A Four Letter Word

Sarah achieved a (somewhat) important milestone today. She rode her bike to school and back by herself.

This is something that I've been advocating for and trying to see happen for many months now and I know it is something that Sarah herself has been wanting to try. But timing, preparation, and parental fear has put roadblocks in the way before now. But, Lynda was coming around to the idea as summer ended and so it was resolved that we would let Sarah do this.

But, you can't just throw a kid on a bike and let them go, right? It's never quite that simple. Oh no. There were many different things to consider and prepare for before Monday morning came around and everyone set off.

Over the preceding weekend, we had to review Sarah's bicycle kit and make sure that she had everything she needed for successful biking. After further review, the bike was in good shape and the tires were properly inflated. But she didn't have a bike lock. So, off we went to find a suitable lock. But once we got to the store, which variety should we get? The u-shaped bolt locks that were all the rage when I was biking around my college campus were not longer available. (Something about the ease of picking the lock with a Bic as the story went.) And besides, Sarah's bike would probably tip over if she tried to hang one of those steel horseshoes off of her petite bike frame. So, it was a cable type lock.

But there are still choices to be made within the cable lock genre. Is the lock opened with a standard key? Or maybe just joined together with a regular old combination lock with a spinning number wheel? Or perhaps you could use the number key type that is popular on suitcase clasps? Those are all fine, but I worried that putting an additional burden of making Sarah learn a combination number or something like that would stress her out on her first attempt at this and, alone at the school, she'd freeze and not lock her bike properly.

Luckily, there was another cable lock option--a code based on letters rather than numbers. Given Sarah's comfort with reading, we both agreed that this was the best option. We chose a cable lock with a rotating 4-letter code mechanism (think the Dan Brown codex thingy that was in the Tom Hanks version of The DaVinci Code). But WHAT four-letter word to choose?

Predictably, after a bit of discussion, we chose something from the Harry Potter universe. In deference to overall security, I won't be revealing the word here, but I will reveal something funny about the word experience later.

So, now we've got a lock and I mounted the lock on the bike. But all was not still right. She and I had to practice getting to the school, because the route we normally take on the weekends would not be an option on school mornings. We wanted to make sure she had access to the crossing guards at the busy intersections. So I let her lead the way, watching her quietly from behind. I was happy to see that she rode cautiously, slowing down as she approached driveways, making sure to stop at neighborhood street crossings, and all the right moves. When we got to the school, I let her lock up the bike without my help to see if she knew how to position the tire and maneuver the cable through the wheel, connecting it to the rack. But . . . what about her helmet? Was she going to carry that in her bookbag with her? NO! So, how to lock that to the cable as well?

Again, I stayed quiet and let her figure it out. When she was locked, I inspected her work and made sure that she passed the cable though the helmet strap such that unclasping the chin strap kept the helmet locked in place. Finally she had it all figured out and I declared it a success. But before we turned for home, she noticed a funny thing. When she had scrambled her combination, it had landed on the word FAIL. She thought that was so funny, she pledged to turn her lock to FAIL ever time she locked it, as a verbal deterrent to would-be thieves.

*****

This morning, at the appropriate time, Grace and Hannah loaded in the van and Sarah jumped on her bike. She set off along the route that we had traced out the previous day. The morning traffic was suitably light and I let her get a bit ahead. Then the rest of us followed a bit behind, driving slowly in the van and trying to remain unobtrusive. By necessity, we got ahead of her at one point, but I turned onto a side street and waited to see her pass on the other side of the street. Even the loud siren of an ambulance didn't put her off her stride and she arrived at the crosswalk at the corner of the school property, when the crossing guard was there and waiting. She parked, locked, and got ready while I dropped Grace off at the sidewalk.

She did great and I was glad. I heard from Lynda that she also made it home with no incident this afternoon and was even there a bit before Lynda arrived with Grace from 1st grade and Hannah from the daycare. (Sarah also has a house key to let herself in. And she even remembered to lock the door behind her when she got in.) I'm happy that she's getting time to do this before the weather turns cold and the biking is no longer an option.

It's the first step of independence and away from us. But she handled the first day well.

Promises to keep

I know that I've been making lots of WWYG post-related promises lately. But I'm going to have to beg off on another one tonight.

I wanted to describe how I readied Sarah for riding her bike to school tomorrow. I wanted to detail the steps I took to get her gear, make her practice, see how the lock functioned, and let her figure out all the things she needed to know.

But . . . I had to keep other promises tonight and do some work prep for a meeting on Monday morning. And though I'm just now finishing what I plan to do tonight, I really don't feel like spending another thirty to forty-five minutes trying to blog an idea. And so that means I'll be behind another idea and I've got less days to start blogging on TV again.

But you aren't here to read me complain, so I'll stop now.

I just need to turn my brain off for a while.

We pray for Peter Jackson's safety

In a worrisome bit of news, I read on Slashfilm.com that Peter Jackson met with Tom Cruise recently. The article speculates a lot about what this might mean, suggesting all sorts of film possibilities--from a part in PJ's executive producer The Hobbit films that are being developed by Guellermo del Toro right now, to TinTin, to a District 9 sequel, to who knows what all.

The point is that if Peter Jackson doesn't placate Mr. Cruise in a satisfying way, his continued existence on this earth is in definite jeopardy. So, for the sake of all of your fans out there, Mr. Jackson . . . heck, for the sake of the tourist industry of the entire nation of New Zealand . . . you must give Mr. Cruise WHAT HE WANTS!

If he wants to embrace his short stature and take on the role of Bilbo Baggins . . . LET HIM!

If he want his daughter Suri to audition for the role of Dwarf king Thorin Oakenshield . . . LET HIM!

If he wants you to be the director on Mission Impossible IV! . . . SAY YES!

Go along to get along . . . and more importantly to keep breathing.

You don't want to make him angry! Just ask any number of deceased members of the Hollywood cadre.

Please?

Thanks.

Saturday afternoon

Took Hannah on a bike ride this afternoon using the pull-behind rig that we bought a few weeks ago from one of the homes in our neighborhood. It was on the side of the road for about ten minutes and we quickly turned around and snatched it up.

But we went down to the park and played for a while and then we checked out the possibility of bike locks at the Sears Hardware near the park.

Lynda spent some time laboriously sewing the patches on the new Junior Girl Scouts sash uniform that Sarah is now using. She also had to put some patches on Grace's Daisy vest. I also downloaded the Pandora app for my phone today and, frankly, I can't believe I never did it before today. It's all thanks to a conversation I had about the service from REA yesterday at work. It is always serving up music based on a particular artist or genre that I select. And it works better than trying to connect and stream my iTunes files from my laptop.

Again, why did I wait so long?

ANYWAY . . .

I'm pretty much rambling right now, so I'll cut this short. I've got several ideas for other blog posts, but they require some research and more thought than I feel like committing to right now. (And I'm trying not to think about how I haven't even started researching for my Fall TV posts. I'm down to about a week to go before the first new shows start appearing, so it's almost now or never. And considering that these posts are the only things I've ever done consistently on the blog over the years (and the only things I've been asked to write), I feel a strong responsibility to do it.

So, that is coming up.

2012: Three New Disaster-Filled Posters

These posters are for the movie 2012, Roland Emmerich's new film.

Anyone familiar with this type of milieu knows its all about how nature rises up against the pitiful humans and wipes out everyone but the virtuous and true--usually a divorced dad who comes to realize that he should have been spending more time with his kids and less time griping about his dead-end job and alimony at the corner bar. But, since the virtuous dad in this case is John Cusack, perhaps we'll get a few moments of wry social commentary along with the griping? (I'm slightly hopeful, since I'm a Cusack fan.)

But really, this post is all about the scrotum-tightening posters that were released. (Thanks for the nice images /film.com!)

Now THAT, my friends is some quality disaster!