Go Ask Your Father: Overflow, Driveways, Hitchhikers, Puberty

I’ve been having lots of fun with the GoPro. Yesterday I attempted my first time lapse video. It turned out okay. It ended up only lasting 8 seconds. DW’s dad has 16 cords of wood he needs split and stacked so I was going to try and do a time lapse showing how much we got done. When your help has a combined age of 14, you don’t get much done. Today I changed the perspective from the same vantage point. I set the camera in the same spot, but this time I focused on the stacks we were making. I’m still in the editing process so I’m not sure how it’ll turn out yet. Today’s combined age was 79 (DW helped). Nix that. My computer had trouble, or Windows Movie Maker had trouble with the 4,918 photos from the time lapse video. I will have something else for you, though. Also I have some exciting new blog linto share, too. See you tomorrow!

2. What does overflow mean?

This one is a spin off from a question that was asked earlier. That hole in the sink has a purpose and it’s not for getting fingers stuck in. It’s an overflow drain. But was is overflow? Sometimes in order to explain a certain concept, a more basic concept needs to be understood first. For example, to understand that dad is going to eat 1/2 of your chocolate, you need understand what 1/2 means. So while explaining the overflow drain I had to digress and discuss overflow. It’s when you pour too much milk into your cup and it spills on the counter. It’s when you put too much water in the sink and it spills onto the floor. And, yes, even the toilet can overflow when it’s clogged. Since finding this out, Bang now flushes twice. Once when he’s done his business. Then again after he’s wiped.

 

4. What’s a hidden driveway?

There is a twisty, turny, make-your-DW-carsick kind of road we travel sometimes on our way to the cottage at the lake. It makes me feel like I’m driving the Monaco Grand Prix.

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via GIPHY (and Formula 1 via YouTube)

Except that on the backroad cars can enter and exit the raceway road at any given time. Around any given blind turn. Over any given blind hill. So I try not to do 104 kmh. I do more like 60. Our RAV4 isn’t quite the high performance, low center of gravity that the F1 cars are. And I am not Mario Andretti. My mother-in-law thought she was one day, though.

6. What’s a hitchhiker?

Typically, a hitchhiker is someone on the side of a road with their hand making a fist with their thumb sticking out and pointing skyward. As far as I know it’s the international sign for “pick my ass up”. I’ve never hitchhiked. I’ve never picked up a hitchhiker either. Mostly due to a story (the way I remember it) I heard about my dad’s sister being forced to drive from Maryland to Pennsylvania. Where we live now, it’s almost an acceptable means of travel. We see the thumbers frequently. Have no car? Start walking. Eventually someone might pick you up. The hitchhiker in question here is a much different kind. This one is of the insect variety and therefore has no thumbs. Be it a butterfly or a dragonfly or a horsefly or even a spider (all except the horsefly are welcome riders) land on our kayaks for a brief rest. If it’s a dragonfly, I say, “Hi, Grandma.”

8. Why do you have hair on your pee pee?

It was just a matter of time before this one was asked. This one was easy, a level one, beginner parent kind of question. 99.99% households with kids know the bathroom is the ideal location for a family gathering. One never goes alone. The shower included. It saves time and water, though, to shower with the little imps. You get clean. They get clean. The bathroom doesn’t flood like Louisanna from a toddler pretending to be Shamu. So when I was asked this I simply told him it was because I went through puberty and that he will too when he is 12 or so. I was seriously prepared for the “What’s puberty?” question, but it never came. I guess the answer I provided was sufficient. Surprisingly, there was no overflow of questions.