i'll chop wood, but i won't wear flannel

i have memories of my dad chopping wood. i remember watching him do it. and it looked like a lot of fun. and now, i have my own grown up house, and it has a grown up fireplace. and there are some rather large logs in my back yard that need chopping. and i have been thinking about how much fun it would be to get an ax and cut them myself. the old fashioned way... i wasn't sure how to get an ax. it's kinda one of those things you don't really know where to get, because it's one of those things you already have...and have always had. at least that's how i precieve an ax. and suprisingly there wasn't one at home deopt. not suprisingly there was one at wall mart (?), but it looked cheap, plastic, and was 20$. anyway, bob found out about my dreams of axdom and he (of course) had a few in his garage he said i could borrow. he thought i should just use a chain saw...but i would have none of that. andrew (my brother in law...visiting last week) and bob thought this was very funny. and no, doubt, the picture of me chopping wood in my (snobby dublin) backyard (which backs up to a semi busy road...as well as the bike path) is one that may be humorious. but i was determined. and so...bob handed over the ax with many cautions. and off i went, ax slung over my shoulder, huge smile on my face...

i had the chance to chop wood that very night. i went to the back. and started. now, i don't know how the experts do it, but i'm having a little trouble with doing much. i have figured that, in order to really get a good wack in, you have to swing with complete abandon. but swinging with complete abandon throws your aim off...slightly. if i could have managed to hit the same spot twice, i might have been able to do some real damage. i did succeed in completly chopping one log into fireplace size pieces, but the other logs seem to not want to split. justin came out to watch, and i was making it look so fun, that he gave it a try. when he was not any better than i was at it (actually, quite a bit worse) i enjoyed laughing at him and calling him a "city boy"

chopping wood is hard work. and i wonder what all the passers by are thinking. they certainly are thinking something...because they are all probably getting neck strains from staring as they go by. and i am thinking "this would be a good way to get out any frustration a person might have...but i'm not frustrated..." but upon reflection, i have been very frustrated the past week. and i have been chopping (a phrase here which means, hopelessly pockmarking large pieces of wood) whenever it's not raining. and why my frustration? over something that is the most reasonable, logical, subconcions thing to be frustrated about. your childs performance at school...of course. pathetically common...

now i have smart kids. they're smarter than me. and i know that most people are dumber than me. so that makes them pretty high up on brains. but michael...sweet, compliant, loving, pleasing michael, sucks at 1st grade. he's so bad, 99% of kids scored higher on the "national achievement test". it's so bad that the teacher is "very concerned" and she has never had a student "do so poorly"...in all her years of teaching. and i would probably be less worried if i knew that he was a slow little boy...but he's not. which means that he's just not paying attention. and yes, he is probably a little A.D.D. and i refuse to be one of those parents who hangs all their ideas of self worth on how their little darling does in life. but it's frustrating when your brillant kid is sucking at school... and so...i chop wood. :)