So, class last Friday was close to a waste of time. Due to the earlier start day of 7:15, we had shortened class periods, plus everyone was keyed up from either staying the night at the school, or arriving at five a.m. for the cool schools taping. Add to that increased energy and buzz in the school, the date was 4/20/12. 420 is a popular number among marijuana users (I don't know why) and is generally considered a drug reference (April 20th is also the birth date of the Nazi leader Adolph Hitler, and a lovely niece of mine, Macy). With the date being 4/20 there was a buzz (pardon the pun) all week long among some of the student body who planned to sabotage the Cool Schools event on Friday, by arriving at school under the influence of that illicit drug, in order to appear on television with red eyes and a hunger for pancakes.
In order to deter this rumor, the faculty sent out a warning on the wire to the student body there would be a special surprise to seek out those idiots that chose to engage in the undesirable, and illegal, activity. This amounted to a visit by the Ottawa Police Department and their K-9 unit. The school was put on "lock-down", which meant no person was allowed to travel in the hallway, while the drug dog sniffed at the lockers and then sniffed at the vehicles in the parking lot.
At least one of my students was placed on three day out of school suspension for having "Half of a seed" in his vehicle. I can neither deny nor confirm this student's version of what was found. It does appear that that was the worst of it, thankfully.
Obviously, these events shook up the school day, but we hung on until school was dismissed at 1:10 for the day. It's an earlier than usual dismissal time that took into account the special circumstances surrounding school on that Friday.
I went home and it was just about right on time for Leo's nap. Mare and Jack and Henry were leaving to go snoop around at a couple of garage sales, and Mare suggested I take a nap with Leo, which I did. There was a whole chicken baking in the oven which I was supposed to "Keep an eye on" and probably remove around 3:30. I slept hard and wasn't awakened by Leo's squirming body until about 4:15. Whoops. Fortunately, the chicken was fine. I wrapped it in foil and set it on the range top for good keeping and made preparations for Leo and I to go to nearby Heritage Park; he riding his scooter, I walking.
We didn't stay long, and as we were leaving we spotted Jack and Mare and Henry approaching, so we stayed on a little longer. Mare and I have been trying to form the habit of walking a couple of miles around the loop of Heritage Park while the boys play. Sometimes it happens before we eat, most times after we've eaten supper. On that particular Friday, it was my pay day, so I made the patriarchal decision to eat out at the local Chinese food restaurant, Blue Star Cafe.
We ate the buffet (very good by the way) and the lovely waitress (and I suspect family member/owner) close to our age, who we've learned over the years has a son close to Leo's age, came over to coo over Henry. She's super nice and we have grown to understand her accented English pretty well. She wished to hold Henry and we allowed her to do so without reservation. She walked right away with him, and we thought that was kind of funny. Then, I looked over and saw a young man holding Henry. The waitress's husband works as a chef/cook in the kitchen and she'd went and got him to come out and carry the baby around for a spell. Henry was happy as could be.
Marian would never had gone for that back when Jack was Henry's age. She would have been following her and him around and might not have even surrendered him in the first place. After we stuffed ourselves on noodles, savory vegetables and rice, and topped it off with a little dab of ice cream, we went on home and gave the two oldest a bath and sent them to bed.
Saturday morning I fixed breakfast for Jack and Leo, then I attended a "How to build a deck workshop" at the Ottawa City Library. At the conclusion of the workshop I was to receive a free building permit for a deck, which I presume a front porch will count as a deck and might need if I get around to building a new front porch this summer. The guys giving the workshop were code inspectors for Ottawa, and were not experienced public speakers. It was a whole lot of them reading long paragraphs of what was up on a power point for everyone to read already. Then also, the two guys had been working at the job for quite a bit of time and every now and then there would be a little competition about who would deliver the last word on a given topic. One fellow was determined to do so, even if his last word was completely way off topic. They had donuts and coffee.
I then raced back home on the bike to pick up Jack and Leo to take Jack to tee-ball practice. I did so successfully and arrived ten minutes early to the building where we've met previously, which is not far across the river and a short ride for me. After the boys' helmets were off and they were unbuckled, the head lady came out to inform me the session had been moved to a location on the south end of town 14 blocks away. Soooo, I loaded them back up, and like Thomas the Train, I huffed and puffed over there and was only late by about ten minutes.
Marian and Henry had plans to go to another couple of garage sales while we were there, but she cut that short and showed up at Jack's tee ball practice mid way through.
The boys and Marian left in the car and I made a quick stop at the hardware store for a quick repair on my bike and then met them, ironically, at the first building I took the boys to earlier that day.
More to come...
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