I know, I'm tough

Saturday 2/14/26

My nephew Charlie is acting in his school play which is The Wizard of Oz. He wanted to be the Wizard, but my mom was telling him that would probably go to an eighth grader and not a sixth grader. Charlie got a neat part, though--he's playing the coroner Munchkin. A little black humor!

I think it's cool that he shows an interest in this kind of thing. He's very into sports and probably has at least two basketball games later today, and that's what his friends are into. Well, his friends are into their friend stuff. Which is how it is for most boys that age. But "jocks" normally don't do theater. A "jock" probably isn't a thing as early as sixth grade, but one knows what I mean.

When I was a high school hockey star, writing and the arts always meant more to me. But I was the only one among my teammates with any interest in that kind of thing. Which isn't to say I didn't have teammates who did well in school and wanted to. I guess we'll see if my nephew maintains an interest in this type of activity. I hope so. It's always best to be yourself and have a range of interests. I think I'll send him a link to Judy Garland singing "Over the Rainbow" live on the radio for the first time from June 23, 1939 (the film didn't come out until August).

My mom saw the kids the last two days. Or the girls on Thursday and al of them yesterday. I think. I had a message for her to give Amelia on Thursday, that being that the Little Goal Girl was unhappy that the Patriots had lost the Super Bowl, but could at least comfort herself with the knowledge that if it were the Fighting Amelias who were playing instead then the Seahawks would have had no chance.

Upon receiving this message, Amelia replied, "I know. I'm tough."

She has a surfeit of self-confidence. As her brother said, she thinks she's great at everything. To be fair, though, she's also hard on herself. She really wanted to make it all the way across these monkey bars. She'd done it once, then she couldn't repeat the achievement. Each time at the park, she'd try repeatedly. She got blisters on her hands. Eventually she could do it.

Lilah was doing these cartwheels and trying to land at a given spot as my mom watched her. Of course, Amelia wanted to try and didn't get close. My mom said, "That was a really good try," and Amelia looked at her all confused and said, "No, it really wasn't."

She's a little...strange. I hope she retains her quirkiness as she gets older. We tend to lose the things that as children made us us.

I'm doing my worst job with stairs in years. Need to turn it around. I keep clinging to the chance of the Monument reopening. It's been above freezing the last few days. Made no difference. They waited until five minutes after one on Thursday to update the site to say that the Monument was closed on account of weather, and then did so yesterday some time after eleven. I walked six miles each of those two days. Walking is good, but walking doesn't get it done like I need to be getting it done fitness-wise.

If I make it until tomorrow without drinking I'll have reached a nice round number of weeks. A reminder: Don't assume the day, go out and earn the day. In all things.