Cheerful Curmudgeon

I realized something as I walked the dog this morning: though I religiously read to my children throughout their “formative years,” one turned out to be a bookworm while the other did not. The bedtime story was a fixture in our household for ages. I read everything from board books to tongue-twisters to Latin-laden dinosaur books to young adult novels.

Of the zillions of books that I read to them, a few stick in my memory. All of the Dr. Seuss books have delightful plots, rhythm that the kids love to hear, and morals which are worth imparting. Green Eggs and Ham is one of my favorites. Oh Say Can You Say? was generally high on the request list and there is no way a dad cannot laught when his kids are laughing at him tripping over words that he could not say while awake, let alone at the end of a long day. The Giving Tree is a must-read for anyone with a tender heart or a tender heart in training.

I read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass to the boys; that was tough sledding. The language is not kid-friendly.

I downloaded Peter Pan from Project Gutenberg and that was an eye-opener for all of us. This is a compelling story and definitely not your Disney version.

I kept several of the books that were my favorites, looking forward to the day when I can read them to another generation.

In hindsight, was reading to my children worthwhile? Absolutely! Did it reliably turn both of them into literary fiends? Nope. Instead, it brought joy and closeness to our family in a way that nothing else could have.

Here is a little bit of nostalgic Friday fun, from Housekeeping Monthly, 13 May 1955.

For some odd reason, I am having trouble holding a reasonable conversation with Candy when I have this piece of paper in my hand and I start with, “Why don’t you….”

Our plane proved itself a magic carpet today, taking us from St. Charles, MO to Kalamazoo, MI to visit Candy’s mother (and family); then on to Valparaiso, IN to visit my mother (and family); and then back home. We could not possibly have spent time on Mother’s Day with everybody using any other vehicle.

Total time in the air: 4 hours 38 minutes, just over half the time it would have taken to drive to Kalamazoo.

Total fuel used: just 46 gallons for the 596 nautical mile (685 statute mile) round trip.

Total smiles: immeasurable!

My name is Art and I’m a worried father. The Associated Press is reporting on studies which indicate that iPods and other portable music players are often used in ways which damage hearing. I am particularly disturbed to learn that the ear bud headphones are significantly worse than other kinds of headphones. Naturally, my son loves his ear buds.

You can read the entire AP article at the Star-Tribune’s web site, ‘Ear bud’ headphones can cause hearing loss, experts warn

“We’re seeing the kind of hearing loss in younger people that’s typically found in aging adults,” said Dean Garstecki, an audiologist and professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

The big culprits aren’t the devices themselves, but the tiny “ear bud” style headphones that the music players use. “Unfortunately, the earbuds are even more likely to cause hearing loss than the muff-type earphones that were used on Walkman and portable CD players,” Garstecki said.

The article concludes with

Hearing advocates are pressing for people to turn down the volume. The rule of thumb suggested by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital is to hold the volume of a music player no higher than 60 percent of the maximum, and use it for only about an hour a day….

“If music listeners are willing to turn the volume down further still and use different headphones, they can increase the amount of time that they can safely listen,” Garstecki said.

I don’t know the “answer” to this problem but certainly the first step is to talk to our children, while we can.

I took most of the time between Christmas and New Years off, hoping to relax and spend a lot of time with my family. As seems to happen these days, moreso now that Kevin and David are both in high school, my time was largely driven by the demands of David’s swim practices and the need to work around Kevin’s wrestling and work schedules.

I did manage to steal a bit of time with each son, and with son-in-law Geoff, to just goof around and play games. I am always amazed by how restorative play time is and I suppose that my amazement should tell me something; either that I don’t play enough or that I my memory is failing. Read the rest of this entry »