rebounder. When I was a boy, I pined for bunk beds, just because they seemed so, so full of what a boy would want. Crispin and Liam have bunk beds (and I sleep in a loft bed, which gives them plenty of climbing and hanging adventures, but not necessarily bouncing), and enjoy the freedom a good, wide open, liberated bed ready to be bounced on.
We scootered long enough for Crispin to get a blister and ask to be carried. Good thing I've been bouncing on the bed to keep in shape.
Location:U.S. 1,Sebastian,United States
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Mind Your Phraseology
Crispin looks to us with Iowa laid out behind him, in anticipation of Harold Hill's visit to River City. The boys and I (we invited Grandpop, who politely declined the invitation but did sing 76 Trombones as a way of refusing politely) watched The Music Man at a theater in Vero Beach. I found the production well wrought, sets and costumes lively, and appreciated the actor's ability to roll along Harold Hill's musical patter with a healthy mix of verve and nonchalance. Mayor Shinn reminded me of every grumpy relative I have ever encountered, not that I have encountered any grumpy relatives, but instead I am exploring various forms of the subjunctive and pluperfect and supernumerarial and sartorial and the like (this seems like an appropriate time to interject that I am auditing Mahler's 3rd Symphony, which apparently has 6 movements and is long enough to take up 2 CDs. I can see why Mahler--apart from the 1st symphony, of which I played a movement in a youth orchestra--has hovered far afield as an academic subject rather than a composer I actually hear. It would be hard for a classical radio station to program 2 hours for one symphony. I find it hard to imagine souls hardy enough to sit through a 2 hour symphony in a concert hall, including my own soul. It would be a leap of faith to shell out $40 or $50 on a 2 CD set of a symphony one has never heard or previewed. Now for a bit of computergeekopoetry: O Rhapsody, You Subscription Service Divine, Allowing us to sample Mahler, Without Breaking Our Spine!).
The boys have already seen a live production in the Northwest, and Crispin in particular approached today's experience with a bit of Byronic ennui. Liam has been so stimulated by the manifold possibilities Florida offers that he also was a bit of a flaneur when we reached the theater. Neither boy answered questions of well-meaning ushers ("Are you enjoying it?") as little cherubs, nor did the ushers seem to enjoy my 10 minute discussion of ennui and Romantic poetry and Big Issues, especially since I was stepping on their foot and they were too polite to mention it. That said, as the boys digest the production, I am very glad we went--there was a lively hum of musicals in the hotel room tonight. We talked about Mamma Mia and how it started from a challenge ("I bet you can't write a musical from Abba"), and we were challenging others. I got to the point of describing dance numbers I thought would work well in a musical of Narnia Liam and I plan to create; Mr. Tumnus and his umbrella would make for a great tap number as he greets Lucy.
We had a great dinner with Grandpop at Mulligan's, a restaurant on the river in Sebastian that seems to be thriving by serving good food with lots of staffing and efficiency and enthusiasm. Both boys ate their full meals despite claiming they weren't hungry (still thinking they were pre-Raphaelites or Baudelaire), and Liam was able to enjoy the key lime pie he has been craving.
Location:U.S. 1,Sebastian,United States
Friday, February 24, 2012
Zoo, "I'd like a photo of that"
Has Crispin risen to be a higher turtle in this familiar pose?
The Brevard Zoo serves as a touchstone. A dinosaur exhibit, with moving and roaring robots, provided the most excitement for the boys.
Up until pretty darn recently, one or both boys would not necessarily have considered this to be a fun activity. But voila
we grow and evolve and change, gaining and losing, remembering and forgetting, imagining and dreaming.
While it was sweet to witness Crispin being a little kid in the children's zoo (while Liam milled about on his own with contentment in his budding independence),
this play area no longer enraptures the boys for hours.
As I wrote yesterday, we were all finally over the age of 5, and the boys had their first experience kayaking. There was some trepidation, but we sort of enjoyed it, especially since Dad could be in the boat with them, and the only alligators we saw were babies.
The boys are talking about kayaking again (not necessarily tomorrow).
We are all feeding the birds in the following picture. Crispin chose to wear his sunglasses as eye protection; he does also look pretty hip.
Below is proof that I am actually on this trip, that the boys have not just been guided and photographed by a hybrid of a roombot and smart phone (though they might enjoy that very much).
The bird below may be the same one that landed on Crispin's head a few years ago, prompting the intelligent choice in eyewear.
After the zoo, we had a nice meal with Grandpop at Giuseppe's, a local Italian restaurant that has spruced itself up quite nicely in the past year. As Liam and Crispin shared a big caesar salad with enthusiasm before the meal, Grandpop said, "I'd like to see a picture of that."
This was, by the way, the 87th time he has commented on the wonder of Liam eating salad. I could sort of see Grandpop rolling his eyes as I pulled out my smart phone to take this photo; I had already shown him a book on the ipad2. I could imagine Grandma Edna saying, "Now I've seen everything" as she would definitely rolled her eyes. Grandpop did say, "I never thought I'd see this" about books on the ipad.
So here is a less than excellent picture to capture his bewilderment as I demonstrate the phone's ability to reverse the direction of taking a picture (a relative of mine took a video in this manner some 34 years ago or so; it ended up being of an eyeball; and it did not require all the gadgets of modern day).
Location:U.S. 1,Sebastian,United States
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Sebastian 2012
We have completed our 2nd full day in Sebastian, FL. The boys note--not with displeasure or anxiety, nor with ecstasy, but rather with something with the texture of equanimity, much like the first movement of Mahler's 1st symphony, to which I listen as I compose these words, at the beginning of a possible quest, and possibly to be aborted, to listen to Mahler's symphonies in order to see, as it were, what all the fuss is about--how quickly the days unfold.
Our regular visits have deposited memories and expectations--indeed delightful excitements approaching enthusiasm, much like the enthusiasm one might have should I decide to cease my exploration into very long sentences until I have devoted more care to the craft of writing, as much care, indeed, as Henry James may well have lent his craft even as he seemed to compose very long sentences, but whether they were any longer than a grand sentence of Woolf or Dickens is readily to be questioned, and it would seem unlikely that they would be as long as a sentence by Faulkner, though one would not call a sentence by Faulkner as grand or smooth or Woolfish but rather passionate or anguished or despairing--for Liam and Crispin.
"When will we visit Hale's Groves for Orange ice cream?"
"The zoo!" Crispin has reached the age of 5. He is now old enough to kayak. For years Liam waited to turn 5 to go kayaking at the zoo (a guided tour through the Africa exhibit with Enough Space between us and the lions so as to avoid alarming the lions); then he had to wait for his brother to turn 5. Crispin is supersuper excited to kayak. Liam is nonchalant (and also old enough to occupy himself if he really doesn't think he'd enjoy kayaking).
We scootered down the riverfront to the splash pad park, and the boys continue to have fun there.
At the playground Liam has visited since infancy, the boys and their dad climbed without anyone worrying about anyone falling. The wooden boat and castle--which Liam crawled about with such delight while Kelly and I spotted him with equal delight, even as it involved quite a bit of ducking and crawling and quick moves for us, and a few head bonks on my part, if not perhaps also Kelly's--are gone, perhaps victims of the Age of Progress, which involves removing from public spaces any Grave Threats such old wooden play structures that might contain a splinter (for those of you wondering about my use of Upper Case Letters, please be reassured that I have not bonked my head and fallen under the illusion that I am writing in German, but trust instead that I have read Winnie the Pooh and House at Pooh Corner so consistently with Crispin that I have begun to assimilate some of Milne's Stylistic Eccentricities, which bring a certain delight to his tales).
We have eaten at the Road House and the Golf Course with Grandpop. Liam and Crispin's interest in eating salad continues to impress.
We did revisit the mini golf and game room of last year.
We've gone swimming and are glad to have our wet suits along. Even though we are blessed with 85 degrees in the air, the water remains cold (at least to our feel). While one would be unlikely to confuse them with otters, Crispin and Liam show increasing comfort with the water, and their dad spends more time aqua jogging and exercising in the water, more time playing catch, and less time spotting two nervous swimmers who somehow never stay right next to each other.
Hiram's continues to serve the waffles the boys look forward to (and their dad eats the copious protein and veggie rich leftovers of the night before, as he looks back from the waffles). In more Grand Progress, civilians are no longer permitted to pour the batter into the waffle maker to make waffles themselves, possible because their is Great Fear that a splinter from the wooden play structures at the playground might have flown through the air to land in the batter and would pass unnoticed into the palate of the guest if Vigilance is Not Maintained.
I will let you return to counting your honey pots.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
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