Now, I'm really not a stupid person. Dumb, but not stupid. So when I'm having trouble with a concept, I like to immerse myself in it. Therefore I began volunteering at the Garden in the Irrigation Department and now I totally get it. (Please don't tell anyone that I know how to do irrigation repairs - it's not really my bag.)
What impresses me the most is the modern-day control boxes. I recently repaired a residential irrigation system for a client, and she needed a new control box. I was very pleased with one of Rainbird's boxes. Clearly they are the industry leader for a reason. This one is totally idiot proof! (We found it at Home Depot, but guess what - Amazon has it too!) The only drawback is it doesn't have a cover, so if you are using it outdoors you have to install it in a weatherproof box.
Oh, I am so ashamed. I have failed as a mother. All of my best laid plans were for nothing.
Long before I started a family, even long before I got married, I had decided that I would keep those God-forsaken video games out of my house. I can't stand them! Never could. And it's not just because I had a bad experience in college when a blind date abandoned me in a pizza parlor and I finally found him in the back of the restaurant playing Ms. Pac-Man all by himself. Loser.
My personal experience with video games ended with Pong. I much prefer real life table tennis. There's nothing like the real ping and the real pong to get your adrenalin rushing.
So anyway, I'm afraid my much younger first husband (loved him dearly, always will) introduced our son to video games at the tender age of four, much to my chagrin. (Now you have a hint as to why we divorced.) And not only did he introduce him to video games, he introduced him to a "first person shooter" war game. And then he couldn't figure out why our son was becoming violent. It took some explaining, but he finally got the picture.
Of course I realize there's no way I can completely avoid video games. And if want my son to be able to compete in the modern world he needs to know how to play them. Heck, for all I know, he may become a video game designer someday and become stinking rich. I am quite aware that they are designed to be addictive, so nowadays I allow my son to play up to half an hour of video games in a day. I'm delighted when a whole day goes by and he hasn't asked for it. And I have this (unreliable) theory that if he plays one "nice" game, then a "mean" game, and chases it with another "nice" game, then maybe he won't grow up to be Hitler. (Although now that I think about it, maybe if Hitler had had video games it would have distracted him from marching into Poland. Hmmm...)
Imagine my surprise and amusement when I overheard my now six year old son playing a video game on the computer recently: "Mommy, I need to evolve! I need to evolve quickly!" I thought to myself, "You got that right." But then I got curious. Turns out he was playing a game called Age of War. Here, verbatim including misspellings, are the game instructions:
Age of War
The goal of the game is to survive and destroy the ennemy base.
The game is divided in 5 ages. To move to the next age, you need Xp points. To gain these points, you have to kill ennemy units. You also gain Xp points when one of your units is killed. You can also build defences. Finding the balance between defence and offence is the key.
You will also be able to use a special attack. This attack will need time to be available again after you use it. Each age have its own special attack.
You cannot repair your base, but it will gain health points everytime you evolve to the next age. Protect your base at all cost!
Click here to return to the menu.
Oy vay. Time to go read a book. How about a little Maurice Sendak?
I'm afraid I still don't understand the appeal of video games when real life is beckoning at your front door. But I'm not going to immerse myself in it. Too busy figuring out everything else.
Rock on.
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