A Day in the Life of LoomisBoy
I hear footsteps coming up to my attic office. "Dad," Michaela whines, "Joshua and Meghan and Keegan won't stop throwning snowballs at me. I ask them to stop it and they won't. I don't want them to throw snowball at me but they won't listen." She tries to continue with a full report of the abuse she's suffering, but I cut her off. "You can tell them 'Daddy Says.' Now go back outside and play." Her sad countenance changes to a smile, and she spins on her toes and heads back down the steps. "Thank you, Daddy!" she almost sings as she hurries down the stairs.
"Daddy says" is like a get out of jail free card in our home. It is the shortcut, the way out, the trump card. From the time they can talk, I drill into their heads that NO ONE EVER LIES when they say "Daddy says." With a growing family that started on day one with two kids ages 7 and 4, and now includes nine kids from 5 to 25, I quickly realized that if I answered every whine, every cry for help from the underdog or tried to referee every kid dispute, I would go crazy. So I send "Daddy Says" in my place. Sometimes I have to send it twice, but never three times. The third time somebody cries for deliverance from their torment, it requires personal intervention. If I have to go in person, I make sure nobody wins. Usually they figure out how to settle disputes or otherwise behave themselves before resorting to a third plea.
We got our first "real" snow of the season overnight, about three inches. My first concern when I woke up was if I would have to climb on the roof and sweep off the satellite dish. I use Starband satellite Internet service, and the dish is located on a part of my roof that is hard to reach. So far, the signal is fine.
Loomis is a village in the North Cascade Mountains in Okanogan County, Washington, USA. This is the desert side of Washington; we get less than 12 inches of annual rainfall. Most of it comes in the winter, as it did this morning, as snow. Loomis is closer to a wilderness area (the Pasayten) than to a movie theater (in either Omak, Washington or Oliver, British Columbia). I own a large farmhouse (7 bedrooms) on 14 acres. My place is the first farm going east from Loomis. There's one store, a quick mart with gas pumps. We also have a post office, a church, a used car dealer/mechanic, and about thirty homes. There are a few resorts on some of the nearby lakes, and oodles of campgrounds along the lakes and in the surrounding mountains. Regional guide books list Loomis as a ghost town, famed for its gold rush, boom-and-bust origins and pioneer cattle ranches. When Loomis area residents talk about going to town, they aren't talking about Loomis, but Tonasket, 17 miles away, population 1000. Our schools are there, as are all other essential serivces. More kids attend Tonasket schools than live in the town; the school district is larger than Rhode Island in size.
In LoomisBoy, the blog, I'm writing the first draft of my life story. By day I cover technology for architecture, engineering and construction (AEC). But what I do for a living does not define me as a person. By writing in LoomisBoy, I hope to put into print a more comprehensive view of my life, one that I hope others find of interest.
I hear footsteps coming up to my attic office. "Dad," Michaela whines, "Joshua and Meghan and Keegan won't stop throwning snowballs at me. I ask them to stop it and they won't. I don't want them to throw snowball at me but they won't listen." She tries to continue with a full report of the abuse she's suffering, but I cut her off. "You can tell them 'Daddy Says.' Now go back outside and play." Her sad countenance changes to a smile, and she spins on her toes and heads back down the steps. "Thank you, Daddy!" she almost sings as she hurries down the stairs.
"Daddy says" is like a get out of jail free card in our home. It is the shortcut, the way out, the trump card. From the time they can talk, I drill into their heads that NO ONE EVER LIES when they say "Daddy says." With a growing family that started on day one with two kids ages 7 and 4, and now includes nine kids from 5 to 25, I quickly realized that if I answered every whine, every cry for help from the underdog or tried to referee every kid dispute, I would go crazy. So I send "Daddy Says" in my place. Sometimes I have to send it twice, but never three times. The third time somebody cries for deliverance from their torment, it requires personal intervention. If I have to go in person, I make sure nobody wins. Usually they figure out how to settle disputes or otherwise behave themselves before resorting to a third plea.
We got our first "real" snow of the season overnight, about three inches. My first concern when I woke up was if I would have to climb on the roof and sweep off the satellite dish. I use Starband satellite Internet service, and the dish is located on a part of my roof that is hard to reach. So far, the signal is fine.
Loomis is a village in the North Cascade Mountains in Okanogan County, Washington, USA. This is the desert side of Washington; we get less than 12 inches of annual rainfall. Most of it comes in the winter, as it did this morning, as snow. Loomis is closer to a wilderness area (the Pasayten) than to a movie theater (in either Omak, Washington or Oliver, British Columbia). I own a large farmhouse (7 bedrooms) on 14 acres. My place is the first farm going east from Loomis. There's one store, a quick mart with gas pumps. We also have a post office, a church, a used car dealer/mechanic, and about thirty homes. There are a few resorts on some of the nearby lakes, and oodles of campgrounds along the lakes and in the surrounding mountains. Regional guide books list Loomis as a ghost town, famed for its gold rush, boom-and-bust origins and pioneer cattle ranches. When Loomis area residents talk about going to town, they aren't talking about Loomis, but Tonasket, 17 miles away, population 1000. Our schools are there, as are all other essential serivces. More kids attend Tonasket schools than live in the town; the school district is larger than Rhode Island in size.
In LoomisBoy, the blog, I'm writing the first draft of my life story. By day I cover technology for architecture, engineering and construction (AEC). But what I do for a living does not define me as a person. By writing in LoomisBoy, I hope to put into print a more comprehensive view of my life, one that I hope others find of interest.
posted by Randall Newton | 12:49 PM
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