general life updates

song+ Little Miss Obsessive- Bittersweet World- Ashlee Simpson
book+ june previews
scent+ sweat.. it's kinda icky
quest+ teaching kyu to ride a bike sufficiently to get to work
upper+ he's made good progress
downer+ he's still yelling at it and throwing the bike every 15-25 feet.
attire+ as little as possible. it's hot here.
drink+ milk

so i got my sewing machine thursday, and i've opened it and taken pictures, but they won't hit my computer for a few days yet, because i'm damn tired. this week's comic acquisition was delayed a day due to memorial day. so i worked really hard all week because we had one less day to get a larger than normal workload done. kyu and i also worked a toy sale in the old store one location today for time and a half in store credit. we were there from 10:30 to around 6:10. after that, wolfie took us to go buy bikes and helmets.

i forgot to really mention last week that dad's car is screwed up. there's a leak in the radiator, and there's a blown head gasket. the mechanic said it'd be $1375.76 to fix it. that's a kinda arbitrary number, but that's what they said. dad expected me or kyu to apply for financing for it. we both figure if we refuse to go into debt to go to school, we sure as hell aren't gonna go into debt to fix a car that will just break again in a few months, so he's on his own for that. to solve our getting-to-work conundrum, we essentially had two choices: 1) give people gas money and slowly go broke, and 2) buy a bike and a helmet each of us for what it takes to keep moby (wolfie's truck) in enough gas to get us to and from for 2 weeks. we went with option 2.

the downside to this is that kyu's biological father is a mentally deficient screwup whose idea of teaching kyu to swim was throwing him around for a few hours (no actual swimming involved) which would later lead to him very nearly drowning (granted, he was the one to save him, but it's still pretty boneheaded). his idea of teaching him to ride a bike was putting him on it and saying "go, don't fall over" leading to kyu hitting a tree with enough force to give him a knee injury that still bothers him today. a few years ago, his uncle tried to do better for him. he said more or less "relax, always use the back brake first, and try to have fun" which was better than anything else he'd been told.

i taught kyu to swim in the first summers we dated. he's not good enough to race or rough house, but he's better than a dog paddle and he can face the deep end alone. besides, i'm sure he has little to no interest in racing or rough housing. now i'm teaching him to ride a bike.. today's lesson was getting on, looping the parking lot three or four times, then riding up the hill to Milano's for dinner. Milano's makes some of he best italian i've ever eaten. i can't wait to be hungry enough to eat my leftovers xD we rode part of the way back, but going downhill on a something as steep as this part of Park Springs is asking for trouble, even when you know how to ride, so we walked and coasted for a lot of the return trip.

as hot and sweaty and tired as we both are, i'm very proud of the progress kyu made today. he didn't fall off, or hit anything. his main issues are wobbly balance and steering (which are very much related, they take turns being the cause for the other) and his anger. if he takes his mood pill, it's likely to make a huge difference. even without it though, i think that he could soon be comfortable enough to not get angry and throw the bike.. which only happened about five times today, i was expecting it to happen a lot more.

plans for tomorrow include another lesson in bike-riding. we're probably gonna stick to the parking lot for a while (after another few lessons we'll likely go to veteran's park). it'll likely be an all-day affair, but i'll have my phone on me. if anyone wants to call and pass along encouraging thoughts to kyu it would be great, he can't really see how well he's doing.

we'll still be getting rides to work next week, but i'm hoping that by the time i'm back from my vacation (that would be in about 2 weeks, the third week of june) he can handle the trip to work. my tentative training advancement schedule is parking lot -> veteran's park -> the street (at least a little) -> something just out of walking distance -> test run on a day off to see how long it takes to get to work -> riding to and from work every day.

anyhow (to channel dad) send positive thoughts in our direction. you know- prayer, ritual sacrifice, whatever xD any love and encouragement will be appreciated.