Super Bowl Weekend

Nikolai, my now-15-year-old as of the publication date, looked very dirty after spending some time sandblasting on Saturday, February 3.

By Allan Olson

Yup, it was Super Bowl weekend, and that mattered little to me. It would have only made marginal difference if the home state team had actually managed to make it to the big game. Honestly, even though I turned the cable back on just for the intention of watching the upcoming Olympics, it’s highly unlikely we would have tuned in to watch the football game. Perhaps just a moment or three, but not likely much longer than that. I was planning to turn on the Puppy Bowl for Abigail, but since she was taking her sweet time doing her homework, I left the screen off, although the show was recording.

I spent some time both Friday and Saturday pretending I could help make things in the robotics lab – at one point I even broke out laughing when one of the mentors asked if I wanted to draw up a plan to make something. While my building skills aren’t that great, I certainly have no problem jumping in when someone needs help taking bolts off or on, or other simple tasks, or just picking up the scattered tools because seeing tools lying about all over the place bothers me.

Nikolai was at the shop from after school on Friday until the time we left at about 9 p.m. Right after I arrived at about 7, my son sent me out for food, so I went and grabbed some pizza for the team from Teal’s. On Saturday morning I slept in until about 9 before rising in search of food. I surmised that the kids were all tired as well, because only Nikolai was awake, and totally enjoying have the downstairs television all to himself. 

I decided to wake up the girls and tried to convince Abigail to come and help make breakfast. I asked her to help make French Toast – not that I needed help – but I just wanted her company and to teach her a little more about making meals. She responded by saying that she would only get up to help make pancakes. “We tried that last week and failed – badly,” I replied. “We could try again,” she suggested. I was about to concede when she offered, “How about we have cold cereal today, and tomorrow you make hot cereal?”

 “Deal,” I said, and went off to eat my bowl of cereal.

Later that morning my wife left for appointments at work and my brother brought over a couple cousins to play with the kids. I wasn’t planning to leave the house until at least 3 p.m., but then my wife called at about 1:30 p.m. and said, “Um… I have a problem.” Being the law-abiding citizen that she is, since it was snowing she had turned her headlights on on the way to town and forgot to shut them off – resulting in a dead battery.

I was nowhere close to ready to leave, but I called for the oldest two and told them to get ready. Nik had to go to Robotics, and Abi was going to a friend’s. I headed for Bemidji and got the vehicle running, then we switched vehicles so the battery would have time to charge back up while I drove it. From that point, she went to visit a family member in the hospital and I headed to Cass Lake.

As I have mentioned in earlier columns, I’m not much of a fix-it, and my skills in that department are seriously lacking, but still I am fascinated by some of the tools and big equipment that the kids have an opportunity to use due to the Robotics program or other classes. One of the mentors gave me a demonstration on one piece of equipment, and while I understood the basics of how to use it (with his instruction), the math components involved terrify me. 

What excites me the most about this program is the variety of equipment the kids get to use. In just two days I saw Nikolai using a lathe, sandblasting and learning to powder coat – all of that on top of learning how to put things together or in some cases take things apart to rob the pieces from them. The thing he has yet to figure out is that no matter what his skill set, there is always something for him to do.

Abigail came looking for me on Sunday morning. This time, she was hungry and she wanted that hot cereal I had promised her a day earlier. However, there was a change of plans – mom was going to make waffles, which was an even better idea than hot cereal.

And so, while the girls (including two guests) were tackling the food and making syrup, I worked on cleaning up the dishes left over from the night before, since our dishwasher is still not working. We have a service appointment this week, and my guess is that the repair guy will say it needs a part and then it will be another two-four weeks before that arrives and the repair guy shows up again.

One side note – Nikolai will be turning 15 this week! I’m not sure where the years went, but I guess next up that means that after taking his permit test later this month, he’s going to want to start driving. Scary!

The plans for the coming weekend: with my Saturday schedule looking the way it does, I imagine I will be leaving early and returning late, and Sunday will probably be spent sorting out Saturday’s activities and getting things ready for the paper.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that will be carrying our most precious cargo. Also, snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.