A Beautiful Mind

As I was driving through the small town where we take Monkey to daycare, I saw a couple of young boys on bicycles.  They were cruising up and down the sidewalks, sometimes veering into driveways and parking lots.  Sometimes, my mind starts with something as simple as seeing kids riding bikes and starts to wander, ending up thinking about life jackets.  Odd, right?  Well this is how it happens...

I wondered if kids ever put pop cans on their bike tires to get that dirt bike sound anymore. 

When we were kids we loved doing that.  I don't think I've seen (or heard) anyone do that in years. 

Or what about baseball cards?  Do kids still put those in the tire spokes to make the dirt bike sound?  Or for that matter, do they even still MAKE baseball cards?  I was never huge into collecting them, but I remember other kids trading them on the bus. 

And then my mind switched over to baseball.  We don't live in town so it's hard for me to say with complete conviction, but I can't recall the last time I saw kids just playing catch, either in their backyards or at the park.  Is it because they are too absorbed in their PS3, PSP, or Wii's?  Or could it be that they don't have time to just play anymore?  It seems if a kid is involved in any sporting activity, all their spare time goes to it.

I was talking to a friend the other day whose 10 year old son is wrestling.  He practices 3 days a week and has wrestling meets another 3 days a week.  That's right, he has ONE day off a week, which happens to be Sunday.  Now, he enjoys it and wants to do it, so I don't think it's necessarily wrong.  Actually I think it's good, it keeps him out of trouble and teaches him responsibility.  But it also kind of makes me sad that kids are so busy they can't just be kids.  They don't have the time in between school, sports, and family to play a pick-up game or run down to the nearest creek and look for crawdads.

Then of course, my mind switched over to the creek.  Memorial Day weekend for the past several years has been one spent down at the creek for us.  We, along with 15 or so friends, spend the weekend setting bank poles and trot lines and canoeing down the creek checking them for fish.  If the weather holds out, we are going to take Monkey with us for her first canoe ride and I'm so excited about it.  I hope she enjoys it just as much as her dad and I do.

We can't take her if her new life jacket isn't here yet.  I ordered one yesterday, a Super Soft Coast Guard approved life jacket.  She hated her life jacket last year, it was a bit bulky, so I'm hoping this one will be better.

And that's how you go from bicycles to life jackets all in less than five mintues.  I know, I'm an odd duck.  Huh, speaking of ducks, I wonder if our new puppies will be good bird dogs....