Dance Cleaning

To my son Tommy,

Today we are having some family over to dye Easter eggs.  That meant your mother was up at 5 am cleaning the house.  When our lazy butts got out of bed around 7:30 much of the hard work was done.  I grabbed a breakfast order from your mom and headed out to Dunkin Donuts to reward your mom with a breakfast sandwich and gas her up with an extra large coffee.

When I got home, I finally downloaded Spotify and put on some music to clean to.  We danced and cleaned and cleaned and danced.  You did much more dancing than cleaning but that is okay.  You kept pulling one of us away to swing dance and spin you.  It was one of those beautiful moments of life that should come more often but don't.  We took a dreaded task such as cleaning and made it into one of those happy family fun moments that are usually only seen in the movies.

While some high energy songs were playing, your mother was impressed and came over and hit like on a few of the songs.  The songs were some German band remaking some Gloria Estefan song or something like that.  The problem was my facebook account was connected and now the radio station seems to only play songs that would be fashionable in the Blue Oyster Bar.  I felt like I was in an episode of King of Queens when a character named Spencer got a TiVo and it kept recording Ice Capades and ballet and musicals despite his best efforts to prove to the machine how manly he is.  Oh well, I will have to "prove" to the software that I much prefer Jimmy Buffett and Bob Marley and Jack Johnson.

Needless to say I have switched who is logged in to the spotify on our computer but just can't find that special "Like" combination that got the high level cleaning fun playlist on.  Your mother can now like away and find the right combination for her.  It is amazing how accurate that software can be on what you will like.  It just shows what big data can do and imagine if that was put to a better use than finding out who is most likely to like the Pretenders.  Of course that gets into privacy issues and big brother government and big brother corporate and a whole mess of concerns and is best left for discussion another day.

Today, I just want to focus on how a task is only as "not fun" as you make it.  Vacuuming, dusting, straightening up, even the most boring menial task can be made fun with the right approach, the right music, and the right mixture and moderation of dance to work.  Plus there will always be a young toddler around like you who will pick up the slack in the amount of dance in the mixture.

Sincerely with love from your Dad,
Leo

Connected Minds

To my son Tommy,

I really hope you find your soul mate to spend your life with the same way I found your mom.  The connection really runs deep and almost seem psychic at times.  For example, today.  I got out of work early and went to visit Baby Sal's grave.  It wasn't till I was on my way that I learned you and your mom had already stopped by.  Perhaps the passion of Good Friday that drives us to remember those that we have lost, but I find it telling that your mother and I often have the same thoughts, be them happy or sorrowful, on our mind.  It wasn't till after the visit that I realized how much Sal had been on both of our minds.  Your mother shared a link to an article using brief statements to explain what or who the bereaved mother is.  I have one to add to that list, "A bereaved mother is the wife that looks over at her husband tearing up over the loss over a year later and doesn't ask why but just lends her own broken heart to help him remain strong and thinks no less of him".  I left your brother Sal some peeps at his grave.  I figured since your mother doesn't like them and you won't try them that he would have been the only one to share in my enjoyment of the overly sugary disgustingly sweet marshmallow Easter treats.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo

Willy Wonka

To my son Tommy,

With our snowman down to a one inch tall pile of snow that is a sad reminder of the little bit of snow we had for the season, we collected the hat and pipe and carrot and buttons. You have commandeered them and decided to wear the hat and call yourself Willy Wonka. Definitely the Gene Wilder Willy of yore not the Johnny Depp Willy of remake. Your imagination and ability o play and pretend has blossomed quite nicely.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo

Active Dreams

To my son Tommy,

"Why don't you head off to bed?", asked your Mom in a more commanding than inquisitive way yesterday. I lurched from my love seat position where I had dozed off a second or third time. Earlier that day your grandpa had pointed out I looked tired and had bags under my eyes. I had woken up at 4 AM again to get into work early to help some of our field plumbers train up on the new timekeeping system a bit more. Not sure if it is stress or a series of early morning wake ups interspersed with various other events like snow shoveling or like you deciding to sleep in my bed one night thus giving me a horrible night sleep where all I did was worry that you were falling out of bed. Either way your mom was right and I started heading to bed. When I explained to you where I was headed you retorted, "But it is still light out"

The little extra sleep helped but I feel like I ran a marathon in my head. I must have been the busiest guy in dreamland last night. I did so many chores and tasks in my dreams through out the night. I worked 49 hours, I cleaned the entire house, I re-ran the electric in the house, I dug out and waterproofed the foundation, I started our gardens and tended to them for three months in my dreams, I harvested our gardens, I won the lottery, I created a foundation for good, I cured cancer, I worked in no less than three separate soup kitchens, I attended ten masses and said the rosary twenty times, and I blogged. Imagine the disappointment upon waking when I realized nothing extra was accomplished. The biggest disappointment was I missed my letter to you yesterday especially when, from what I can remember, the blog I wrote in my dream was great and inspiring and gave you the tools and instruction to solve the world's woes.

Oh well. The day starts anew and though I won't be able to accomplish all my dream in a single day, I perchance can make strides in one or two areas of my dream. So I figured I'd start with a letter to my son.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo

Day Off

To my son Tommy,

I only have the energy for a short letter tonight. The day off of work meant cramming two days of work into this work day. And since one of the two days I had to cram into today was a Monday, it was more like cramming two and a half days. There is nothing in this world that you won't have to pay for one way or the other. Even a "free" snow day has its consequences and price.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo

Exact Science

To my son Tommy,

If you look at the calendar, we are in the spring season.  If you look out the door, winter is challenging this ruling with a blast of winter weather.  I was planning on heading in early to work today.  I had to be in around 6:00 AM or 6:30 AM to help an employee who is having trouble with timekeeping on the new iPad system.

When I woke up at 4:00 AM and saw a coating of snow on the grass, I turned on WJZ and started following the reports.  I was reassured that the snow wouldn't stick to the roadways and just lay on the grass.  It was around 5:00 AM that schools started announcing they were opening two hours late though the weatherman was still saying that the roads would remain clear.  I decided to reschedule my morning appointment due to the morning weather and sent out an email to say as much.  Soon on the news I started hearing reports of accidents on the road here and there and was pleased with my decision.  The weatherman now said that some roads would get slushy conditions.  The message came back from the office that they decided not to risk our company trucks on the road and just decided to close the office for the day.  Unfortunately this doesn't mean a day off of work to me as I have the blessing and the curse of being able to connect remotely.  It did give me an extra hour or so of sleep.  During this time I still had the news on the TV and could hear the weatherman back tracking and back tracking on the severity and the road conditions.

I know meteorology is not an exact science.  I know there are tons of variables that need to be taken into account and sometimes it might even be an art of deciphering these clues to make an accurate prediction.  I know that modern weatherman rely way too much on these supercomputer who take the variables and give out probabilities of scenarios and they just parrot back what the computer tells us.  But I do expect the news to be more accurate than a weather rock or weather stone.The weather stone is a highly accurate weather device that anyone can make and use.  A rock is hung from a tripod and placed on your lawn.  Then you look out your window and describe the condition of the rock.  Here are some typical instructions of how to determine the weather with the rock.

If the rock is wet, it's raining.

If the rock is swinging, the wind is blowing.

If the rock casts a shadow, the sun is shining.

If the rock does not cast a shadow and is not wet, the sky is cloudy.

If the rock is not visible, it is foggy.

If the rock is white, it is snowing.

If the rock is coated with ice, there is a frost.

If the ice is thick, it's a heavy frost.

If the rock is bouncing, there is an earthquake.

If the rock is under water, there is a flood.

If the rock is warm, it is sunny.

If the rock is missing, there was a tornado.

If the rock is wet and swinging violently, there is a hurricane.

I am looking out the window watching our street, which was supposedly too warm for accumulation, filling with snow.  We don't even have a weather stone and yet I am able to report the weather with as good or better accuracy than the news.  I lament that I didn't pick a profession where I could be wrong so blatantly and still keep my job.  A report of no street accumulation and nothing to worry about influences if people drive, or more importantly how they drive.  Now I am going to head out and shovel the walk and the street in what is undoubtedly going to be the biggest of the snows in our area.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo

Ultimate Tradition

To my son Tommy,

The last couple of letters to you were about tradition. We looked at tradition based on family and location and school spirit. From barber shops to great grandfathers, we looked at a few traditions that were and got excited about new traditions to come. I lamented some missed traditions while highlighting some of those little traditions that do exist in my life that I can pass on to you. But it occurred to me today that I missed the number one tradition that I have to pass on to you. It is a living tradition that started about 2000 years ago (though one could argue it started at the beginning of time) and includes so many people from all over the world spanning geography, time, and culture. It is a tradition the we grow in as it grows in us and today that tradition was filled with palms and passion and that tradition is always deeply founded in the tradition of forgiveness and sacrifice and love.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo