The Aerie
So far so good on the resolutions. I have missed a couple days at the
gym, but on the other hand last year when I completed my full month of
workouts I had just been laid off. By and large I've been managing to
get to the gym, so that's not so bad.
One of my other resolutions was to spend solo time with each of my
kids. Scheduled time, set aside on the calendar, keeping me on track
rather than just a vague "I oughta do this" notion that never happens.
So today was the first day, with my youngest the first guinea pig.
First I took my youngest to see "Treasure Planet". I have to say, I
thought that they did a good job with it, especially by taking the
time to play up the character relationships and downplaying the
explosions (not that there was a shortage of those).
What I had no way of knowing, however, was how much of the movie would
revolve around the abandonment of Jim and his mother by Jim's father.
Long, musical segments portrayed the growing father-son relationship
building between Long John Silver and Jim Hawkins. Flashbacks showed a
variously-aged Jim being overlooked and eventually abandoned by an
obscure silhouette of a man. Finally Jim tumbled head over heels in
pursuit of his father, as the man slung a duffle over his shoulder and
set sail into the sky, never to come back.
Sitting beside my son, With my father recently deceased, I'm probably
the only adult who ever started crying during a showing of "Treasure
Planet". Pitiful.
Afterwards, having blown my nose in the Men's room, we went off to
Slumberland to look at dining room tables. Ours, purchased damaged
from a closing JC Penney's store for a good price, has an annoying
problem: it's a center pedestal, and three children hanging on it has
turned it into a kind of wobbly-topped playground ride. For about
$450, Slumberland has a two-pedestal model that presumably won't
wobble as much.
Having approved the selected table for eventual purchase (we can phone
the order in), I took my boy to Burger King. He was obsessed with two
things: shaking-fries and toys. Burger is not King on his itinerary.
At the Burger King, the lad behind the counter was extremely nice. My
son asked which toy was available, specifying a particular one. The
lad confirmed it was available. Then when the order came up his face
fell: the toys were out! He offered a different one, which my son
found disappointing. Finally he said, "Hang on a moment," and returned
with one of the toys already open. "Here, out of the display."
Later, my son asked why he didn't have cheesy fries. He had ordered a
Big Kids Meal, thinking that they came with it. The fellow reached
under the counter and handed him the cheese-and-bag mixture with a
smile, even though that would have been a separate purchase.
All in all the lad made the entire venture a huge success.
I'm always ready to complain about poor service, so I made a point of
getting the lad's name and the address of the central office. I'm
excited to make sure that fellow gets a commendation from his boss.
I'll be careful not to mention any details that might get the boy in
trouble, just "great satisfaction," "above and beyond," etc.
Hopefully it'll make his day like he made mine and my son's.
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Posted by Albatross at January 12, 2003 12:00 AM