War

The past few nights, Tripp has cried at bedtime, very much afraid that someone was going to kill him. I had a bit of trouble getting an explanation out of him. Case in point, the first night, he told me that "The Indians are going to kill him." I asked "What Indians?" His response; "The ones in Kenya."

Then tonight, he finally asked a question that gave me the key to the whole problem. He asked "What happens if we lose the war? Will we all die?" It seems that the news has done its job in scaring the population. My response to him was first to explain that the war is being fought in another country, far from here. Then I explained that if we lose the war, then our soldiers just come home (I didn't mention dead soldiers) and that the people living in the place where they're fighting the war will either continue to fight amongst themselves, or will start to rebuild.

Children afraid to go to bed at night, due to a "real" bogeyman. People afraid to fly, due to the same "real" bogeyman. Are we that lacking in basic safety? Should we be afraid to leave our blinds open and lights on at night? Is attack imminent? I think not. But I'm sure that several of you are going to bash my naivete and explain to me just how horrible the world has become. Yeah, just recently, wars started. They never existed before. Cultures have never tried to wipe out other cultures, just because they were deemed offensive. Countries have never wiped out "lesser" civilizations in order to obtain easier shipping routes. And countries have never attacked other countries for any other type of financial gain.

These things have always existed. The powers that be seek to control other countries through brute force and the inhabitants of their own country through fear. Through little boys crying in their beds. How many generations do we have to go through before we get this right? How many mothers have to soothe their children about pointless fears before the mothers figure out a way to eliminate them? Will this be the way of things through the end of the human race?

I dunno. But at least the boy stopped crying and went to sleep, no longer concerned that a violent Kenyan Indian was going to jump through the window and kill him.

My Weekend

After work on Friday, we packed, waited for Grandpa Mike's flight to get in, then drove for 3 hours to get to the ocean. We got there around 10 and proceeded to set up our tent. In the dark. Then Vince blew up the air mattress without the help of a pump, since I'd forgotten to bring one. While blowing it up, he noticed a leak. He patched that, finished the mattress, we threw down the sleeping bags and crashed. A couple of hours later, I woke up to pouring rain and a completely flat air mattress. I laid there on the ground, trying to go back to sleep and not touch the sides of the tent, and thinking about how well the weekend was starting.

Saturday morning, we woke up to sun. It had rained all night, and the underside of the deflated air mattress was soaked, but neither of us got wet at all. We had breakfast and went to the beach. At the beach, we played soccer and flew kites. Well, Vince and the kids played soccer. I just flew kites. It was pretty damn fun. Then we went into town to go to the grocery store. I had a tantrum, we got food, and went to a cookout. While we were eating, I decided to have a beer in spite of the fact that I've been having those damn headaches, which can be triggered by alcohol. So I got a headache. It started mild, to lull me into a false sense of security, then brought the pain during the middle of the night.

By Sunday morning, the headache had subsided. Right in time to pack up to drive home. In the RV. Which has beds in it! So I got a nice long nap to make up for a couple of nights of crappy sleep. That worked out well, since when we got home, there were already people here to help us get the downstairs back together. We have the rec room mostly back together and started on the cabinets in the kitchen. Almost all of the stuff has been brought back in from the patio. But not all. Two weeks until the wedding, and we're not finished.

Flying kites is fun.