Friday, January 29, 2010

Makili's Big Race

We've had a real Americana weekend so far around here. I'll get around to part II tomorrow, but the big race last night was definitely a slice of Americana. We were asked to attend this car race by the homeschoolers down the street, to whom I teach writing. I thought it was a homeschooler thing, but it turned out to be a church thing. Categorically, I'm not against church functions, and this was fun, though there was a speech in the middle which honestly Raph and I found sort of entertaining. At one point, the speaker asked "Who wrote the bible?" The kids in the audience were giving really logical answers like "Christians" and "the disciples." After telling the kids that they were wrong, the speaker went on to say that God wrote the Bible. I didn't point out that this was historically inaccurate.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun. I carved our car (really a flatbed truck with an excavator on top) in less than a day, gashed my hand twice with my fancy carving tools. It's for the kids, right? Seeing all of the other cards was VERY fun! Note the Washington Monument Car in the background! (There were a lot of "America" cars - military vehicles, monuments, etc.)
There was a lot of waiting around, but we didn't mind because they gave us nachos and fried dough - again, real Americana.
Finally, our turn.
We raced four times. Sadly my hand-carved car didn't make it to the finish line even once. But who is counting anyway?

Sadness for a two-year old

Makili is very interested in the concept of sad. He constantly asks if someone in a book or a movie is sad. I was just listening to Pandora and a Dolorean song. Makili asked if he was sad, and I said "yes, he's sad." A few moments later he asked, "did his mama leave him?" I chuckled and said, "no, he loved a girl and the girl left him." A few minutes later he asked, "did the girl have to go to work?" He makes me smile when he's not driving me nuts.