Over the weekend we had the pleasure of an excursion to Cesky Krumlov. Krumlov is a short 3 hour bus ride from Prague. The round trip cost, 360 Czech Crowns ($18.00). Included in the cost were a movie with complimentary headphones and cappucino or some other refreshment of you choice.
Cesky Krumlov is a beautiful little town with a castle, a river for rafting, mountain biking, fabulous restaurants, shopping, gorgeous 4-500 year old hotels and hostels. We had the pleasure of stayling at the Hostel Postel ( www.hostelpostel.cz )The people that run the place are 2 of the nicest people that I have ever had the pleasure to meet. The building belonged to the husband's grandparents and 10 years ago Marion and his wife purchased it from them. Marion did all of the remodeling work. The structure is 300 years old and after his renovations has a complete kitchen, sleeps up to 17, has a gorgeous deck and best of all a man cave.
Many of us have rooms over our garages, finished attics, finished basements and even detached buildings that we fondly refer to as our man caves. We have dedicated beer refrigerators, card tables, pool tables and big screen televisions. But Marion has a real man cave. Not like anything any of us owns. This place is a real cave. Czech bears may have hibernated in there at one time. He has upgraded the cave to include a fully stocked bar complete with beer tap, tables and chairs, music system and a wine cellar. The wine cellar naturally maintains 10 degrees celsius (47 F) year round without the aide of artificial means. I guarantee anyone who reads this has never been in or seen a man cave built from a real cave.
Anyhow, Eileen and I basically rented the entire place for 2 nights for 12 people. The total cost of the stay, 6,960 Czech Crowns ($335.00) which is $14.00 per night per person. So as a treat I asked if we could use their grill for a bar-b-cue. One problem when you travel by bus is that you don't have wheels so Marion's wife took us to the Tesco for supplies. I cooked chicken, klobasy sausage, garlic herbed potatoes, and fresh breads for 12 people for $32.00.
After dinner Marion brought out a bottle of schnapps. He said this schnapps only comes out on special occasions and since we were fast becoming friends this was definitely a special occasion. The first thing I noticed was that the bottle had no label. Apparently this bottle of schnapps is made locally by one of Marion's friends. It was distilled from beer and apples. It was about 110 proof and as Marion says, "It is velvet". It definitely was velvet smooth. Just ask Eileen, she had a shot. Marion and I finished the bottle around 2:30 AM.
I can't wait to go back.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Great Coffee in Prague
Prague is one of those cities in the world that has a huge tourist industry. In certain parts of the city the streets are lined with suveniry (souvenier shops). It takes about 5 minutes to learn to ignore them. Then there are the restaurants. You can find any style, flavor, gimicky or cultural food one could desire. Pricing ranges from 25 Czech Crown ($1.25) Hot dogs that are nothing like you have ever seen in the United States, they are fantastic, to ungodly expensive French cuisine that can be found in a part of old town that looks like Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. Prada, DG, Louis Vuiton and the like all have stores here and parked along the streets here are Bentleys, Porches, Ferraris and Bugattis.
Then there's the coffee. All of the sit down restaurants serve coffee. Usually,the menus offer esspresso or cappucino. Occasionally, you will find Ameriky (American) on the list. Don't order it. It's the local version of what they think American coffee should taste like and it comes out grainy and watery. In this case I think Starbucks is far superior and Starbucks makes me gag. Now if you are into coffee Then esspresso or cappucino is definitely the way to go. There are presses and steamers everywhere.
So what draws me to a particular coffee house? It's usually the aroma. Good coffee smells good but great coffee can be smelled for several blocks and all I need to do is follow my nose. This is how I ended up in the Grand Orient Cafe. The Grand sits atop the Balck Madonna Cubist Museum. The building is rather young for Prague having been built in 1909. The Grand originally opened in 1912 and operated into the early 1920s when it closed and then was reopened in 2000. The Grand is a full service restaurant but I went there for the coffee and dessert.
Eileen, Jordan and Isabella joined me for my first visit. Eileen and I had Cappucino Isabella had cocoa and as a side we spilt vanilla ice cream with caramel and whipped cream. Really good cappucino is bitter without biting. Add a little sugar and it transforms into a smooth yet rich dessert. Then there's the ice cream. Vanilla with fresh caramel made right there and topped with whipped cream. The whipped cream is not sweet which for Isabella came as a little bit of a surprise.
The coffee was so good that I had to go back. This time my extra daughter from Israel, Tamar, joined us. She flew in from Tel Aviv to visit with us for a few days. Tamar is my coffe drinking buddy. She is pickier than I am when it comes to coffee. This time we had cappucino, cocoa, steamed milk with honey and rum, an apple strudel and cocolada (chocolate) fondue with fruit. The cost of all of tis was 440 Czeck crowns about $22.00. The Grand just keeps getting better and better.
If you are ever in Prague make sure this stop is near the top of your list of palces to go.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Places of Worship II
In 1930 the population of Prague had grown to approximately 850,000. The Jewish portion of the population was 130,000, roughly 15%. The Jewish people were a robust part of the culture and economy. They were the doctors, lawyers, accountants and artisans. In 1939 Hitler invaded and by 1941, for all intents and purposes, there were no Jews left in Prague. The young were relocated to Terazin and the rest were shipped off to extermination camps.
On May 7, 1945 the Soviets took control of the government and set up communist control. Under communism, religious practices were banned. For the next 44 years this country had no organized religion. Couple a lack of Jewish Religious leaders with 40+ years of communist rule and you have a recipe that completes what Hitler set out to do in the first place, which was eliminate the Jews. Today there are about 6,000 jews in all of the Czech Republic.
The people that lived through the communist rule, at the very least, had respect for their national treasures. Included in those treasures were churches and synogogues. They were not luted and destroyed. For the most part religious artifacts were warehoused for safe keeping the structures were maintained by reassigning the structures to other purposes. The monastery that I wrote about in an earlier post was used as a police station. After communism collapsed in 1989 there was an influx of outside investment and places of worship have been slowly converted back to their original purpose.
On May 7, 1945 the Soviets took control of the government and set up communist control. Under communism, religious practices were banned. For the next 44 years this country had no organized religion. Couple a lack of Jewish Religious leaders with 40+ years of communist rule and you have a recipe that completes what Hitler set out to do in the first place, which was eliminate the Jews. Today there are about 6,000 jews in all of the Czech Republic.
The people that lived through the communist rule, at the very least, had respect for their national treasures. Included in those treasures were churches and synogogues. They were not luted and destroyed. For the most part religious artifacts were warehoused for safe keeping the structures were maintained by reassigning the structures to other purposes. The monastery that I wrote about in an earlier post was used as a police station. After communism collapsed in 1989 there was an influx of outside investment and places of worship have been slowly converted back to their original purpose.
Television
The Discovery Channel program "Orange County Choppers" is very popular in the Czeck Republic. So far I have found it broadcast in 6 different languages. And for the discerning TV viewer there's also 40 porn channels.
Places of Worship
In a city of 2 million people how do you bump into the same monk twice? Granted we are staying in the same general area and the first time we met the Padre was in his church but the second time was a good 25 minute walk from the church and across the river. Usually in metropolitan areas where there are a lot of churches, and Prague has a lot of churches, you see clergy everywhere. That doesn’t seem to be the case here. It seems as though you have to search for clergy people. Even inside the churches you don’t find any clergy people standing around doing clergy type things. What you do find are ushers.
Places of worship are treated more like museums. The buildings are beautifully decorated. There are altars that reach 30, 40, even 60 feet into the air space. These structures are enormous and ornately decorated. The stone work is some of the most intricate I have ever seen. The ceilings are covered with Frescoes and the walls have oil paintings hung on them. Pipe organs are commonplace and the windows are stained glass. The floors are patterned stone work and the list goes on and on. And … there are ushers.
At least most of the churches are open and free to the public. The synagogues are a different story. You must pay an admission fee to enter so we purchased a walking tour and visited three. For 300 Czech Crowns, about $15.00, you get admission to 3 synagogues and a cemetery. None of these synagogues are working places of worship. The first is a very old synagogue that has been converted to a memorial for the Jews that used to live in Prague. In the background recorded Hebrew prayer plays over a stereo system. The walls of the main hall are adorned with the some 80,000 names of the Prague Jews that disappeared during the Holocaust. It is both moving and disturbing. There are no Jews caring for this building. There are no Rabbis, no Cantors, no one, just ushers that have no ability to answer any questions. The second room of the building has display cases of artwork from Jewish children that were held at the ghetto in Terezin http://www.pamatnik-terezin.cz/showdoc.do?docid=4 . Outside is a cemetery on the synagogue grounds. Ropes are set up to guide you around the headstones like you were in a fun house. Granted, some of these headstones are old and they need to be preserved but the ropes are a little tacky. Last room is a small detached chapel. It is a museum containing Jewish religious items. The display cases have minimal descriptions, if any at all, of the contents.
The second and third synagogues were no more than museums of Jewish religious items. While I was in one there were a couple of young women from Italy looking into a case and pointing and laughing. The case had a collection of yads, pointers. The women were laughing at one in particular because it used the thumb to point instead of the pointer finger. In their culture pointing with the thumb is an insult. But what bothered me more than their behavior was that they had no idea what they were looking at. I explained the items to them and then another lady who had been listening started asking other questions.
How strange these items must be to people that have no idea what they are or what they are for. Nearly everyone knows what a bible is but how many people recognize a Torah, Megilah, Yad, or Tzedakah boxes. How does a once vibrant synagogue come to this. At the very least the Czech people realize that these artifacts are important and worth preserving. But you can’t help but wonder why they aren’t cared for by Jews.
Places of worship are treated more like museums. The buildings are beautifully decorated. There are altars that reach 30, 40, even 60 feet into the air space. These structures are enormous and ornately decorated. The stone work is some of the most intricate I have ever seen. The ceilings are covered with Frescoes and the walls have oil paintings hung on them. Pipe organs are commonplace and the windows are stained glass. The floors are patterned stone work and the list goes on and on. And … there are ushers.
At least most of the churches are open and free to the public. The synagogues are a different story. You must pay an admission fee to enter so we purchased a walking tour and visited three. For 300 Czech Crowns, about $15.00, you get admission to 3 synagogues and a cemetery. None of these synagogues are working places of worship. The first is a very old synagogue that has been converted to a memorial for the Jews that used to live in Prague. In the background recorded Hebrew prayer plays over a stereo system. The walls of the main hall are adorned with the some 80,000 names of the Prague Jews that disappeared during the Holocaust. It is both moving and disturbing. There are no Jews caring for this building. There are no Rabbis, no Cantors, no one, just ushers that have no ability to answer any questions. The second room of the building has display cases of artwork from Jewish children that were held at the ghetto in Terezin http://www.pamatnik-terezin.cz/showdoc.do?docid=4 . Outside is a cemetery on the synagogue grounds. Ropes are set up to guide you around the headstones like you were in a fun house. Granted, some of these headstones are old and they need to be preserved but the ropes are a little tacky. Last room is a small detached chapel. It is a museum containing Jewish religious items. The display cases have minimal descriptions, if any at all, of the contents.
The second and third synagogues were no more than museums of Jewish religious items. While I was in one there were a couple of young women from Italy looking into a case and pointing and laughing. The case had a collection of yads, pointers. The women were laughing at one in particular because it used the thumb to point instead of the pointer finger. In their culture pointing with the thumb is an insult. But what bothered me more than their behavior was that they had no idea what they were looking at. I explained the items to them and then another lady who had been listening started asking other questions.
How strange these items must be to people that have no idea what they are or what they are for. Nearly everyone knows what a bible is but how many people recognize a Torah, Megilah, Yad, or Tzedakah boxes. How does a once vibrant synagogue come to this. At the very least the Czech people realize that these artifacts are important and worth preserving. But you can’t help but wonder why they aren’t cared for by Jews.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Lunch Isn't Just Lunch
When you are traveling there seems to be one common theme. Where is the next meal coming from. Any time we are on a driving trip the usual suspects always come up. There's McDonald's, Burger King, DQ, Pizza Hut and any number of regional fast food joints, each one worse than the last. Ask any of my kids. They rather go hungry than eat at these places. In fact, I have been on hockey weekends with Jordan and another parent and his kid and had arguments over what is acceptable to Jordan. Usually, we settle on Subway.
This time we are in Prague. The first place we see that is familiar is in the airport. It's KFC. Good old Kentucky Fried Chicken. Isabella is laughing and says, "I don't think we'll be eating there." On to town we go. We are staying in Old Town. The choices for dining in town are nearly limitless. Seriously, there is traditional Czeck, Italian, German, Polish, Americi (American), Greek and so on. So with so many choices how do you choose. First you try to follow your nose. Then you whittle the list down by price. Some of the restaurants probably survive on unsuspecting tourists that haven't quite figured out how to quickly perform currency conversion calculations. Then when all else fails and the people in your group start getting bitchy cause they are hungry and tired you duck into the next place that smells good and spend $150.00 on a meal for 4.
The meal is great but sitting there paying the tab you are trying to figure out what the hell went wrong. Get over it, it doesn't matter, you are going to be here a while. The next day gets better. You've had a little rest, you start to go exploring and then you find out that you can have a great lunch for about $3.50 per person. If we eat like this for several days I figure I can bring the average daily meal cost down to less than $15.00 per day per person. Sounds good but not real practical because we are out and about and Eileen decides to have lunch at a monastery because of the view. Don't get me wrong the food was fantastic but the view made it even better. If you ever find yourself in Prague go to the Strahov Monastery and have lunch on the terrace overlooking Prague. With drinks it cost about $65.00 for Eileen, Isabella and myself. But the view is something you will find nowhere else in the world.
Franciscan Monks are Really Cool
One of the advantages of coming to Prague is that I get to be very close to some of the people that I do business with and therefore a face to face visit is both easy and relatively inexpensive. So on Wednesday while I was in Hamburg Eileen, Jordan and Isabella were left to their own.
So far we have been warned to always be on the lookout for pick pockets, beggars, drunks, the money exchange windows and restaurants that don't post prices on their menus. That's right I left them, abandoned my family, left my post and very likely exposed them the the very real threat of Serbian flesh peddlers. Although we haven't been warned of this I have seen movies about European countries and this stuff happens. If it didn't why would Hollywood make movies with these themes.
Eileen and the kids venture off without me and this is where they met their first genuine, bonifide and certified Franciscan Monk. They recognized him right away. It was the uniform, the brown sacloth that everyone has seen Friar Tuck wear in any of the Robin Hood movies. The kids said you could spot him a mile away. After a quick hello and pleasant introduction the monk, who we shall call Padre cause that's what you call a Franciscan Monk, invites them back to his monastery. Once they arrive at the monastery they realize that Monks are not poor. This place is unbelievably beautiful. It is decorated with Frescoes, granite and marble carvings and statues, ornate woodwork and paintings.
This is when Padre offers to show them his library. The library is up a flight of stairs and behind not one but two locked doors. One of the things about this was not the locked doors but where Padre kept his keys. He reached into his sleeve through a slit at the shoulder. First his left sleeve, there was much jingling of keys and an abrupt "No" from Padre and then he went right to his other sleeve where there was more jingling. Then keys. A lot of keys. Anyhow they go through two locked doors and into a library full of old books.
In my opinion these books weren't just old they were positively ancient. Many of them dated back to the early 14th century. That's right the year of our lord 1,300. Many of these books were close to 700 years old. Best of all Padre let the kids touch them. Why did Padre allow them to be touched, he did so because books are to be read and studied not kept behind a locked door where no one can get to them. This seems odd since these books were, in fact, behind a locked door where very few people could get to them. BTW, I forgot to mention that a college student tagged along. His name is David. He's in the photo with the Padre. The book in the photo is an early 14th century song book. It is written on donkey skin. For any of you who are wondering, David wanted to know if things like this happen to us all the time. Actually, they do.
So far we have been warned to always be on the lookout for pick pockets, beggars, drunks, the money exchange windows and restaurants that don't post prices on their menus. That's right I left them, abandoned my family, left my post and very likely exposed them the the very real threat of Serbian flesh peddlers. Although we haven't been warned of this I have seen movies about European countries and this stuff happens. If it didn't why would Hollywood make movies with these themes.
Eileen and the kids venture off without me and this is where they met their first genuine, bonifide and certified Franciscan Monk. They recognized him right away. It was the uniform, the brown sacloth that everyone has seen Friar Tuck wear in any of the Robin Hood movies. The kids said you could spot him a mile away. After a quick hello and pleasant introduction the monk, who we shall call Padre cause that's what you call a Franciscan Monk, invites them back to his monastery. Once they arrive at the monastery they realize that Monks are not poor. This place is unbelievably beautiful. It is decorated with Frescoes, granite and marble carvings and statues, ornate woodwork and paintings.
This is when Padre offers to show them his library. The library is up a flight of stairs and behind not one but two locked doors. One of the things about this was not the locked doors but where Padre kept his keys. He reached into his sleeve through a slit at the shoulder. First his left sleeve, there was much jingling of keys and an abrupt "No" from Padre and then he went right to his other sleeve where there was more jingling. Then keys. A lot of keys. Anyhow they go through two locked doors and into a library full of old books.
In my opinion these books weren't just old they were positively ancient. Many of them dated back to the early 14th century. That's right the year of our lord 1,300. Many of these books were close to 700 years old. Best of all Padre let the kids touch them. Why did Padre allow them to be touched, he did so because books are to be read and studied not kept behind a locked door where no one can get to them. This seems odd since these books were, in fact, behind a locked door where very few people could get to them. BTW, I forgot to mention that a college student tagged along. His name is David. He's in the photo with the Padre. The book in the photo is an early 14th century song book. It is written on donkey skin. For any of you who are wondering, David wanted to know if things like this happen to us all the time. Actually, they do.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Jordan has a Beer
We are in Europe and when in Rome or in Europe do as the Europeans do. There is an area in Prague known as Old Town Square. In the square there ia an astonomical clock. Every hour a large crowd gathers to watch the clock. There are warnings to watch for pick pockets. We have not met any so far.
Anyhow, also in the square are various food vendors. There is a stand that makes crepes. One crêpe with strawberry, blueberry, chocolate or various other fillings costs 50 Czeck Crowns. This is about $ 2.50. When rolled up the crêpe is about 18 inches long. This thing smells great, tastes even better and is an entire meal. About fifty feet away there is another stand where they are cooking sausages. These things are more tan a foot long, smell fantastic and are served on a warm baggette with mild but tastey mustard. This also costs 50 Czeck Crowns. Now when in Prague what do you wash your food down with? Well, there's bottled water, 70 Czeck Crowns, there's Coke, 50 Czeck Crowns, then there's beer, 35 Czeck Crowns. Amazing, beer costs less than water. I am beginning to really like this place. Not only is the beer the least expensive beverage on the menu there are more kinds to choose from than I can count. There is a beer for every palate.
So here we are. Me, Jordan and Isabella, she has a crêpe and a soda, I have a sausage and a beer, I give Jordan his sausage and that's when I figure, "What the hell, we are in Prague and the after all beer is cheaper than soda or water "so Jordan gets a beer to wash down his sausage. I know he's only 17 but like I mentioned before when in Europe.
Later Jordan gets to go clubbing with a bunch of college kids.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Airports
Traveling tends to be really stressful for some people. Personally, I'm a a pretty easy traveler. Give me an overnight bag, a cell phone and a laptop and I'm as happy as a pig in shit. So to make things go smoothly I actually got my wife and children to the airport Sunday afternoon two and a half hours ahead of departure time. Since we were scheduled for an International flight they need a little more time and since you can't check in online off to the airport ticket counter we go. American is now using self check-in at the airport. I put in the reservation code and I get a message in big block letters, "SEE TICKETING FOR CHECK-IN". I'm thinking WTF. I get here early, I am following instructions, which is unusual for me, and now my wife is starting to climb the walls because I have obviously screwed up the self check in kiosk. Well, it takes ticketing 10 minutes to check us in and they have no idea what went wrong. They did offer that maybe one of the names on the passports was not spelled exactly the same as in the reservation. More bullshit. Doesn't really matter cause we are checked in and now on the way to security. BTW, ticketing checked our bags all the way through to Prague. This is cool, I think.
Security was easy. No surprises. Jordan, my 17 year-old son, wasn't even carrying a weapon in his luggage this time. Yes, my son actually tried to carry my 22 year-old dive knife onto a plane when we went to Jamaica. Security took it while Jordan announced, "But it's not a weapon, it's a dive knife. It's for cutting fishing line when your scuba diving, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." Explaining to Jordan that a nine inch dive knife is still a weapon no matter your intended use was pointless. Any how my favorite knife is gone for good but Jordan still got to go diving. Returning back to Sunday, no weapons, no liquids or gels in bottles over 3.5 ounces, no problems at all. This is cool.
So we get to the gate and the American Airlines announces that there will be a three hour departure delay, maybe. I am thinking, mechanical problem, maybe an ill pilot, gate crowding at Heathrow in London, all wrong. There is a volcano fowling the air space approaching Heathrow and the airport is closed until 7 AM London time tomorrow and Air Traffic Control doesn't know if they are going to allow American Flight 174 to lift off. The airport might be closed. Delayed flights suck. Delayed flights that might be canceled suck more.
Then the crowd complaints start. One in particular comes from this grumpy old bastard in his sixties. He actually said out loud, "What kind of an airline schedules a flight when there is an active volcano around." Maybe I'm a little slow, but I think that since this is a daily flight and has been so for well over two years I think the airline should be upset with the volcano since the airline was there first. Technically the volcano was there first but it has been quiet for a really long time and it didn't actually ask permission to belch smoke and ash. As far as volcanoes go this one is pretty rude. So here is this guy bitching up a storm about this volcano, the ATC and American and how they are all incompetent and he finally announces that he's going to Washington DC where they have properly run airports.
American then announces that we are going to board the plane at 8 PM. We won't have clearance to fly but if we get it we will already be on the plane and ready to fly if ATC gives the go ahead. This is a good plan one might think. So we get on the plane. Seated right behind me is grumpy old asshole guy. Turns out he has a PhD in physics which means he has one less personality trait than an engineer. Engineers have two. Normal people have seven personality traits. While I'm writing this my daughter is reading over my shoulder and asks,"So which personality trait does he have?" I say,"Dickhead, 100% dickhead." So Dr. Dickhead gets into an argument with my son Jordan about whether or not Jordan has any real knowledge of math. Jordan just finished BC Calculus as a Junior in high school. This is the same math that most 2nd semester Engineering Majors take in college. I am pretty impressed with the kid but Dr. Dickhead continues to tell him how little math he really knows. This eight and a half hour flight just got longer. Then we took off.
Security was easy. No surprises. Jordan, my 17 year-old son, wasn't even carrying a weapon in his luggage this time. Yes, my son actually tried to carry my 22 year-old dive knife onto a plane when we went to Jamaica. Security took it while Jordan announced, "But it's not a weapon, it's a dive knife. It's for cutting fishing line when your scuba diving, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." Explaining to Jordan that a nine inch dive knife is still a weapon no matter your intended use was pointless. Any how my favorite knife is gone for good but Jordan still got to go diving. Returning back to Sunday, no weapons, no liquids or gels in bottles over 3.5 ounces, no problems at all. This is cool.
So we get to the gate and the American Airlines announces that there will be a three hour departure delay, maybe. I am thinking, mechanical problem, maybe an ill pilot, gate crowding at Heathrow in London, all wrong. There is a volcano fowling the air space approaching Heathrow and the airport is closed until 7 AM London time tomorrow and Air Traffic Control doesn't know if they are going to allow American Flight 174 to lift off. The airport might be closed. Delayed flights suck. Delayed flights that might be canceled suck more.
Then the crowd complaints start. One in particular comes from this grumpy old bastard in his sixties. He actually said out loud, "What kind of an airline schedules a flight when there is an active volcano around." Maybe I'm a little slow, but I think that since this is a daily flight and has been so for well over two years I think the airline should be upset with the volcano since the airline was there first. Technically the volcano was there first but it has been quiet for a really long time and it didn't actually ask permission to belch smoke and ash. As far as volcanoes go this one is pretty rude. So here is this guy bitching up a storm about this volcano, the ATC and American and how they are all incompetent and he finally announces that he's going to Washington DC where they have properly run airports.
American then announces that we are going to board the plane at 8 PM. We won't have clearance to fly but if we get it we will already be on the plane and ready to fly if ATC gives the go ahead. This is a good plan one might think. So we get on the plane. Seated right behind me is grumpy old asshole guy. Turns out he has a PhD in physics which means he has one less personality trait than an engineer. Engineers have two. Normal people have seven personality traits. While I'm writing this my daughter is reading over my shoulder and asks,"So which personality trait does he have?" I say,"Dickhead, 100% dickhead." So Dr. Dickhead gets into an argument with my son Jordan about whether or not Jordan has any real knowledge of math. Jordan just finished BC Calculus as a Junior in high school. This is the same math that most 2nd semester Engineering Majors take in college. I am pretty impressed with the kid but Dr. Dickhead continues to tell him how little math he really knows. This eight and a half hour flight just got longer. Then we took off.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Getting Away Clean
Every parent has asked themselves at one time or another, "Why did I have children?". Today I am traveling to Prague with my wife and 2 of my children and at 3:35 AM my 12-year-old daughter, Isabella, wakes me up. She had a sore throat and was running a nasty fever. This is the last thing a parent wants to deal with on the day you are to be boarding an international flight. So here's my kid, she's crying, it's 3:35 AM and I ask her, "Do you really feel that bad? Are you sure you weren't just sleeping under to many covers? At that she began to cry louder. So my wife gets up and gives her a throat lozenge and the kid begins to gag on it. Then we toss her in the shower. So while she's in the shower Eileen, my wife, go to the internet to find a 24 hour clinic. To our amazement, there are none. We live in Raleigh, North Carolina. Nice place to live but a little short on services. So what do you do? You go to the emergency room. On the way out the door Eileen says, "Well if it she can't fly you can just follow in a couple of days." I didn't even dignify that one with a response. Going through my head were thoughts like, "Are you out of your effin mind? The kid can just stay with the dogs, she's 12, she knows how to make grilled cheese. I'll leave her with a credit card. Hell, we'll only be gone three weeks. What could happen to the kid in three weeks. After all she is pretty smart and when kids get really hungry they can get pretty resourceful."
Kids can be pretty selfish and coming down with Swine Flu or Strep Throat when I am supposed to board a plane ranks right up there on my bad child behavior list. OK, so the kid didn't really plan this, but she could have toughed it out and kept her misery to herself at least until we got to London. I still have last minute packing to do.
Well her mother returned in about 45 minutes. No Strep or Swine Flu. They gave her Motrin and told us to keep her hydrated. Water and Motrin that's the cure. One last thought, The ER visit probably cost fifteen hundred bucks.
Kids can be pretty selfish and coming down with Swine Flu or Strep Throat when I am supposed to board a plane ranks right up there on my bad child behavior list. OK, so the kid didn't really plan this, but she could have toughed it out and kept her misery to herself at least until we got to London. I still have last minute packing to do.
Well her mother returned in about 45 minutes. No Strep or Swine Flu. They gave her Motrin and told us to keep her hydrated. Water and Motrin that's the cure. One last thought, The ER visit probably cost fifteen hundred bucks.
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