We went to Me 'n Moms in Ballard today, to drop of a large load of toys to consign. I felt such relief to have unloaded them there that I shall probably donate them to their charity if they do not sell!
Wren has been quite thoughtful recently. On the way, driving along 85th through Greenwood, he asked:
"Who would be in the tummy when every body was a baby in the whole wide world? I mean, where is their Mommies?"
I explained that many people wondered about that. Some people said that God made the first baby. Other people said that little animals like Scrat in Ice Age became apes and long ago some apes changed slowly to be like people.
Wren did not buy either theory.
"Monkeys come from Monkeys and Humans come from Humans!" he confirmed. "Maybe the humans came from another world?"
"Maybe in another land there everyone were lots and lots of grown-ups? Maybe that is how it was? I mean, I am not talking about real life NOW ...
This is very very tricky in the real-real world."
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Friday, March 11, 2011
Wren and his cussing ways
Wren has a problem with swearing or, rather, we have a problem with Wren swearing.
This evening, I was in the other room while the boys were playing together. I heard Wren's high little voice say to Frost: "Crud. You are a dumb bastard!"
"Wren!" I said. "What on earth are you using rude words for? That is very rude and we don't talk like that here."
Wren said "I don't love you and I don't love Frost. I only love DADDY!"
Then he lay on the floor and yelled and fake cried.
Later, he called Frost a "Fart Face". He routinely says "Crud" and "Dumbass." None of us talk like this!
Okay, I will fess up to saying "Holy Smokes" a bit. Wren's version? "Holy CRAP!"
Frost says he learned Dumb Bastard from Futurama. Frost may have said Holy crap once or twice... not even sure he did, and he was told off if that was the case. I told Wren he could say "Holy Mackerel" instead and he is trying.
I am becoming very firm about his foul language but we have to figure out where he is learning it from. Come out you cussers! Let me see your tongues.
This evening, I was in the other room while the boys were playing together. I heard Wren's high little voice say to Frost: "Crud. You are a dumb bastard!"
"Wren!" I said. "What on earth are you using rude words for? That is very rude and we don't talk like that here."
Wren said "I don't love you and I don't love Frost. I only love DADDY!"
Then he lay on the floor and yelled and fake cried.
Later, he called Frost a "Fart Face". He routinely says "Crud" and "Dumbass." None of us talk like this!
Okay, I will fess up to saying "Holy Smokes" a bit. Wren's version? "Holy CRAP!"
Frost says he learned Dumb Bastard from Futurama. Frost may have said Holy crap once or twice... not even sure he did, and he was told off if that was the case. I told Wren he could say "Holy Mackerel" instead and he is trying.
I am becoming very firm about his foul language but we have to figure out where he is learning it from. Come out you cussers! Let me see your tongues.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Brenneckes Pacific Garbage
Before we left Kauai Mum and I took the kids for a morning swim at Brenneckes Beach. The road to the beach was covered with puddles of muddy red water and Indian Mynahs, chickens and golden plovers were dotted across the oceanfront lawns, bright from recent rain.
Down on the beach Wren played "bad crab" with the remnants of yesterday's sandcastles - the bad crab attacks the castles with tunnels, sledgehammer and other driftwood - while Mum and Frost had the first swim and boogie board. While they played and swam I walked up and down the short stretch of sand collecting bits of rubbish and plastic left at or above the tide line.
We were only at the beach a short while and I collected a full plastic bag full of plastics. The rubbish on the beach included a couple of beer cans, a single flip-flop in the rocks, four clear plastic bags, some sunblock and a pair of broken sunglasses but most of it was particles of plastic. I have never seen so many small plastic aggregates on a beach before. The plastic was almost 50/50 white and blue. Most of the pieces were tiny, smaller than a quarter and of irregular shape - the product of weeks, months or years of disaggregation at sea. Many pieces appeared melted down - as if a plastic container had melted into a lump of toothpaste - but words or labeling was sometimes visible in part. The harder you looked, the more tiny pieces of plastic you noticed.
[Perhaps the heat of the sun causes this or recycled plastic lumps fall from a ship into the ocean? I cannot explain it and, since I am writing this on the trans-Pacific flight home to Seattle, I can't look it up.]
When you sit down on this beach, and the others I saw on the South Side of the island, the sand is littered with tiny plastic particles (again, mostly bright blue and white). On a beach without street access, we walked in one windy afternoon and looked out across a brilliant blue cove to a distant peak falling down black cliffs breaking rolling waves. On that beach people had piled the plastics up near the dunes, where the beach shrubs began to offer cover. The pile included bags of tiny plastic particles, lengths of green nylon rope, two large plastic drums (corroded shut but containing liquid) that looked as though they may hold fuel or water for a small craft as well as plastic pallets, tubs, sections of plastic pipe and masses of larger plastic shards, weathered from their manufactured gloss into an almost organic feel.
More than once I big a plastic aggregate or rough plastic to confirm it was not a piece of coral, rock or other natural object.
I weighed the bag when I returned to the house and it was 2.5 lbs of plastic from one small (25 yard) stretch of beach in less than 30 minutes.
I am considering banning all plastic in our home. What would that mean? Can we live post-plastic? Have you seen this kind of plastic waste on your beaches?
Down on the beach Wren played "bad crab" with the remnants of yesterday's sandcastles - the bad crab attacks the castles with tunnels, sledgehammer and other driftwood - while Mum and Frost had the first swim and boogie board. While they played and swam I walked up and down the short stretch of sand collecting bits of rubbish and plastic left at or above the tide line.
 |
| Plastics from the beach Saturday morning. |
We were only at the beach a short while and I collected a full plastic bag full of plastics. The rubbish on the beach included a couple of beer cans, a single flip-flop in the rocks, four clear plastic bags, some sunblock and a pair of broken sunglasses but most of it was particles of plastic. I have never seen so many small plastic aggregates on a beach before. The plastic was almost 50/50 white and blue. Most of the pieces were tiny, smaller than a quarter and of irregular shape - the product of weeks, months or years of disaggregation at sea. Many pieces appeared melted down - as if a plastic container had melted into a lump of toothpaste - but words or labeling was sometimes visible in part. The harder you looked, the more tiny pieces of plastic you noticed.
[Perhaps the heat of the sun causes this or recycled plastic lumps fall from a ship into the ocean? I cannot explain it and, since I am writing this on the trans-Pacific flight home to Seattle, I can't look it up.]
When you sit down on this beach, and the others I saw on the South Side of the island, the sand is littered with tiny plastic particles (again, mostly bright blue and white). On a beach without street access, we walked in one windy afternoon and looked out across a brilliant blue cove to a distant peak falling down black cliffs breaking rolling waves. On that beach people had piled the plastics up near the dunes, where the beach shrubs began to offer cover. The pile included bags of tiny plastic particles, lengths of green nylon rope, two large plastic drums (corroded shut but containing liquid) that looked as though they may hold fuel or water for a small craft as well as plastic pallets, tubs, sections of plastic pipe and masses of larger plastic shards, weathered from their manufactured gloss into an almost organic feel.
 |
| This picture makes it look like the pieces are large. The smaller bits are at the bottom of the bag. |
More than once I big a plastic aggregate or rough plastic to confirm it was not a piece of coral, rock or other natural object.
I weighed the bag when I returned to the house and it was 2.5 lbs of plastic from one small (25 yard) stretch of beach in less than 30 minutes.
I am considering banning all plastic in our home. What would that mean? Can we live post-plastic? Have you seen this kind of plastic waste on your beaches?
 |
| The Great Pacific Garbage Dump |
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