Comestic Engineers Revisited

This is not fun. On Monday evening I tapped out what I thought was a decent post after something of an inspiring evening. The atmosphere was moving toward perfection, the house was cool and the gas logs were burning in our bedroom; but somewhere in the midst of all that inspiration and atmosphere, I lost my wireless connection and thought I had lost a significant portion of the posting.

Tonight, I planned to piece it back together, only I discovered that apparently nothing - not one phrase was preserved - all was lost.

So I am going to attempt to reproduce it in some way... this time without the fire and after a particularly tiring evening... so don't get your hopes up.

I was privileged to enjoy some thought provoking conversation over dinner with a couple of "intellectuals" on Monday.

Our evening leading up to dinner had been rather interesting. Ab has recently joined the "Running Club" at school and is training for a one and one-half mile "Pumpkin Run" in a few days. So I am "training" with her.

I hate to run.

I think that running should be reserved only for those times in which it is absolutely necessary - like when something big and fearsome is chasing you.

But I have felt a need to add some physical activity to my agenda, so I plotted a course around our driveway and the surrounding area; five laps equals one mile. For the past two or three weeks, we have been running- well jogging .. sort of.

The pay off comes when Ab says to me, "I love running with you, Dad". This statement is sandwiched in with a plethora of other statements, since Ab's teacher told her that you should only run at a pace with which you can carry on a normal conversation.

AA - who likely shares my affection for running - joined us after viewing a portion of a movie that involved skateboards. So he mounted his Spiderman skateboard (criss-cross-applesauce style) and made a number of interesting treks down the driveway as we jogged by.

It was a fun evening. Part of the reason for us all being outside was so that Mom - who had capped her day-off with a tremendous headache - could enjoy some silence inside.

After our run, we had supper and that was where the interesting conversation occured. Ab "won the toss" and so she got to tell about her day first. AA was not giving up so easily (at this point substance doesn't matter, it's all about who gets to talk first) and made several attempts to interrupt.

So I appointed myself as something of a "Speaker-of-the-House / President Pro-Tem" and introduced a mix between Parliamentary Procedures, Robert's Rules of Order and Senate Rules.
In so doing, I explained to AA that his sister had the floor and he could not talk until she yielded.

I did explain to him that she might yield for a question so he thought one up real quick. The actual question has escaped me.

Somehow in this conversation, I discovered that Ab's fourth grade teacher has set up a city government scenario in their classroom. Ab was explaining that the two police officers were taking names at school; when I became confused and asked if there were real police officers at her school she explained that two students were the police officers for the week . They have "Police Officers", a "City Manager" and a couple "Zoologists". Zoologist was Ab's latest role - she was charged with the responsibility of feeding Angus - the class hamster.

I asked if they had a Public Works program to take care of maintenance and the like and she said, "sure, but we call them 'domestic engineers'".

With this, AA seized control of the floor - "Hey I do that sometimes!" he broke in "I clean up around the tables after lunch and I tell them I am a Comestic Engineer" .

My son shares my thirst for attention and takes every opportunity to get a laugh. Sometimes his vocabulary is not entirely accurate and he may stray slightly from the truth.

So I asked if he really said that and he said, no he just helped out sometimes.

The procedural process of our conversation seemed to keep them at the table longer and I enjoyed hearing about school and the things that make up their day.

After dinner, Ab hurried off for a shower and it was time for AA and I to complete a portion of his projects for his "Tiger Cub" badge in the Cub Scouts. The project involved performing some sort of job together. So I suggested we clean up the kitchen.

It took quite awhile and required my constant persuasion to keep him on the job but finally we stood back and surveyed with satisfaction the completed work before us. I encouraged him to just soak in the satisfaction of doing a good job.

...yes Sir, we were a couple of comestic engineers.