I wanted to delve into all of this today with Caleb - my son.
How is school going? How are you doing in JROTC? What about work? How are you dealing with this pretty-intense schedule?
Oh, I did the same thing at his age I was working, going to school, getting into trouble and all kinds of stuff. I got up early and went to bed late. But, Caleb is his own person, I wanted to hear how it's all going, school is more important than a job - or is it? No, I think they are both very important pre-cursors for living life as it's going to come at him.
You and I know life isn't easy at times. When you're young, it can seem like hell. You learn over time how to deal with the things that come up against you, but - not everything of course. Still, work is pretty much a baseline for most everyone. Rich or poor, you have some kind of work you must do in order to receive your financial recompense.
He says he's doing fine - his mother says his grades are good, he doesn't appear fatigued or out of it and he's loving life right now. He's on top of his world in JROTC - he's a commander with a platoon of 35 cadets under his command. That's pretty awesome, really. He went into GREAT detail today - more than I have ever heard from him - of what's going on with the kids under him.
Number one, you must understand that Caleb is a BIG boy. 250 pounds - works out regularly, but large-framed and yes, he has some fat on his body. He is going to have to lose some of that to go into the military, but I know he's aware of that and I don't bring that subject up - he's going to have to deal with it. If he wants me help, gladly, but, he needs to bring it up, not me. He's very touchy about that subject. Still, there is a LOT of meat under that skin, he's very strong and the kids under him aren't even going to think about messing with him, ie: disrespect, trash-talk, all that junk.
What he expressed was that there were numerous kids that show no respect, whatsoever. Not surprising to me, I have seen plenty of this in the last decade or more of kids whose parents don't seem to give a damn about how their kids talk to authority figure or even each other. Punk, trash, diss talk that I find GREATLY annoying at best.
So, he had a great idea: separate the whole lot of them. Take the kids that are totally into it and put them into one company and take the kids that are totally OUT of it and put them together in another.
Well, it's a long story - not going to go into all of it, but he has a good mind and he is definitley showing leadership quality and I will watch with great interest where this goes. He apparently has great latitude to do whatever he feels necessary to bring them all into line and get them - out of this s*** mode. I just hate what's been happening into our society for some time now with kids that learn no respect for much of anything and grow up into "adults" with that same mind-set.
Yup, Caleb left for work - about 2 hours ago, a 6-hour shift. Undoubtedly, I will get a call from him after he gets off with the request that he can hang out with his friends. I know most of his friends and more importantly, I know most of his friend's parents from Little League days - I was coaching baseball, umpring baseball, a board member, this that and the other thing - for a decade I was involved with that.
Good kids, great parents, I have no issues with them hanging out together. Are they perfect, lily-white angels when they are together? Undoubtedly NOT. But, as long as they don't get into trouble, I can't monitor my son 24 hours a day and I don't WANT to. He has to learn life like we all did: the HARD way.
Today? I was working outside - yes, I finally got back to work on digging out the ground for the bigger pond. BEAUTIFUL weather, at least by my standards. It was warm, but NOT hot. I also called county Animal Control on my neighbor's dog. It gets out - almost daily - through my yard - destroys some of my plants in the process, the owners don't care. This has been going on for quite some time now, today I had enough when my newest tenant came out and declared that it was DIGGING in my front yard.
Animal Control showed up out there about an hour later. My dogs alerted me to such fact. I stood out there for half an hour while this officer got the attention of those in the household - he wasn't entering their locked, gated, fenced yard, got them out there and started "educating" them. I could hear a few things he was saying, most of it was unintelligible.
Meanwhile, the crew of Jehovah's Witnesses showed up. They went to every house on my street except mine and my neighbors I wasn't involved with what Animal Control is doing, no, I was "blacklisted" by these people some time ago when I started asking them pointed questions about their beliefs and how they - in the affirmative - correlate to the Bible/Word of God. I will never subscribe to anyone's belief that Jehovah's Witnesses are ANYTHING but a CULT. I had thought they were going to come to my house - not - they went all the way up to my neighbor's house on the other side and then, left I was going to be very polite with them if the did come - thanks, guys, not to be offensive, but I do not subscribe to the belief system of JW's and I will NEVER subscribe to such - but I didn't have to go there.
That's done and over with. I will call Animal Control every time I see that dog out there until the situation is dealt with.
Now? Yup, I'm going outside again. It's absolutely beautiful out there. I missed it too much, it's a thing I will spending a great deal of time doing while the weather is nice -which should be for another, ohhhh - 6 months or so.
G'day.
ben
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