Relativity
Several weeks ago we had a cookout to celebrate my birthday. A lot of friends joined me, and I think everyone had a good time. The evening flew past, though, and I didn't feel like I got to spend nearly enough time with any one person or couple.
The following weekend we hosted another cookout, this time for my sister and her husband. Another large group of people joined us, and it was a real delight to see so many kids enjoying the backyard and the playhouse. Everyone was well fed, and the afternoon seemed to last a really long time. When I checked the time, though, I was astonished to learn that only two hours had elapsed. Shortly after this, the skies darkened, the winds picked up, and thunder boomed out across the neighborhood. In an absolute flash we had the entire cookout shut down and cleaned up. Literally everyone pitched in, and within seven minutes we were all sitting comfortably on the porch, enjoying our beverages, and watching the rain pour down. I joked that we could all pursue promising careers as carnies, given our rapid tear down of the event.
The air was cool after the rain, and there was no rush to do anything at all, so we simply stayed on the porch. We were all laughing, and feeling good, and genuinely enjoying the simple pleasure of company. We stayed on the porch until the wee hours of the morning, and I was absolutely stunned to realize that many hours had slipped by so quickly!
The following weekend was the weekend in which everything seemed to be happening: Origins, ComFest, PodCamp Ohio, and my dad's birthday cookout. Things started Friday night when Owen arrived in Columbus. He picked me up, and I directed him to Goodale Park, so that he could see for himself what ComFest was all about. We meandered around a bit, and I shared a little of the event's history with him. We both gawked at the people, and enjoyed a little of the music playing throughout the park. At 8 PM I took my leave from him, and started my shift as a bartender at the Jazz Bar.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: selling beer at ComFest is one of the most entertaining ways to volunteer. The other bartenders have always been good-natured, and are almost always in a good mood. The crowds are usually mellow, and happy to receive the liquid gold you provide to them. My shift was over almost before I knew it.
A word of advice to anyone attending ComFest, or any similar event at which large plastic mugs can be purchased: always purchase as clear of a mug as you can. I further recommend against a koozie for your mug. The clearer the mug, the easier it is for the bartender to ensure that you get more beer than foam. Dark mugs, and mugs wrapped up in a koozie, present a real challenge, especially as the evening draws on, and you're often left guessing by weight alone how much beer might be in the mug. Every person with a clear mug absolutely got beer poured to the top of the mug.
I coerced Owen into picking me up from ComFest, and then treated him to a late snack at The Blue Danube. The Dube has been a favorite haunt of mine since college, and I try to expose as many out-of-town friends as I can. It was at the Blue Danube that Chris, Rich, Owen, and I officially conceived and started Habari.
After only a scant few hours of sleep I was up again, in order to help PodCamp Ohio. I had volunteered to help the check-in desk, so I had to be there an hour before things officially opened. There was already a small crowd of volunteers when I arrived. We quickly established the check-in process, and settled in to wait for guests to arrive. We had about 150 people show up for the event, the overwhelming majority of which had pre-registered. Everyone seemed pretty excited about the day's event, and there was a very positive vibe radiating from most everyone. There were a lot of video cameras recording impromptu interviews. I think things got a little silly when someone used a webcam to stream the (by then largely dormant) check-in desk online.
I have mixed opinions about PodCamp, which might merit a more complete post after I've had some time to really distill them. The day wasn't terrible, but I don't think it was what I had been expecting. As someone who put up money to help Habari be a Gold Sponsor of the event, I don't think we got our money's worth, which is deeply disappointing. The day felt at several times like it was dragging on, but that's likely because I had plans I was looking forward to later in the evening, and because I only attended two sessions.
Judging from the Twitter and blog chatter I've seen, most people seemed to have a considerably better time than I did, and I'm glad that the event was a positive one for them. Maybe I've just been using Internet communications tools for so long that I'm too jaded to get excited about building communities online -- I mean, I've been building and participating in online communities for over a decade now. Of course, I do so for the value it provides me in its own right, rather than for monetization, which was the focus of at least several PodCamp sessions, so maybe I wasn't the target audience.
After PodCamp, I high-tailed it home, and then over to my dad's house for his birthday party. He had the entire affair catered, so he got to spend the whole evening socializing with his friends and neighbors. There was a marked difference about this party from most of dad's other cookouts, which I found interesting. Usually, there are small factions of people who know one another, sitting together. Sometimes there's some cross-pollination, but it's usually brief, and very perfunctory. At this party, though, I saw a lot of people really mingling, and interacting with one another. That was neat to witness, and I'm glad that dad's social circles intersected so well. Dad seemed to really have enjoyed himself. I only stayed for a few hours, before hustling back down to ComFest, but Carina tells me that the party ran long into the night, and that everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
My second shift at ComFest was much like my first of the weekend, except that it ended prematurely. Normally, the bar cashiers sell beer tokens until 10:30, and then bartenders accept tokens in exchange for beer until 11:00 PM. Throughout my shift I kept hearing the supervisors talking to one another about "crowd control". I didn't see anyone causing any trouble in the throng of people waiting for brew, so I didn't pay much attention. I saw a handful of old friends, and was generally having too good of a time to pay much attention to rumblings about crowd control.
As an aside, I only had to turn away one person for beer this year. His license had expired in 2005. I'm not sure if he was a plant by the cops looking to bust a lax bartender, or if he was underage using someone else's expired license, or if he genuinely forget to renew his license for three years. It looked like a real license, and the photo looked like him. I checked ID on almost every single person I served -- save those obviously old enough to purchase -- and only had the one invalid ID.
To my surprise, and without any warning or announcement, we were told at 10:30 PM to stop serving beer, and to step behind the taps away from the line. The police offers on duty walked up and down the row making the announcement that the bar was closed. People were surprised, but I didn't see anyone getting overly agitated or upset. We wrapped up, checked out of our shifts, and quickly left the area. I didn't bother to check the other bars to see if they were closing. I was ready to enjoy some of ComFest!
I meandered through the park for a bit, finally stopping to watch Anna and the Annadroids, a truly captivating dance performance. There was a very small crowd when I sidled up to the stage, but by the time their set was over the crowd had swelled considerably. After this, I called Owen and made him pick me up again. I had intended to take him to Columbus' goth bar, Outlands, but that plan was dashed against the rocks when we pulled into the empty parking lot: the place was closed! I next tried to take him to Bob's Bar, the cultural hub of the Midwest, but he complained that it was too loud. So we retired to O'Reilly's, where we nursed a couple of Guinness, and I nearly fell asleep in the booth as a wave of exhaustion finally caught up with me.
Sunday morning Carina, the twins and I went to dad's house to say our final farewell to Ann and Igor, who were headed back to Ukraine. It sounds like they had a terrific time in the States, and I'm glad we all got to see them as much as we did. I can't remember the last time I've seen Ann that happy. I'm really delighted for her and Igor!
After that, I took Owen to Nancy's Kitchen, and then we stopped by Origins -- an event I've never attended in all my years. I don't have a crew with which to play role playing games these days, so I was primarily interested in just seeing what the current role playing game market is, as well as to see for myself what Origins is all about. As I later mentioned to a coworker, after walking the show floor I felt somewhat better about myself for being as balanced as I am in the things that I do with my life. While there, I picked up two games from Out of the Box, Blink and MyWord!. Both are fast-paced thinking games, and both are outrageously fun to play. I'm really looking forward to playing both with the twins, as I think they'll get a kick out of them.
Looking back, the entire weekend seemed to slip by in a blur. I did an awful lot -- probably too much, and I didn't get to enjoy any one thing for very long -- but I had fun with what I did. It was terrific to re-connect with Owen in person again. One of these days I'll have to head out his way, so that he can be the host for a change! Maybe he can take me to one of the meetups he keeps talking about; or maybe I can crash the Philly PodCamp with him.
Laptops
I am in the market for a new laptop. My current laptop is literally falling apart, as some of the case screws have fallen out. I could replace those, but that would only fix one small problem. Also problematic is the fact that my battery only holds about 25 minutes worth of charge. And lately, doing anything remotely CPU intensive causes the system to overheat and shutdown. I've taken the system apart several times, inspecting the system fan and looking for obvious problems that might cause overheating. Alas, I've found nothing. So I've been forcibly setting the CPU frequency to its lowest setting, which makes the whole thing more sluggish than I would like.
So I'm looking for something new. Through the OSU technology store I can purchase a Hewlett Packard 8510w laptop. This is the "workstation" caliber laptop, with a sturdy metal case instead of cheap consumer plastic. It also comes with a high-end Nvidia graphics card -- something I've really missed on my current laptop (I miss playing Quake, surprisingly). Other features include 2 GB RAM, roomy hard disk, Bluetooth, and a 3-year accidental damage warranty. That last is extremely appealing.
If I get that laptop, I'll install GNU/Linux onto it. Before I purchase it, I intend to take an Ubuntu LiveCD to the store to try it on the floor model, to get an idea of what hardware works and what doesn't work. I expect most of the hardware will work. Certainly the NVidia card will be supported by closed-source drivers. Bluetooth should work. The wireless chipset should work (though may require a binary closed-source firmware blob). Audio may require some fussing to make work; though I might be presently surprised. Assuming all the hardware works, after installing Ubuntu I'd have to install all the proprietary audio and video codecs so prevalent today (though I could consider purchasing the Fluendo closed-source GStreamer plugins).
I did use an Ubuntu LiveCD on the HP 8510p -- the consumer model of this laptop, with the ATI graphics card instead of the NVidia. Most everything worked just fine: volume control buttons, WiFi kill switch, touchpad -- including the scroll portion -- and Bluetooth. That was all very refreshing, and helped solidify my interest in the 8510w. This page about Debian on the 8510w leaves me more than a little concerned, though, as it describes considerable more hoop-jumping than I'm inclined to do.
In the interest of comparative research and being an informed consumer, I picked DrBacchus's brain about his satisfaction with his Apple laptop. A long-time GNU/Linux user, several years ago he purchases an Apple laptop and has been using a Apple ever since. He's mostly satisfied with it. He came to the conclusion that he was tired of trying to get all his laptop hardware fully supported and properly working with the various GNU/Linux distributions. I share his frustrations on this issue. He's grown to appreciate most of the iLife products (iPhoto, in particular), and he raves about Keynote for his presentations. I don't give many presentations, so that's not too big a deal to me.
My sister has been using a Mac for a number of years, and she seems fairly well satisfied. At least, I haven't heard her complaining about it lately. She purchased a Mac specifically for the ease-of-use when she joined the Peace Corps: she didn't want to suffer through system instabilities or application failures when she was literally isolated from any meaningful technical support. This seems to have been a good choice for her, and worked fairly well.
While chatting with Carina the other night, I admitted I was growing increasingly frustrated by all the hoop-jumping required to enjoy various multimedia in GNU/Linux, and that the ease of a Mac had a very strong appeal. She admitted that she intended to purchase an Apple when her current laptop expires. But then I remember that I don't particularly like OSX; nor am I keen to pay Apple every year for operating system upgrades. I'm also reminded of Mark Pilgrim's juggling oranges and when the bough breaks essays detailing his dissatisfaction with Apple. His comments really hit home for me, highlighting the subtle importance of "Free as in Freeom".
I don't expect to use iTunes, primarily for philosophical reasons; but also because I don't use my computers to listen to a lot of music (in fact, I don't listen to a lot of music). I might be willing to try iPhoto, but I've been working happily enough to date just making directories for groups of photos based on date, then manually selecting the ones to upload to Flickr and finally burning to DVD when I have several gigs worth of photos. I might enjoy using iDVD, since I find the GNU/Linux DVD authoring utilities to be more frustrating than they need to be most of the time. Time Machine doesn't interest me much; and the OSX Dashboard and widgets don't interest me too much, either.
The real value of purchasing a Mac would be the knowledge that all the hardware was absolutely supported by the software. Of course, I could also try running Ubuntu (or another distribution of GNU/Linux) on a Mac laptop, as I know folks do, but it would require time and effort to get everything set up. I expect that the latter would exhaust the former, and I'd be left with something that was almost but just not quite working perfectly. If I'm going to be in that situation, why should I pay the premium that Apple commands for their hardware? Better to save money and get less expensive hardware that is equally poorly supported!
Complicating my decision making process is my intense aversion to spending money. I particularly hate to spend large quantities of money, as I almost always experience buyer's remorse. I know that as soon as I purchase a laptop it will be largely out of date. I don't intend to purchase another laptop for at least three years (preferably longer), so I need to make sure that I can be content with whatever I purchase for at least that long. I expect the Apple to work through that time frame, and be well supported. I imagine that the HP hardware would last that long, though I'm not entirely keen on the way Ubuntu has been developing lately, as features and services continue to be added that I don't use and which will only suck up battery life (things like the Tracker service: I don't lose files, so I don't have a need for a file indexing service -- yes of course I can turn this off, but that's more hoop-jumping, dammit!).
And then I keep remembering that the overwhelming use of this laptop will be for low-resource tasks like email and news reading. Occasionally I'll record something for LibriVox, or produce a DVD of video of the kids. As previously mentioned I would sometimes like to enjoy the diversion of Quake and similar games. I could invest in a (reasonably) powerful desktop computer for these more demanding activities, and then continue to make do with my current laptop for mobility when reading email. I would prefer, however, to minimize the number of computers in my home, and using a laptop exclusively seems like the best way to do that.
This is the first time I've ever seriously considered purchasing a computer and not running GNU/Linux on it. In some ways I feel like I'd be selling out, but that's not a particularly compelling reason to avoid the Mac. I've certainly enjoyed the benefits of Free Software for many years, and in that time I've almost entirely ignored any benefits I might receive from proprietary software. I wonder if I could be happy using a proprietary system for three years? The fact of the matter is that I'm not a developer, I'm a user. What little development I do do is entirely web-based. So while I appreciate the benefits of Free Software, it's not something to which I am fundamentally connected.
I had hoped that distilling my thoughts into this post would help me reach some sort of conclusion; but I'm afraid all I've done is ramble! I guess that should be indicative of the fact that I'm not yet ready to make a decision. If anyone has any input on the matter, I would like to hear it.
Anti Social Media
I'll just say it: I don't like the so-called "social media" aspects of the current Internet. Maybe it's because I've been engaged in online communities for more than twenty years; maybe it's because I'm a misanthrope. I don't use -- nor do I have any interest in -- Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, MySpace, Reddit, or whatever other "social networking" sites are currently in vogue. I'm not particularly interested in meeting new people through these venues, and I'm extremely wary of the so-called "value" they provide. I have my blog, and I'm satisfied with it.
There is a very rigid limit to my capacity for continuous partial attention, so I am extremely conscious about adding new things to follow. I intentionally limit the number of email lists to which I subscribe. I'm very selective about the feeds I add to my news reader. I'm even more selective about who I follow on Twitter; and I refuse to participate in more than one microblogging solution; so Jaiku and Pownce and Tumblr and whatever else is out there are right out.
I recently attended the first Columbus TweetUp, at which Columbus Twitter users had an opportunity to meet one another face-to-face. I felt a bit like an odd-man-out at this gathering in part because many of the attendees seemed to know one another already; but mostly because I wasn't following any of them on Twitter, nor was I likely to do so. I'm simply not interested in reading the goings-on of a dozen or more people just because they happen to live in the same city as me. The (very) occasional gem of insight I might glean from following one or more of them would be almost instantly drowned out in the noise of constant updates and replies to one another.
Don't get me wrong: I'm glad that these folks find Twitter (and similar services) so useful. I'm glad that they've found a way to extend their network of contacts. It's just that for me, it's too overwhelming. Maybe it's the pessimist in me, but I often approach signing up to receive quantities of new information from the "coming back from vacation" point of view. When I come back from vacation, is this stuff going to overwhelm me? Am I going to simply delete huge swaths of this stuff if I get too far behind on it? If so, why am I paying attention to it to begin with? Or maybe I'm simply too mercenary about the matter, looking for what benefit their Twittering and blogging will provide to me. Or maybe I really am just anti-social and not particularly interested in what folks have to say if I don't have an existing meaningful connection to them in some capacity (which begs the question: how do I establish said meaningful relationships with new folks?).
At the TweetUp I did have a very nice conversation with Denise. This was in part due to the seating arrangements -- she was the only person near me who wasn't already engaged in conversation with someone else -- but it was also due to a variety of similarities we share. It was nice to make an acquaintance, and I even started following her on Twitter when I got back to my computer. Thankfully, she updates as infrequently as I do, so I'm not drowning in updates I'm uninterested in reading.
It's ironic that I'm so ambivalent about local technology users communicating with one another, but so enthusiastic about global communications and the wonderful experiences it creates.
Bosses
The current goings-on at a friend's place of employment, and the bad luck this friend seems to have with employers, has caused me to reflect upon my own employment history. When I think back, I realize I've had good bosses, and mostly good working environments.
My first real professional job after college was probably my worst. I was on my own in a small town in northern Ohio, working for a small company where everyone knew almost everyone else. I took the job because it was the first one offered to me, and I felt at the time that it was a good stepping stone to something better. In many ways it was: I learned a lot professionally and personally, but the job itself was remarkably unsatisfying. My boss was an interesting person, and I find myself having mixed opinions about that person now. I learned a lot, but I think the largest take-away from that experience was "what not to do". I do lament the fact that I didn't keep in touch with my peers after I left: they were a neat group of people, and I would like to be able to talk with them again some time.
After that, I moved back to Columbus and worked for the local branch of a national computer consulting company. A friend got me into the company, and we were put on the same assignment together for awhile. There was a lot of travel involved, which at the time I liked -- especially when I was put on an international project that took me throughout Europe! I earned my Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certificate while working here, and I was excited about the doors that I thought that piece of paper would open. I was eager to start working on servers and advanced client networks, but my immediate supervisors were content to keep assigning me to simple desktop support contracts. I rarely interacted with my immediate supervisors, instead reporting to the assignment's project manager or client. It was from these gentlemen that I learned a lot about how to execute a successful project; the importance of a strong finish; and the value of teamwork.
The one strong memory I have of my direct supervisor at the time (I went through several, as the company cycled through management teams) was during a performance review. He used a scale of 1 through 4, much like an academic point system. He told me that he never ever gave anyone a four, because a four was perfection and no one was perfect. There's always room for improvement. I thought at the time -- and still think -- that it was pretty stupid to spend so much time explaining to me why I'd never get the best possible score. A better use of time would have been to talk to me about ways I could improve, and to celebrate what I had been doing well all along.
After the consulting company, I took a position at a small non-profit agency focusing on mental health for children. My job was to build a computer network for them, from top to bottom. It was, in many ways, a dream job. I got to select and implement the solutions I felt were most appropriate for the organization. Looking back, I see that many of my decisions were affected by hubris, and what I built, while functional, was not as good as it could have been. Nonetheless, I was very proud of the work I did there, and it was an exciting time for me. It was also very motivating to know that the work I did directly helped the mental health professionals provide long-term care to kids in crisis.
My boss at this organization was probably the most influential in terms of my professional development. Very early on in my time there, my boss explained to me that he wanted me to fail. I was shocked at first, but as the conversation unfolded, I learned what he meant. He wanted me to experiment, and try wacky things, and generally take risks in order to develop the best possible solution. Each failure I experienced was a lesson learned, and would result in that much better of a product at the end. If I got it all right the first time, I was either playing it too safe, or just getting lucky: neither of which would prepare me to deal with unexpected problems down the road. (I was reminded of this sage advice as I read J.K. Rowling's commencement address to Harvard.) My boss's job was to promote an environment in which it was safe for me to take risks and to fail.
My boss never once took credit for anything I did. He encouraged me to go home early after a couple of long days of work. He encouraged me to take long lunches (usually with him!) to brainstorm new ideas and look for ways to tackle long-standing problems. He supported me 100%. He was exactly the kind of boss I needed at that point in my life, and I'm eternally grateful that we got to work together for as long as we did.
After (almost) everything was put in place, it was agreed that we needed another person to help with the day-to-day support issues. We hired from within, and transitioned one of the clinical staff to an IT support role. I was made this person's supervisor. This was my first real experience with being a boss. Frankly, I was terrible at it. Even with a terrific role model to follow like my own boss, I was an ineffectual supervisor, a poor motivator, and worst of all not very patient. I'm not sure why the guy stuck around as long as he did, but he seemed to take it all in stride.
I was, unfortunately, let go from that organization. My boss and I had a great working relationship, but my relationship with the CEO of the organization was not as robust. (In fact, no one had a particularly positive working relationship with the CEO.) The CEO quickly hired a friend of his wife's to replace me. I stayed in contact with my former boss, meeting him for lunch on a monthly basis, and got updates about the goings-on since my departure. All the work I had done to build their network was ripped out and re-implemented from scratch by the new guy. That's pretty common in IT: it's easier to build it up your way than learn how your predecessor did things. Unfortunately for the organization, the transition was both expensive and complicated, and there was a major interruption in business continuity.
After several months on unemployment, I finally found another job. My first day was on September 12, 2001. As you might expect, things were more than a little hectic around the office, and it wasn't a particularly fun time to start a new job. I wasn't particularly thrilled about the specific job, but I was thrilled to be working again: unemployment sucked for me. This was probably the hardest job I had, because it was in an industry about which I knew nothing. I had to do an awful lot of on-the-job training while trying to keep operations up and running.
My boss was a programmer, who worked from his home several states away. He would fly into Columbus once every couple of months to meet with the users and management, and sometimes clients. He was an extremely challenging boss to work for, for me, because he was, without a doubt, one of the smartest people I've ever met. He would almost instantly see short-comings in solutions I proposed, and he constantly pushed me to provide better service than what I had done to date. It was also hard because the casual communication over lunch I had grown so used to at my last job was absent. Instead, we communicated most through email, and the occasional telephone call. I had to be very precise when describing my work to him, because he wasn't there day-to-day to see me doing it.
Although I was at times resentful, I grew professionally an awful lot under his supervision. Where my previous boss had helped me be a better person, this one helped me be a better employee, something which I absolutely needed. I regret that I let my attitude get in the way, and that my relationship with him was strained more than it needed to be. I liked him a lot as a person, and truthfully enjoyed working with him.
My current boss is very much a blend of my last two. He's demanding and driven, but balanced and supportive. We have a very positive working relationship, and we like each other personally, too. We share the same goals with respect to our jobs, and he helps me stay focused and on-task when I might otherwise wander off into less important projects. He protects me from a lot of the political goings-on, and ardently advocates for me and my counterpart at every opportunity.
I've been extremely fortunate to have such good bosses. I've learned a lot from each of them; and although I'm not yet ready to make the transition into any kind of supervisory capacity, I know I'll have a lot of excellent advice and experience on which to draw when I need it!
Swim trunks
I took the kids to the pool yesterday afternoon for some rest and relaxation. It's always remarkable to watch the transformation that occurs as the kids hit the water. All the hostility and snottiness they usually exhibit toward one another instantly evaporates, and they're suddenly the best of friends. This usually lasts two or three swim periods, so I always try to enjoy it as much as I can while it's happening.
The kids love to clamber onto my back, or hold my arms, as I move about the pool. We don't actually do anything in terms of structured play: we just splash each other, and spin and frolic. And it's absolutely delightful.
My personal favorite thing to do at the pool is to jump off the diving boards. I like to jump, dive, do cannonballs and suicides and anything that will make a big splash. The girls like to jump off the 16' platform. Last year I spent considerable energy coaching and coaxing the girls to do head-first dives off the 3' board. Tyler took to it pretty quickly, but as usual Tayler was extremely hesitant. Tyler managed a couple dozen dives by the end of the summer, but Tayler was still in single digits.
Yesterday as I waited for my turn on the board, I told Tayler "I'll do a flip if you do a dive." This was no idle jest: I was never able to flip as a kid, and probably only performed as many somersaults last year as Tayler had dives. Without any hesitation Tayler walked to the end of the board and dove in head-first. As Tayler swam to the ladder, I ran to the end of the board, bounced as high as I could into the air, and hurled my feet over my head. To my delight, I completed the flip and my feet hit the water first. Tayler and I shared a high five for our respective accomplishments.
After a few more dives off the 3' board, and some more splashing in the swim pool, I suggested that both Tayler and Tyler dive off the 10' board. This was a major challenge, as neither had done it before, but they both readily agreed. And to my extreme delight, both girls successfully executed near perfect dives! To celebrate, we all climbed the ladder to the 16' platform for a victory jump. It was at this time that I noticed a small tear in my swim trunks. It wasn't a big tear, and hardly threatening: the stitching along the side pocket had torn loose at one corner.
We made our jump from the platform, then retired to the swim pool for some floating and splashing. I joked with the kids that the rip in my suit was dangerously close to causing me much embarrassment, and they laughed heartily. Tayler revealed to me that Carina hated my swim trunks, claiming they were old and something -- I couldn't make out what she said, but it sounded an awful lot to me like "dorky".
Tyler said emphatically "Daddy, you should get new trunks with flowers!" I looked at her quizzically for a moment before saying "Tyler, I'm a boy". Tyler said quickly "I meant fire!"
I put the small tear in my trunks out of my mind, and continued to play with the kids and dive off the boards. I did a few more flips off the 3' board, and generally had a great time. After what turned out to be my last flip I checked my trunks again, and saw that the small rip on the pocket had not grown any. Then as I glanced at the other side of my shorts I was mortified: the entire seam from hip down was ripped open! I hastily told the girls it was time to pack up for the day, and they both gasped as they saw the reason, and then fell down laughing at my plight.
In truth it wasn't as bad as I had at first feared: the bottom hem held together, and there was little risk of accidentally exposing myself. Nonetheless, I tied my towel about my waist as we walked to the exit.
Now I need to go to the store to buy some new swim trunks with flowers. I mean fire!
