Little Things

The Lawn -
Yesterday I mowed the lawn. And it’s a big lawn. I used the riding lawn mower and cruised around for about an hour or so. The best part was going up the steep hill – its about a 30 degree incline and 30 feet long. On the way up, I leaned forward so it didn’t tip over, on the way down, I leaned waaaaaayy back for the same reason. The whole time, I kept thinking about the story I would have to tell (assuming I survived) if the mower tipped over. When I went to do the edges, I leaned to the left and right to keep from rolling over. I’m sure it was entertaining for the neighbors. But, nothing bad happened, so I have no story to tell.

Bike Lessons -
For the last few days, I’ve been teaching our youngest daughter (5-years old) to ride a bicycle. The first day, I had her start about ¼ the way up the grassy hill and she just worked on balance. When she fell, it was only into the (uncut) grass. Nice and soft. At first, she fell quite a bit. Then I told her that she was trying too hard to balance – that the bike WANTED to stay up and she just had to hang on. She was leery. Finally, I brought the bike near the top of the hill and, without anyone on it at all, I let it go. It rolled all the way down the hill and halfway across the yard, riderless, before tipping over. After that, she started to understand and let the bike balance itself. At the end of 30-45 minutes she was tired, but I pushed her on until she was able to ride almost all the way across the yard (150 feet or so). She did great for her first time without training wheels.

The next day I brought her up to the driveway and we practiced getting started. It was a little tricky and took some time before she understood that she need a little momentum to get started. We went out twice that day and worked on getting started. Once she had a fair handle on that, we moved to the street.

Once we got out into the street, I helped her get started a few times and we rode to the end of the block and turned around. On the way back, she lost control and nose-dived into the ground. When she fell, she went hands and face first – and started crying loudly. I was afraid that when she lifted her head, she’d have a bloody nose and be all scratched up. Luckily, her helmet hit first, saving her nose from certain doom. Her hands didn’t fare as well, but weren’t too bad. We went inside and got her cleaned up – that was the end of that lesson.

The next day, she did even better, she got started on her own and we rode to the end of the block, stopped, turned around and came back to the start point. We did that a few times until she crashed again, scuffing up her hand again – done for the day.

Yesterday, she managed to ride all the way to the end of the block, turn around (without stopping), and come back to the house. Then we went down the street (downhill) and practiced stopping. She went a little hard on the brakes, locking up the tires from a decent speed and went into the ground again. This time, it was just a jammed finger – but it did end the lesson.

Today, we did all of the above (outside of the grass) and she did some more turns and we went the whole time without getting hurt! Whoo hoo! Progress! I think that she’ll be ready for a longer bike trip by the end of next week.

School -
My new classes started today at the University of Montana. I’m taking a budgeting class for public administration and a political human resources management class. Should be interesting. I don’t much care for budgeting, because I’m sure it will have something to do with finances. I’m sure finances will have something to do with numbers, and I hate it when there is a definite right or wrong answer. That’s why I picked the Political Science field in the first place – there are no right or wrong answers, just a variety of opinions, and whoever can BS the best wins! So far, I have a 4.0 for my Master’s of BS.

Weather -
We’re supposed to get a bunch of rain tomorrow! I can’t wait, I need to find a mud puddle to get the Jeep into – it’s been a little too clean for a little too long.

Soccer –
No more soccer! All done! Whoo hoo! Now I need to put together some videos of the kids… maybe one for each, maybe just one for all – depending on how lazy I feel. So far, I’ve been so lazy that I haven’t even started anything. I did manage to send some pictures to the coach and some of the parents. Its something.

Finally, we can watch Jeopardy! again.