Domestic Adventures

I knelt down and felt the cold of the snow sucking heat away from my body through the uncomfortably thin material of my pant legs. Adjusting my down jacket for added warmth against the 18-degree night air, I asked my wife to aim her flashlight in front of me to I could get started on the job ahead.

Was Packman preparing to field dress a large beast to feed his family through the winter? Perhaps he was going to splint the broken limb of a friend so they could make it back to civilization and medical care? Or maybe he was about to provide mouth-to-mouth rescue breathing to the beautiful young maiden who had choked on a powerbar during a winter hike? (What was she doing wearing a bikini in the freezing cold anyway?)

Nope. None of these exciting sounding scenarios happened last night. Rather, I was kneeling in the freezing cold trying to relight the pilot light of our home’s furnace so it would heat our house.

I headed up for bed at around 11pm and when I tried to wash my face I discovered that there was no hot water. No big deal, I thought. I had lived in large apartment buildings for years where losing hot water for a few hours at night was a regular occurrence when maintenance was being performed.

Then I remembered that I do not live in a large apartment building anymore. I live in a single-family house. With hot-water baseboard heating. In other words, no hot water, no heat. I recalled the radio telling me it was 18-degrees outside. Crap. I checked the thermometer in the bedroom and it read 62 degrees. Not dangerously cold, but significantly below the 68 degrees the thermostat was set for.

Plan “A” for keeping the family warm was quickly established. I woke Mrs. Packman and told her of our predicament. We procured an electric space-heater from storage and put it in Mini-man’s room to keep him warm, and decided that if it got really cold we’d bring FBS into bed with us under the down comforters. We’d all be reasonably warm until the plumber could get to us in the morning and figure out what went wrong.

By the time we figured this out and repositioned the electric heater the temperature had dropped an additional two degrees to 60 and I began to worry. Our furnace is located in a shed on the outside of the house. With the temperature dropping as fast as it was, how long would it be before pipes started to freeze and real damage was done?

Plan “B” was quickly put into place. This plan involved Packman attempting to make repairs on potentially dangerous appliances when he has absolutely no training or experience doing so.

Mrs. Packman and I dutifully bundled ourselves up and headed out to the furnace. I removed the front cover and carefully read the warnings about fire and explosion should I do anything wrong with this natural gas-fired device. Great. Then I read the instructions for re-lighting the pilot light. I’ve had pilot lights go out on stoves before and was able to re-light them with no troubles, and it certainly would explain why out furnace was nothing more than a very cold chunk of steel and aluminum. I sniffed around the bottom of the furnace where the instructions said the pilot was located and smelled a faint smell of gas, which was consistent with the pilot being out, so I decided to proceed.

Following the instructions I shut off the electricity, dissected the burner and turned off the gas valve to the pilot light. We stood in the doorway letting the cold wind blow any accumulated gas out of the shed to (hopefully) prevent an explosion when I tried to re-light the pilot. Did I mention it was very cold?

Then things got really interesting. The instructions said to turn the gas control to “pilot” and press and hold a red button before lighting the pilot light with a match. The only problem was that the gas valve had only two positions, “on” and “off,” and there was no read button to be found.

Getting desperate, I went for the brute force method. I held a long-handled lighter to the pilot light and turned the gas back on. Not much happened, but I didn’t get blown up, which I guess was a good thing. I kept the lighter on the pilot light for a while and noticed the flame change color a bit. Maybe this actually worked? I let the lighter burn out and saw no flame remaining and my heart fell. It was going to be a cold night.

With a heavy heart and cold fingers, I re-assembled the furnace and prepared to head inside. I was sure I had failed. However, when I turned the power back on I was rewarded with the unmistakable sound of the furnace cycling on with the burners firing right up. Success!

Mrs. Packman and I headed back to bed to snuggle until the heat came up.

What did Packman learn?

- Being unable to keep your house and family warm in sub-freezing weather is an extremely uncomfortable position to be in.
- Keeping detailed instructions on or near critical appliances can be a real lifesaver.
- Wives are very impressed when you fix important big things, even if you’re not sure you did it correctly.
- Not blowing up your family or burning down your house when working with gas appliances is key.
- Adventure can be found where you least expect it.

Stay warm everybody!

I'm Back

Things have been crazy in the life of Packman. Since my last post:

• We unexpectedly moved (is that possible?) out of Brooklyn to a beach town on the south shore of Long Island.
• We had an au pair from Finland move in with us.
• The au pair's father got very sick and she decided to go back to Finland to be with him. (Just for the record, I fully supported her decision and feel it was the right thing to do.)
• I got a new job.
• My mother in law moved in with us to help with childcare.
• I got a promotion at my new job. (I'm just that good.)

Things should settle down soon, as a new au pair is arriving from Brazil in a week and a half (is my wife great, or what? We have a 21-year old girl from Brazil moving in with us!). I hope then to pick up with some more regular posting about adventures in and around New York, perhaps with more of an emphasis on the around part, now that we no longer live in "The City."

As a preview there's:

Apple Picking

Costumes

Rocket Ships

Seashell Gathering

Cute Kids Getting Messy

So please stay tuned. The blog is not dead. Packman has just been very busy!

Voting

This is not a political post.

So Monday night as I was putting FBS to bed I told him I was going to take him to vote with me on election day. His response was highly amusing. Our conversation went something like thus:

Me: I'm going to take you to vote with me tomorrow morning.
FBS: Ohh, my like to vote! (FBS has not figured out the personal pronoun "I" yet)
Me: You do?
FBS: Yes, we go on water!
Me: ????
FBS: Mommy come on water too?
Me: Water?
FBS: Yes, we go vote on water.
Me: Oh, no, we're going to VOTE, not on a BOAT.
FBS: We not go on water?
Me: No.

Somehow, he did not seem dissappointed. It was very cute. Later, Mrs. Packman had a similarly amusing conversation:

Mrs Packman: FBS, are you going to vote for Obama?
FBS: No!
Mrs P: Are you going to vote for McCain?
FBS: No!
Mrs P: Well, who are you going to vote for?
FBS: My gonna vote for Daddy!

I love that kid! He also told his teacher that he voted for daddy. I guess in about 16 years I'll have to run for something so that he can vote for me for real.

Return to Overlook Mountain

Wow, it's hard to keep up with this blogging thing and still accomplish everything else I need to in my life. Two kids, coupled with the need to earn a living, are exhausting!

About a month ago we all headed back up to The Inlaw's house outside of Woodstock for some more exploring in the woods. One of our favorite things to do is to climb the trail up to the fire tower at Overlook Mountain. It's about 2.5 miles each way on a wide trail, and the views from the top are awesome.

Happy Family on the trail.

Though FBS was carried much of the way, I wanted to make sure that he had a chance to do some walking on the trail as well.

Two-year old on the trail!

He particularly enjoyed it when I pointed out and picked some wild raspberries for him to snack on. Of course, Mini-Man came along for the hike as well. Interestingly, he was not the only infant on the summit!

Mountain Baby

It was a beautiful day on the mountain, capped by the fact that FBS amazed everyone by climbing all the way to the top of the firetower!

Almost to the top!

The ranger on the summit remarked that FBS made it higher up in the tower than most of the adults who try to climb it. I guess he has not yet learned fear!

The next day we spent more time in the woods, this time on Peekamoose Mountain, where some distant relatives own some land. FBS had a great time exploring the grass.

Then we headed into deeper woods and came across our destination: a woodland stream.

They call this The Bathtub

We found a nice shallow spot for FBS to splash around in, and he did his best to explore everything he could get his hands on.

Cool, a wet stick!

All in all, a successful weekend of getting a city kid out into nature. I'm a very happy dad!

More adventures to come, including a story about talking to sheep!

Bugs

"I think I may have set you back on the bug issue." - Mrs. Packman

My wife has an irrational fear of stinging insects. OK, maybe the fear of stinging insects is not irrational, but somehow she is convinced that every bee or yellow jacket in the neighborhood exists solely for the purpose of following her around and stinging her.

One of my goals is to keep my sons from developing this same phobia.

Unlike many apartments in New York City, our current apartment has no cockroaches. It took me a little while to figure out why (obviously it had nothing to do with my great housekeeping skills), but eventually I discovered that we shared our home with a colony of House Centipedes. I'll admit that they're a little scary looking at first, but I've grown attached to them as allies in my fight against roaches.

About nine months ago, a centipede walked out onto the floor as Mrs. Packman was getting FBS ready for bed. She screamed, and FBS refused to go to bed for months until I had searched his room for bugs. He would not go into his crib until I had authoritatively pronounced, "no bugs!" Kids are impressionable that way.

Thus it was my fear that Mrs. Packman's phobia of bees would rub off on the kids. So you can imagine my enthusiasm when last Wednesday FBS' preschool was visited by "The Bee Man." This is a guy who actually keeps bees and makes honey on the roof of his Brooklyn brownstone. He brought a small hive with see-through walls into the classroom and helped the kids search for the queen bee. I was kind of sad I could not have been there to see the kids reactions.

FBS has been drawing pictures of bees and eating honey ever since. It makes me proud.

That Didn't Go As Planned!

Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design.

- Emperor Palpatine, Return of the Jedi

Wow, that didn't go they way I had planned!

- Packman, last weekend

So, Friday evening arrived, and I was excited. As I noted before, I was going to take FBS camping for the first time. Failing that, at least we were going to sleep in a tent in The Inlaws' back yard. Silly me.

So Mrs. Packman and I loaded up the Packmobile with all of the huge amount of gear necessary when you're going anywhere overnight with two young kids, plus my tent, two sleeping bags and pads, as well as my camp stove and lantern. There was hardly any room left for people!

I'm thinking about getting a car-top carrier for the Packmobile, as it may make packing a little easier.

The Inlaws have a small house just outside of Woodstock, NY. Yes, that Woodstock. If you actually go into town there is loads of tie die still evident, as well as a whole lot of new-agey type of stuff going on. I don't go into town very often.

The good thing about Woodstock, is right in the middle of the Catskill Park, a "forever wild" collection of public and private land just west of the Hudson River criss-crossed by hiking trails. It's a great place to explore. There's even a club for people who have climbed all 35 of the mountains over 3,500 feet in elevation (more challenging than it sounds, for all of you out west who think "3,500 feet, that's not a mountain!).

Anyhow, we arrived at the house Friday evening after a horrific traffic experience getting out of Brooklyn, and attempted to sleep. FBS had other ideas and woke up screaming several times. Can you say "foreshadowing" boys and girls?

Mini-man grooving to the Woodstock vibe in his Bob Marley onesie. It's just that kind of place!

Saturday morning came way too soon, but it was time to introduce FBS to the adventure that is camping. I figured a good first step would be to set up the tent to make sure we had all the pieces - I haven't used it in two years. FBS thought this was a grand idea, and set to work "helping" me.

Shock corded poles a really fun to play with!

I think I remember how to put this thing together

Its fun to play in!

Testing the sleeping arrangements

One thing you need to convince your wife of if you are going to take a small child camping is that no harm will come to said small child. One piece of this puzzle is to make sure that the child does not get lost. A great piece of gear to help a kid not get lost is a whistle. You simply teach your kids that if they ever find themselves alone in the woods they find a comfortable tree to sit under and start blowing their whistle until they're found.

FBS really liked blowing his whistle, but I'm not sure he understood the rest of the instructions. Maybe when he's older.

I didn't want to spend the entire day at a campsite, so in the afternoon we went to visit one of FBS' best friends from his day care. Anyone who says that 2-year olds don't have the social skills to play together and form real friendships is crazy. These two kids have had am amazing connection since they first met at age 14 months!

Mmmm. Cookies!
And Ices!

By the time the play date was over, it seemed too late to head to a campsite, so we set up the tent in the backyard. The tent, for those who are interested, is a Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight 2-man backpacking tent. It has served me well over the years, being both lightweight and quite weatherproof. It's very comfortable for one, and a bit too cozy for two. If I really get into the whole family camping thing, I'll need a new, bigger tent!

Unfortunately, once the tent was set up, things started to deviate from the plan. It was obvious that something was wrong when I crawled into the tent, invited FBS to join me, and instead of coming right in, he let out a scream and ran crying back to the house. Hmm.

I followed him into the house and found Mrs. Packman feeling his forehead. She quickly informed me that he was burning up. Yup, I was so focused on sleeping outside in a tent with my son that I missed the fact that he had an almost 103 degree fever. Bad dad.

We broke out the children's Motrin and sent put FBS to bed. Inside the house.

The next morning FBS still had a fever, but the In Laws were nice enough to let me and Mrs Packman sleep in. I took FBS to a local playground for a bit to burn off some energy before the drive home, and he had a great time there.

We watched a fantastic thunderstorm come in over the mountains, packed up the car, and headed back to Brooklyn.

So, what did Packman learn?

• Kids are loads of fun (but he already knew that)
• Kids enjoy things much more when they do not have a fever
• Moms like it when you pay attention to how your kids are feeling, even when you are in the midst of having an exciting adventure.

Alas, the camping out will have to wait for another day. I'm now planning on Labor Day weekend, but I'm sure there will be more adventure before then!

Camping With The Boy

OK, the plan is to sleep out in a tent with First Born Son (FBS) this Saturday night. We'll be heading up to the Woodstock, NY area on Friday to spend the weekend with my in-laws, and if all goes according to plan, FBS and I will escape late Saturday afternoon and head out to the woods somewhere. I'd like to eat dinner together, and then sleep in a tent.

Of course, the backup plan is to pitch the tent in the in-law's backyard. This is what Mrs. Packman is pulling for.

This will not be FBS's first foray into the woods. That happened last summer, when he was about one year old:

FBS, Mrs. Packman, The In-laws, and I climbed to the Overlook Mountain firetower just outside of Woodstock. It's only about 2.5 miles to the top on an old jeep road, but it's uphill the entire way and a pretty good way to guage your fitness.

FBS had a great time on the hike, but I did most of the work. I guess you can't expect a toddler to carry his own gear.

Weight on your back: 22 lbs

Distance to the top: 2.5 miles

Seeing the look on the face of a city kid the first time he gets out in the woods: PRICELESS!

Seeing the look on the face of his mother when you come across a timber rattlesnake: frightening

No, I didn't know there were rattlesnakes in New York State either. Apparently, Overlook Mountain is one of the few spots where they can be reliably seen in the state. We saw four or five of them at different times on this hike.

The goal of the hike was the firetower at the summit:

From the top of the tower there are spectacular views.

That's the Ashokan Resevior, which supplies some of the drinking water to New York City. Apparently there's some great fishing in the resevior if you get a special permit, as well as deer, bear, and small game hunting in the surrounding woods. I'll have to check that out for future adventures.

If you're looking for an easy hike with young children in the woodstock area, or an outdoors diversion from more "touristy" activities in the Hudson Valley, I highly recommend Overlook Mountain. It's great views for the effort.