Heh. I drove to work. Fat Guy + Recumbent + Black Ice = Intensive Care Unit
I was gratified at how good the bike felt. It skimmed along, quiet and responsive. The Koosah makes less noise than any other bike I’ve ever ridden. When the drivetrain is clean, it’s almost completely silent. It makes riding it in the morning that much more enjoyable. And the brakes! Good Lord, I can’t believe I let them get that sloppy. Having good braking again was a revelation.
Although it was colder than I expected, it was a good ride. Not too long, for the first ride this year, and I felt good. I felt strong. Good thing I have been walking as much as I have been, lately.
***
For movie night last night we watched the PG version of “Fantastic Four”. I have to admit, I love movies On Demand. We really enjoyed it. The kids thought it was the greatest movie ever, and I thought it did a pretty good job of being a comic book movie. It got such lousy reviews, I was kind of dreading watching it.
And besides, I could watch Jessica Alba for hours without getting bored.
***
The girl has been having some troubles managing her anger lately. She’s had a lot of attitude, which has earned her some consequences. For a change, the wife and I have remained calm for the most part. The girl, on the other hand, has thrown a couple of amazing fits. She’s been doing some really over-the-top kind of stuff; screaming, throwing things, etc. In a way, I kind of prefer that kind of reaction over the silent, ‘wonder-what’s-going-on-in-her-head’ sulking episodes. It seems healther. On the other hand, they’re becoming a little too dramatic.
One source of contention has been the GameCube. The kids have been getting more and more dependent on playing games, particularly the girl. And she has been getting more and more bossy when playing them with her brother. In fact, she’s been pretty much ruining the experience for him.
This morning, he got up first, tried to rouse her (unsuccessfully), and proceeded to play a game. The wife and I were trying to stay in bed. When the girl got up, she made her brother turn off the game he was playing, and demanded they play the game SHE wanted to play. He was reduced to tears, and came crying to us.
The wife and I discussed it briefly, decided this was happening far too often, and that there needed to be a meaningful consequence. So, we called the girl into the bedroom and informed her that as of this morning, no Nintendo in the mornings. The GameCube would be available only in the afternoons. Since they only play in the morning on weekends, this didn’t seem like too harsh a consequence, but it would reinforce that the GameCube was a privilege, and a privilege that could be lost.
Surprisingly, the girl went ballistic. Screaming, banging on the wall, having a complete hissy fit. At one point she banged open our bedroom door and screamed that we couldn’t stop her from playing video games, and she WOULD play them. Then she slammed our bedroom door shut.
Okay. Besides being a clear indication that the games are becoming far too important to her, at least, this was a pretty clear challenge to parental authority, something that has been becoming more and more of an issue.
Again, the wife and I stayed calm, and we didn’t yell. But while she was sulking, I gathered up all the game controllers and locked them in a trunk. I want to make it very clear who decides who will play video games, and when they will be played.
Reading this makes me somewhat glad that our uncontrollable child is probably the most honest uncontrollable child in the world.
If my wife tells him he doesn’t have TV time, and I offer for him to watch, he tells me that Mommy wasn’t going to let him.
We’re not yet medicating him — although the $3,000 we have spent on the psychiatrist to this point begs to wonder why not.