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The Triumph of Hope over Experience

Archive for category Family

Everyone Gets a Promotion

Jul 17

Posted by Sean Murphy in Family | 2 Comments

I called my father and told him, “we’ve reconsidered: you’re not just a good grandfather, you’re a great grandfather.” My stepdaughter Veronica and her husband Jeremy just had a new baby:

Austin Michael Pruitt

July 13, 2004 at 8pm

7lbs, 11 oz 19 inches

dark hair, big newborn eyes, very alert – ready to play with his uncles! And some related obligatory quotes:

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.
Leo J. Burke

“A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on”
Carl Sandburg

“Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge 

No Lemons, No Melon

Jul 7

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Family | 2 Comments

I hope you had a great 4th of July, I know I did. The Murphy Family spent the long weekend at the lake, Lake of the Ozarks that is, and had fun morning, noon, and night. Having fun sure is exhausting and I haven’t fully recovered days later. We were celebrating the Declaration of Independence properly, as we were aggressively pursuing happiness. Our friends the Fischers invited us down to watch fireworks on the lake and ride around in their boat — how could we refuse? We wound up watching the fireworks from their boat anchored in the cove they were staying at. Most of the fireworks were provided by Red Oak resort, but a nearby marina, various other enterprises and individuals shot of plenty as well. There were so many from every direction, you didn’t know where to look. 

Suburban Nightmare

Jun 22

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Family | No Comments

This morning my routine was just like every other workday morning – roll out of bed, shower, eat, make my lunch, head out the door for work. But then reality divurged from normal.

Somehow the gasket on the bottom of my garage door was shredded and laying on the garage floor. But it didn’t stop there. Something gnawed on the bottom of the garage door. Something had gotten into the bag of sand I keep for gardening — you never know when a soil emergency will strike. Something had gotten into the garbage in a desultory way. Something had shredded the gasket on my wife’s garage door, gnawed on the bottom of the door, and defecated on a piece of the gasket. I had my suspicions, and when I discovered that something had knocked a bag of diatomaceous earth off a shelf and then walked through it, the paw prints confirmed it – a racoon had invaded my garage.

My wife had left the garage door open for a couple of hours after dark last night, and the bandit had made his way in to gorge on dog food, leaving little room for garbage. He must have been startled when my wife closed the door and frantic in his search for escape. I only hope he ran off this morning when I opened the door, but if I know his kind, and I do, he’ll be back to feast on the Iams as soon as it’s dark again. But this time, we’ll be ready.

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Kid’s Game?

Apr 21

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Family | 1 Comment

It’s often said that baseball is a kid’s game, or even a little kid’s game, usually in response to a mental mistake on the part of a player. But baseball is better understood as a game you start playing as a kid to master as an adult. 

OK, my son’s baseball season has started. Each year they add more of the full rules — last year the kids pitched for the first time, and this year the kids can steal for the first time. Baseball not only has a large set of rules (the coach was explaining the dropped third strike rule before the game, although the umps weren’t calling it), it has even more techniques (each position has responsibilities that aren’t spelled out in the rules and are much harder to learn).

And to top it all off, it’s a difficult mental game. As the coaches stress to the kids, you have to know what you’re going to do when you get the ball before the pitcher even delivers it. That would be easy except nothing happens for long stretches of time, and the mind tends to wander, especially those of children. So you trot out to your position at the start of the inning knowing where you are going to throw the ball if hit to you (infield to first, outfield to second) and you wait. And you kick the dirt. And wait. And you kick the dirt some more. And somebody hits the ball, but not to you. And you wait some more. And then somebody hits the ball to you, and where is that runner? Oops, held on to the ball to long and the coach is yelling. Do it as an adult, and the fans are yelling about baseball being a little kid’s game.

My Next House

Dec 13

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Family | No Comments

My next house won’t have any wallpaper. We are redecorating our downstairs bathroom, and so step one is to strip the wallpaper, then paint the walls, then put up wainscotting, then put up crown molding, and then do a final spiff. The room is not even five feet square, so how long can it take? I took yesterday off to work on it, and I’m still on step one – yep, once again I’m stripping wallpaper and hating every minute of it. There is a new wrinkle this time; when they put the wallpaper up, they put up an underlayer of what resembles superthick dryer sheets. It doesn’t come off in one pull – no, it come off in a minimum of two layers – sometimes more. In a couple of spots I’ve been reduced to scraping off a thick layer of paste with some fiber still embedded.

Given how busy this time of year is, it may not have been the best time to tackle this sort of project. However, we have a neighboorhood tradition of a progressive Christmas party (between Christmas and New Years so people are somewhat relaxed) and what with our new annex and updated master bathroom, we’ll be a stop along the way. So we wanted to put the icing on the cake by redoing the downstairs bath. Ambition goeth before the late night cursing.

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Time Flies Whether You Have Fun Or Not

Sep 16

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Family | No Comments

The whole Murphy Family has been busy. School, Scouts, and Soccer have been pretty dominating. Work and real life have some terrible synchronicity where it seems they always get busy at the same time. Luckily, I’ve managed to have some fun — our Cub pack won the “Best in Show” award at the Manchester Homecoming Parade. You can send me a big foam finger (index, not middle) for Christmas so I can hoot and holler “We’re Number One!” while waving it about.

Recurring Themes

Aug 20

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Family, History | No Comments

A couple of Fridays ago, the Other Fearless Leader and I were out enjoying an evening at the Muny, St. Louis’ outdoor home for musical theater. The weather was perfect, an uncommon occurance in St. Louis in August. Before the show, most everybody sang the National Anthem, a practice that seems to have started with 9-11 and continues almost 2 years later – indicative of changes in American society. The lady in front of the Other Fearless Leader complimented her on her beautiful singing (a common occurance for her, but something that’s never happened to me). I always smile while singing the National Anthem because it reminds me of the scene in The Naked Gun where Leslie Nielsen can’t remember the lyrics.

Anyway, we saw South Pacific, and that reminds me that based on the recommendation of Geitner Simmons I’m reading Downfall: the End of the Imperial Japanese Empire which is mighty fine so far (I’m about 1/3 finished). And speaking of Recurring Themes, the book mentions that the Japanese thought they’d win the war because the United States, a decadent liberal democracy, wouldn’t be able to stand the casualties required to sustain the fight. The longer the war went on, the more that idea became the only hope the Japanese had. Sound familiar, doesn’t it? Not to belittle the hardships that our soldiers are experiencing today, but what the GI’s had to go through in the Pacific theater was far worse – both living (and fighting) conditions and casualties. And if you want to talk fanaticism, Japanese soldiers routinely suffered 97 to 99 percent killed in action. Pardon my French, Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose (The more things change, the more they stay the same).

My Summer Vacation

Jul 30

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Family | No Comments

I just got back from a great vacation in the Washington DC area. We saw most everything of cultural import in DC although only briefly. We weren’t arrested at the Pentagon despite our wandering around, pointing, and general middle eastern appearance. We spent some very relaxing time at the beach in Delaware at my cousin Linda’s beach resort eyrie. We got to have some fun with Linda and Bill at their house in Columbia, Maryland. Now we are back, but we are leaving again for a weekend getaway at the lake.

Anyway, more penetrating insight and boring personal stuff is on tap here, and once I get a hold of the bung puller, we can begin the pour. (The captain has to go down with the metaphor.)

And thanks again Linda and Bill for all of your kind hospitality – it made for an excellent vacation and we do appreciate it.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Jun 25

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Books, Family | No Comments

Yes, we had fun getting the book at midnight, but I have to admit I’m getting old (forty has turned out to be a brick wall in many respects) so that when midnight rolled around I was far more excited with the idea of finally being able to go home to bed than the idea of getting the new book in my hands. Thankfully, our friends got there very early so we had a very low line ticket number. I have finished the book, even with my policy of letting the kids have first priority and giving it to them whenever they asked. So now my own mini-review, with no spoilers:

Just as Goblet of Fire was something of a departure from the prior books, so too Order of the Phoenix is something of a departure from all the others. My nine year old who is still toward the beginning doesn’t seem to like it as much and calls it confusing. My twelve year old is much further along and seems pretty excited. I too wasn’t as enchanted in the beginning, what with adolescent Harry, but I was very satisfied by the end.

I still found it a page turner throughout, and I like that not only do we get new, memorable characters, but all the old ones, and I mean all, have a role in the book. While it has a bit less whimsy, and had something clearly added just because it was needed later, it does have more rounded characters, more Harry and friends rather than just Harry saving the day, more backstory, and the book still shows that character matters. Children and adults who liked the earlier books will like this one too.

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Harry Potter Mania

Jun 20

Posted by Kevin Murphy in Books, Family | No Comments

Yes, tonight you’ll find me in line at the Barnes and Noble in Des Peres waiting to buy a copy of the latest Harry Potter. At least we won’t be alone in our nuttiness — not only will there be a huge crowd, but we will be with our friends the O’Briens (they’re getting the line tickets — we’ll be at the swim team’s pool party). My son paid in advance at school (the publisher is named Scholastic for a reason) so he has his certificate, wand, and ball cap. Now all we need is the book.

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