Saw Chris
He was smart. He knows how skittish I am, so he brought chaperones: his nephews.
The boys are good kids, aged 8 and 9. They were very well-behaved at Fry's, where we met up. Stas recommended I get a 19" flat panel monitor and Chris offered to help me pick one out. I was originally gravitating toward the Viewsonic VG900b 19", but he said to get the Samsung 930B 19" because it has 700:1 contrast and a very fast 8ms response instead of 600:1 and 25ms. Since there was only $30 difference in cost and they are both the same price after rebate, I went with the Samsung. I haven't hooked it up yet tho.
It only took about 20 minutes and then we went to Bullwinkle's. We were going to play miniature golf but it poured rain, so the boys played laser tag and rode the cyber-coaster and played video games while Chris and I talked.
He apologized for the presence of the boys. I told him not to worry about it, that I like other people's children. He said his sister had called him, begging him to take the boys because they were driving her nuts closed up in the house.
Chris is a good man. I learned today that when his brother-in-law was deployed to Iraq with the Oregon National Guard, he helped his sister with the boys, filling in as a father/authority figure, taking them fishing, going to their sports events, sitting in on parent-teacher conferences, telling them to mind their mother, etc. But now he's even more of a surrogate-father--his brother-in-law died ~6 or 8 months ago in Iraq. His sister is having a difficult time dealing with the loss -- you just don't expect Guardsmen to be deployed overseas -- and she really wasn't prepared for it. So sad.
I also got the story on the scar on his neck (motorcycle accident) and learned a bit more about what his work as an industrial engineer for B (the big aircraft manufacturer) entails. Apparently it involves not only a lot of technical analysis and coordinated problem-solving, but a good deal of politics and assertiveness as well. I told him that he's so tall though, I didn't think he'd have to try very hard to be assertive because he's naturally physically intimidating. He grinned and said he's got a "nice guy" reputation, so being big doesn't help much...
We were going to have dinner At Bullwinkle's but the older of the boys tripped and split his lip. He's getting ready for a growth spurt, I think, as his feet are huge, and I'm not surprised he tripped over them :) Overall, it was a good time. Very low pressure, and the first time I'd seen him since late April. He gave me a big bear hug before he herded the boys off to his car, and he promised to contact me soon.
He kept his promise. I got an email while writing this.
The boys are good kids, aged 8 and 9. They were very well-behaved at Fry's, where we met up. Stas recommended I get a 19" flat panel monitor and Chris offered to help me pick one out. I was originally gravitating toward the Viewsonic VG900b 19", but he said to get the Samsung 930B 19" because it has 700:1 contrast and a very fast 8ms response instead of 600:1 and 25ms. Since there was only $30 difference in cost and they are both the same price after rebate, I went with the Samsung. I haven't hooked it up yet tho.
It only took about 20 minutes and then we went to Bullwinkle's. We were going to play miniature golf but it poured rain, so the boys played laser tag and rode the cyber-coaster and played video games while Chris and I talked.
He apologized for the presence of the boys. I told him not to worry about it, that I like other people's children. He said his sister had called him, begging him to take the boys because they were driving her nuts closed up in the house.
Chris is a good man. I learned today that when his brother-in-law was deployed to Iraq with the Oregon National Guard, he helped his sister with the boys, filling in as a father/authority figure, taking them fishing, going to their sports events, sitting in on parent-teacher conferences, telling them to mind their mother, etc. But now he's even more of a surrogate-father--his brother-in-law died ~6 or 8 months ago in Iraq. His sister is having a difficult time dealing with the loss -- you just don't expect Guardsmen to be deployed overseas -- and she really wasn't prepared for it. So sad.
I also got the story on the scar on his neck (motorcycle accident) and learned a bit more about what his work as an industrial engineer for B (the big aircraft manufacturer) entails. Apparently it involves not only a lot of technical analysis and coordinated problem-solving, but a good deal of politics and assertiveness as well. I told him that he's so tall though, I didn't think he'd have to try very hard to be assertive because he's naturally physically intimidating. He grinned and said he's got a "nice guy" reputation, so being big doesn't help much...
We were going to have dinner At Bullwinkle's but the older of the boys tripped and split his lip. He's getting ready for a growth spurt, I think, as his feet are huge, and I'm not surprised he tripped over them :) Overall, it was a good time. Very low pressure, and the first time I'd seen him since late April. He gave me a big bear hug before he herded the boys off to his car, and he promised to contact me soon.
He kept his promise. I got an email while writing this.
posted by KR | 6/05/2005 08:36:00 PM
2 Comments:
Well, I guess that you and I are on the outs now. Oh well, I'll get over it.
Nah. We're not!
*hug*
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