Happy Holiday Everyone

Well, the second half of the year has arrived. Yesterday, my youngest walked to my office after her day working as a volunteer counselor at the SPCA, which is about four blocks from my office. I reintroduced her to many staff members, no doubt embarrassing her in the process.

I wonder whether our children understand why we are so proud of them? I hope they do not think it is about us, their parents.

Speaking for myself, as the father of six children and six grandchildren, what has always amazed me is the genetic diversity in our family. All 12 of them are unique human beings, with different appearances, proclivities and interests.

Since I love math, that tells me that the random human outcomes of reproduction are vast. Every person is unique and special -- a true individual.

If that is a validation of the American cultural ideal so be it!

Happy Birthday, country!

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Domestic Saturday

Woke up and realized we did not have the right food here for Aidan (20) to make his three meals for his work shift (12:45-9:15) today. So off to Safeway I went, where I secured ground turkey, broccoli, dried mango, eggs, egg whites, frozen rice, and other essentials.

Checked in with Dylan (19) about his plans for today, which are to party with the Pride crowd. This is his favorite weekend of the year, he recently told me. He just sent a joyful text to me "Pride is awesome today!"

Julia (16) and I saw lots of half-naked people, obviously headed for Pride, as she and I went out to a mall for her to get her third set of ear piercings. "They are basically wearing bikinis but not at the beach," was her observation. She got her new earrings, and I am happy it was with me there with her.

I've been taking my kids to Claire's for piercings for years and to tattoo shops as well. Today I noticed Julia didn't even flinch as her ears were pierced. She is a young woman now, and also an athlete, an artist and an urban kid.

The African American woman who pierced her ears told me about when she got her own third set of piercings (15) when she learned Julia's age.

I do not really understand the things they want to do, to be honest, because I am an old man, without much context, a partner, or anyone to talk it over with. But then again that doesn't really matter. I just love them the way they are.

Plus all the other people who talk to me along the way.

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Little Moments

Yesterday I came home at lunchtime and picked up my 16-year-old to go to the Verizon store. Her phone has been acting up and it was time for an upgrade.

It took 2 and 1/2 hours. While there, we found out we qualified for a discount, based on my employer. But I had no official ID with me that Verizon would accept. (After the salesperson checked with his supervisor, they gave us the discount anyway.)

As we were enduring one of the many long waiting periods, I brought up my KQED Author ID page, which has my photo and the list of (39) articles I supposedly have published on kqed.org. (I think the number is greater than that, but whatever, technology is never perfect.)

"Wow, you are famous, Dad!" she said.

It turned out she was Googling me and found the Wikipedia entry about me ("David Weir, Journalist).

As she read that entry, she said, "is this true?" She was referring to one line.

"Nope that used to be true," I replied.

"Let's fix it."

She then edited the entry and corrected the outdated information.

There we were in a Verizon store on Mission Street, on an iPad chained to its display case, correcting some information about my half-century career on the biggest crowd-sourced encyclopedia in the world. And my daughter was discovering that I have an Internet footprint for the very first time.

Her biggest disappointment?

"Why didn't they talk about your kids?"

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Father's Day Weekend

Big get-together with Laila and Loic and kids and Sarah Daisy and kids today to celebrate Father's Day and Loic's birthday. For a while when I got there, Sophia was the only one hoke, so she and I did some projects together.

Later with all the kids) except Daisy who was napping) I played a story game I like. We go around in order after the first person (me) starts a story and add some lines to it.

"Once upon a time, in a place not so far from here, some children went on an adventure..."

It usually ends up involving a dragon, some fireballs, food, a mystery and surprises. They all got really into it.

When I got back home tonight, Julia was already here, back from a week at a camp in the Sierra. I'm about to go pick up Aidan from work. Dylan is at a party.

Tomorrow the four of us plan to have brunch before Aidan's shift starts in the middle of the day.

So a weekend with lots of family time, which is the best kind.

(Peter is in Europe.)

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Cooking For Those You Love

Here are images of the spaghetti I cooked for Dylan (19) today, after he got his buzz-cut; and a shot the Aidan and Dylan together on my block; and last night's chicken that I cooked for Aidan (20) after we got home from the game.  I am pretty sure nobody reads these posts any longer because that is what Google tells me. So I am writing only for myself, I suppose.

When I was a boy we were taught to thank our mothers for everything they did for us, including cooking meals.

As an old and frail man, I find still having the ability to cook for my kids is one of my greatest pleasures. I have to believe many generations of Moms feel as I do.

No need for thanks. It was my pleasure. I do not know how much longer I will be able to do it, but it would be fine with me if the last thing I did was to cook a meal for my family.

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Baseball!

Dylan and I sat in club level seats with a great view of tonight's game, a 0-1 loss, unfortunately, but we had a good time. It is a joy that he likes to watch sports with me; he is a great companion. All six of my kids are Giants fans and they all have been to multiple games over the years.

You might call it a family tradition.

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New Boots Arrive

I do not mean to sound like a consumer (a term I hate) but part of my job as a parent is helping my kids get the things they need. I probably blogged about this last fall when I visited the boys in Missoula and bought them boots.

But those were cheap boots, and Dylan's broke a while back.

This weekend we identified and ordered some well-constructed boots. They arrived today and here he is, trying them on.

He says they fit great.

I know this sounds like a tiny post from a journalist like me, but lately I have been as interested in the tiny domestic details of my life as the big journalistic work we are also doing. There's news on that front too but maybe for another post.

For tonight, I am happy my youngest son has a new pair of boots!

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