Present tense

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Why's there a cat in the silver spoon?
Is the spoon big or is it a tiny cat?
Either way sounds unhygienic.

Beautiful song there about the passage of time and not prioritising stuff correctly. Also about the way kids interfere with your work ethic, but mainly is a lyrical introduction to today's theme, that most mysterious, all encompassing and unpredictably life-affecting phenomenon - spoons. And changes.

Mostly changes, to be honest.

I've just been cleaning up some of the bloggage on The Gravel Farm. Before my hiatus to attend to my other life in that strange, possibly three dimensional realm we assume is reality, I followed a lot of great blogs. It was strange looking at them now, eighteen months later, and seeing how many had been abandoned, or taken over by advertising robots.

As I selected a few of them that hadn't been updated for years, I actually felt a pang of nostalgia, which is unusual for me as I'm not one to hold on to the past. There's always other stuff more useful to think about. Stuff that hasn't happened yet. When the time inevitably comes that everything you need to think about is in the past, then it's probably too late to worry about it anyway.

So I nodded a respectful adios to those blogs that had kept me entertained over the last few years, and thought about the past and the future.

I do that even more since having kids. Probably natural. You're always wondering how things are going to turn out for them, what obstacles will be in their way, what tools you can give them to help overcome problems and deal with their mistakes. Self-confidence maybe, a sense of humility perhaps, a healthy appreciation of humour and a decent work ethic. A well honed axe.

My son is now heading towards being eight, and likes . . . absolutely everything. Rock climbing, swimming, hoss wrangling, bikes, monster trucks, maths, sparrows, ceilings, books, Minecraft, wrassling, piano, Nerf guns, hot weather, cold weather, wet weather, snowy weather, whatever. He has a very admirable 'I presume I'll like it" point of view.

After having a daughter happen to me, it turns out that attitude, a current favourite trait lauded by modern urban cogna senti, isn't particularly hard to imbue. In fact, it would appear pretty much intrinsic to a four and half year old girl. Bonobo survives on hot chocolate and carbs, and she is out there. She can't be bargained with. She can't be reasoned with. She doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And she absolutely will not stop, ever.

 

That picture had better be flattering Father.

So my world drifts away from doing what I like, when I like to providing entertainment and some sort of control to those little forces of nature I like to call children. It's a full time job. One that makes my employment seem like a nice little break, and explains the the lack of blog entries, I s'pose.

Still, I wouldn't change more than fifty percent of it, so I'm very lucky.

And from considering past and future, I shall now move on to presents! Aha! Did you see that? Presents, because it's chrizmuz. Yeah, I know. That segue will be all over the internet in an hour, you mark my words

Anyway I'm working all over the yule period and the new year, which further limits blogging opportunities to wish you all a happy xmas. Let me just say I hope you all  have one exactly as you want it, with as much or as little time to yourself as you desire.

Regards

The Jules