GimletBlog

Introducing the newest addition to the family blogosphere:  Hå has started a blog to share family history stories and vintage photos, and any other odds and ends.

The title, Beware of the Rug, originates from misread street signs or overheard phrases gone terribly wrong.  For example, yesterday we were at the drive-through picking up dinner and Thing Two wanted to know what the kids’ meal toy was.  We told him, and after a short silence, he repeated back what he thought he’d heard:

“Smurf fingers?”

(So that’s why the “chicken” pieces are blue.)

Look for these stories to pop up on the blog now and then.

So far the blog posts have begun to tell the story of one branch of the family’s origins and emigration to the United States, as well as sharing traditional Norwegian domestic arts.  Welcome to blogging, Hå!

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While he’s working at scout summer camp, Thing One gets to come home Saturday afternoon, spend the night at home, and then The Gimlet drives him back to camp Sunday morning.   His usual work assignment is in the Trading Post, where he makes a lot of popcorn and reports that pocket knives are the top selling item.  He also does extra work around camp as needed, with the result that for the time he is home, our utterly exhausted Thing One does little more than sleep and eat.

The past two Saturdays he’s fallen sound asleep in front of the television after dinner.  It’s a milestone in parenting when mom or dad (or even mom + dad working together) can no longer pick up a sleeping child from the couch and carry him to bed.

All teenage first year staffers have to take a turn running the industrial dishwashing machines for the camp, otherwise known as working in the Dish Pit.  Last week was Thing One’s turn.  It was also the week that the camp was filled to capacity, with over four hundred scouts and scoutmasters using plates, bowls, cups, forks, knives, and spoons for breakfast, lunch, and dinner … and the cooks using pots, pans, and cooking tools to prepare food for them all …

Needless to say Thing One is very glad this week is over, and if he had ever entertained thoughts of a career as a commercial dishwasher, he is now considering other options.   Doing dishes at home doesn’t seem so bad now, either.

Thing One was able to come home a little earlier this week, so he arrived home just as we were heading out to pick up Thing Two from a friend’s birthday party in the park.  Thing Two was delighted to see his big brother and show him off to his friends (a few of whom have big brothers, but not BIG brothers).  And after his long week, Thing One didn’t mind playing with his little brother for a while.

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One of Thing Two’s new favorite creatures is the diatryma, also known as a giant prehistoric terror bird.  We discovered them while reading an encyclopedia of world history, and then he was able to examine a diatryma fossil during dinosaur day camp earlier this month.  When it was time to celebrate Thing Two’s birthday, generic dinosaur-themed desserts were too mainstream for the birthday boy, who specifically requested diatryma cupcakes.  This was a bit of a challenge (the bakeries within our budget don’t offer post-Cretaceous prehistoric designs), but Thing Two was very pleased with the flock(?) (herd? throng?) of diatrymas which greeted him at breakfast that morning.

Some of the cupcakes accompanied Thing Two to summer preschool.   While the original terror bird may have hunted small mammals, today the small preschool-aged mammals eagerly devoured the cupcakes.  Contrary to the expectations of some, diatryma cupcakes don’t taste like chicken.

Thing Two was so excited all day long and his cheerful enthusiasm was contagious.  He had a wonderful birthday and has been enjoying his gifts.

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Our first official day of summer vacation, and the big guys are already heading out.

The Gimlet and Thing One are working on NYLT staff in August, and their final training session is this weekend.  Next week, it’s off to camp staff for Thing One.  While picturing (1) scout camp subsidizing a teenager’s food intake and (2) Thing One doing his own laundry are happy thoughts, we always miss Thing One when he’s not at home.

Meanwhile, Thing Two and Your Humble Narrator are keeping vigil at the local fruit stand:

We’re down to our last container of homemade strawberry jam, so we really hope “Soon” means soon!

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Today was the last day of Thing One’s sophomore year of high school.  Note the soggy rhododendron, the rain jacket and umbrella.

At the beginning of the school year we mentioned that Thing One would be replacing several high school courses for BYU Independent Study online courses.  How did that work out for us?  Quite well!

With the help of a very patient math tutor (Uncle B), Thing One managed to do much better in geometry than in last year’s algebra.  He also did very well in European history, economics, geography, and language arts.  Meanwhile, his grades at school were great; he made the honor roll!  The last part of the school year was difficult as we were mourning Bopa, so we don’t know yet how that will affect Thing One’s grades for this semester, but his grades look quite good pre-final exams.  He also passed three of the standardized tests required for graduation, which was a relief, as Thing One doesn’t test well.

We were very happy with the organization and content of the BYU courses, and felt that Thing One learned a lot of useful information that the high school fails to provide in its curriculum.   Throughout the year we’ve all had to rethink and learn how to help Thing One with test taking and time management.  While he’s stayed on schedule with BYU’s timeline – students have one year to complete an Independent Study course – he’s two courses behind the school’s semester timeline (although he has earned more than the required credits).  That’s partially due to the extra time it has taken to rebuild Thing One’s confidence; he procrastinated writing papers and working on math because he thought he would fail.  When he received an A for his first writing portfolio in the online language arts class, a large mental obstacle was removed and he was able to move ahead.  We expect that the second semester language arts and math classes will proceed much faster than the first ones.

Independent Study has been a great stress reducer for Thing One and our entire family.  His grades improved substantially, his attitude towards school and studying has improved, and he has more time for the activities he’d rather be doing (Scouts, sleep, etc.).  We’re looking forward to a good and successful junior year.

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The last day of preschool is traditionally a picnic in a local park.  The sun didn’t shine, but it didn’t rain either, which is about as good as it gets for fair weather this year.  Thing Two went to preschool every afternoon, and he was especially excited for the days when he got to play with his best friend (pictured above).

Most of the games today involved a lot of running, spinning, and yelling.  Good times.

Thing Two has had a wonderful time at preschool and made many friends.  He’ll attend the special program this summer, but this was the last day with his teachers and his class.

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All of us, and Thing Two especially, had a lot of fun playing with his cousins while they were here.  They live on the other side of the country, so we don’t get to see them very often.

Visits to the many neighborhood parks were always an easy way to have fun.  In this park, the kids were able to tour a community garden and explore a walking path as well as play on the playground.

The children almost enjoyed the play areas at the zoo more than the animals.  Zoomazium, with its treehouse and mountain, were a big hit.  In the exhibits, we were able to see the mother ocelot teaching her new baby how to catch and eat prey; fed birds at the Willawong Station, and the penguins, bears, and otters provided a lot of entertainment as well.

They returned to the zoo a couple of times during their stay, but we were only able to join them once.

The group photo is blurry, but that’s as close as we could get to taking a picture of five excited kids (six, including the baby in the stroller).

Speaking of group photos:  Smile, you’re at a funeral!

To be sure, a family gathering of this size is unrepeatable, so we all accepted the necessity of commemorating the event with a picture, but probably only the children were excited about having their picture taken.  As for the memorial service, we all agreed that Bopa would have approved of and enjoyed the blend of happy and poignant memories which were shared, as well as the lovely performance of Bach’s Prelude to Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major.

Our family gatherings also involve plenty of food, and preferably fresh, local seafood.  For Sunday dinner, the Gimlet grilled Copper River sockeye salmon to perfection, and Uncle Q baked three pies.  Our final family meal together was a Dungeness crab feed.  Upon inspecting the “bone bowl” for missed tidbits, Uncle Q claimed to be rendered speechless by the amount of leftover crab he discovered.  For all his claims that words failed him, he seemed to have plenty to say on the matter. (And he did recover about a plateful; not too shabby.)  Here he lectures on the proper extraction technique:

Another blurry photo, because high dudgeon moves nearly as quickly as excited children.

Monday morning the GrandGimlets packed up and returned home; Tuesday morning Uncle Q, Auntie Lou, and all the cousins did the same.  It’s been a mostly fun, always busy week.  On one hand, it feels good to put away all the folding chairs, extra dishes, bedding and towels and take a break from preparing large-scale dinners (and cleaning up after them!) — at times these past several days have felt like Bilbo Baggins’ unexpected party from The Hobbit, as we marveled at how many people we could seat and feed in our little house. But it’s sad to recognize that all the work has ended because our family is no longer with us.

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Shortly after Christmas Bopa expressed an interest in selling his 1967 Rover TC2000, which had been driven into the garage around 1980 and had remained there ever since.  As luck would have it, while the Gimlet was on a business trip he had met a gentleman from Kamloops who collected and restored old British automobiles.  The Gimlet contacted Mr. S, who then put him in touch with another British automobile enthusiast in Vancouver, and he was very interested in taking a look at the Rover.

After we emailed him some photos and a phone conversation with Bopa about the condition of the Rover, Mr. K made a visit in January to examine the car in person.  The Things had fun playing in the car while we cleaned it up a little for the pictures and inspection.

Unfortunately this was one of the first of many bad health days for Bopa; the excitement and exertion of showing off every detail of his Rover to a fellow aficionado, combined with the cold, damp winter weather caused him to collapse at the end of the visit.  Mr. K. agreed to purchase the Rover, but it would take some time to prepare the paperwork and fees necessary to transfer the car from the United States to Canada.

Finally the paperwork was done and approved, schedules matched up, and Mr. K brought a truck down the first week of May to collect the Rover.  Meanwhile Uncle B, under Bopa’s direction, had prepped the Rover so it could be rolled out of the tiny garage and down the steep, narrow driveway.  However, one of the wheels stuck.  No amount of pushing could budge the car.  It was as if the Rover didn’t want to leave.  We ended up calling AAA for their most interesting tow job of the day.  The dispatcher had never heard of a Rover saloon, and told the tow truck operator he would be assisting a Land Rover.  Needless to say he was surprised, then intrigued, when he arrived.

Once the tow truck was on the job, everything happened very quickly.  The Rover was pulled out of the garage, lowered to the street below, and loaded onto Mr. K’s truck.

The Rover looked even better out in the daylight than in the dim light of the garage; Bopa and Mr. K were both very pleased.

Bopa happily described the Rover as looking like a queen on a chariot, regally gliding to her new home up north.

What is a Rover saloon, anyway?

• Rover Car Club of Canada
• Hemmings Motor News features a great set of information about a 1968 TC2000:  a general overview video, and a blog about the restoration process.

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