Chuck Taylor’s and Smart TVs

The middle school Christmas vacation is over and the twins are back in school. The twins had four days of classes before the next three day weekend. Yep, they get off for Martin Luther King Day. I’m not sure if the teachers need to ease back into the classes or the kids need to ease back. None the less, at this point, five days of classes would be just too much.

Winter sports started this past week. Girl Twin is playing girls basketball. Boy Twin is wrestling. I didn’t say boys wrestling because I guess girls can wrestle also. I’m not sure what I think of that With my first batch of kids, my son and daughter wrestled….and hit……and kicked. It never ended well. With my second batch of kids, Boy Twin and Girl Twin have wrestled….and hit…. and kicked. Heck, come to think of it, it never ends well there either.

Boys cannot play girls basketball. The reason for this is very obvious. Middle school boys are just to violent to play basketball with girls. Boys can act very aggressively at this age. Some boys might even foul the girls if allowed to play on girls teams. We as adults cannot allow boys to use their aggressiveness against girls in basketball. Coed wrestling makes way more sense.

I didn’t plan on writing about wrestling today. I wanted to write about shoes; basketball shoes.

Girl Twin is plying basketball. She has informed me she needs new basketball shoes.

Girl Twin: My feet are hurting, I think I need new shoes. Me: What shoes are you wearing? Girl Twin: My volleyball shoes. Me: Are they too small? Girl Twin: No, they are volleyball shoes.

I felt a lecture coming on. I was having construction language thoughts. I realized the shoes that we bought for six weeks of volleyball, somehow, were inadequate for basketball. I needed to know why the “volleyball shoes” wouldn’t work.

Me: So help me understand, why don’t your volleyball shoes work? Girl Twin: I need different shoes for basketball. Me: You realize that basketball and volleyball are played on exactly the same surface, in exactly the same gyms, don’t you? Girl Twin: The games are not the same. You don’t run in volleyball.

I took a breath to plan my lecture. I had to remove a bunch of construction language before I actually spoke. ”Girl Twin, let’s talk.” ”I’m not sure basketball specific shoes are going to help you become a better basketball player. I believe if you want to be a better basketball player it would be best to work on your skills. That would mean you would need to spend more time with a basketball in your hand and less time with a “smart” phone in your hand.” She rolled her eyes.

But I wasn’t finished. I continued on, “In my day, we used the same shoes for every sport we played, and those were the same shoes we wore from every thing; going to school, delivering newspapers, everything.” She rolled he eyes again, but this time she at least turned away so I couldn’t see it.

And then I remembered we had bought her a pair of shoes before school started. Not just any shoes, but a pair of Converse “Chuck Taylor’s”. The exact shoes that were worn by the basketball players of my youth.

Me: Hey, what about your Chuck Taylor’s? Girl Twin: Those aren’t for basketball, those are style shoes. Me: Those are exactly what pros wore when I was a kid. Girl Twin: You can’t wear them any more. You are so old. Boy Twin: (DID YOU NOTICE, Boy Twin) She’s right, Monner, those are not basketball shoes. Me: I don’t remember you being included in this conversation. Why don’t you go back to sleep. Boy Twin: I wasn’t sleeping.

I haven’t bought the shoes…..yet. I would hate to see a kid wearing style shoes.

Normally, I would stop my story here, but I need to mention the store. We have a couple exciting thing to talk about. One excites Ivy, the other excites me. Since I write these stories. I’m going to talk about what excites me.

I bought a television for the store. We had an opportunity to bundle our phone and data with television with our provider. Now when I am dyeing yarn I can sneak upstairs and watch television. But here is the best part. I bought a “smart” TV.

I didn’t know what a “smart” TV was. When I was shopping at 2nd BEST BUY, I noticed some of the TVs were labeled “smart” TVs. I asked the clerk what that meant. He confused me a little.

Me: What is a “smart’ TV? Clerk: Do you carry a “smart” phone? Me: Yes Clerk: Well, the “smart” TVs does what you phone does. Me: They make phone calls? Clerk: Well, no, they don’t make phone calls. Hey, I’m the photography guy. I don’t know anything about TVs. What do you think about minimum wage?

(Not kidding, folks)

Ivy’s exciting news? She’s bringing in some kind of yarn with some kind of long sounding name. She tells me its really nice and popular. I told her, I am nice and popular and she doesn’t like me in the store.

Our crazy lives!

Monner