Tales from the Steppes

2006-05-17

8:23 a.m.
Wednesday, May 17

When all logic grows cold and all thinking gets done
You'll be warm in the arms of the Mayor of Simpleton.
- XTC

The YM and MM got themselves into a bit of trouble yesterday. I was running late at work and called home to check in on the mongols around 5pm. Only to find out that the male mongols were in the backyard with bow and arrows. Apparently they were not shooting at each other, which is a fine thing given that these are regular steel-tipped arrows, but instead were shooting at the wood that was propped up against a tree for this sole purpose. But they are not allowed to do this without parental supervision. In fact, the night before, the SU had been out with them so they could shoot and had put the bow and arrows up on the top of my wardrobe. Eight feet in the air - beyond mongol reach, even standing on a chair. But these are the tool using mongols. They got out the pole used for raising lowering the shades on the skylights in my bedroom and knocked the bow and arrows down. Or at least according to the YM, they did

My reaction, on hearing of this exploit, was to tell the boys that they were to go sit on the futon until I got home. For once, they actually followed directions. But still seemed confused when I pointed out that they were in trouble. While the YM was upstairs, I asked the MM about the incident and why he thought this was an ok activity to do unsupervised. He told me that the YM said that he had asked me earlier in the day and I said it was ok. I pointed out that the bow and arrows were put up for a reason and his response was that the YM just showed up downstairs with them on his own.

The MM obviously thinks I am a moron. The story does not pass the laugh test. Why would the MM ever believe anything the YM would say? The YM is cute but does not always have a grip on reality - I believe his teachers call him "imaginative" and "artistic". And I am supposed to believe that, even with the pole, the YM could get the bow and arrow set down without causing major damage to my room. Puhleeeeeze.

When questioned, the YM cheerfully offered up the story about using the pole, including his own involvement in the process. If we had a competition for shamelessness in my house, I am hard pressed to say who would win.

Perhaps most irritating, from my standpoint, is that I am the only person in my house that had a real problem with all of this. I do not think of myself as overprotective and prone to overreaction but I do think this deserves more than a "Well, no one got hurt so what's the problem?" Grrrrrrrr.

In other news, I was able to get my head on the floor yesterday from a straight-legged straddle poisition in yoga class. Perhaps I might feel it a little today but it was worth it.

And I have a dental appointment to go into that abscessed tooth again at lunchtime. I am trying to practice serenity by not envisioning the dentist drilling into a live nerve. Again and again. Surely things must be ok now?