Blood, Guts, Hammers, Mucous and Texas

Yep, it was that kind of night here at my house, and no the police were not called. You can chalk it all up to being a diligent task-master of a parent tonight, and here's why: Son has a test tomorrow and another test on Friday.

Thanks to my son's fourth grade teacher, I may learn the location of all 50 states just shy of my 50th birthday! If you asked me tonight, I could tell you where Texas, Minnesota, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and North Dakota are located. Ask me tomorrow and I can't promise anything because it's a crap shoot which memory I'll have access to at any given moment; short-term or long-term. It's rarely both at the same time. So far we've done 30 states and is being tested on ten more tomorrow. They are saving the west for last! Get it? West rhymes with best? Oh God I'm tired, aren't I?

After discussing the places where grandpa was born (Nebraska), where the statue of an ancestor is located (South Dakota), where his great aunt lives (Colorado), my cousin lives (New Mexico) and where Toto is no longer (Kansas), I pouted because I haven't been to ANY of those states. Now I'm feeling deprived. All because of fourth grade homework.

Well time to move on to studying the systems of the body. Right up my alley if I might say so; having been a phys ed major. I don't mean to brag, but my commercial and industrial fitness/exercise science BS was hot in the 80s. Not very lucrative, but like all BS, it had it's shining moment. Who knew I would get a chance to light it up again lo these many decades later?

Thank you Mr. M! Although I didn't really get a chance to show-off my expertise as the kid already had great notes to work from, so I was relegated to the role of flashcard question writer. I was impressed with what he knows, and how thorough his notes were. Frankly I don't remember learning the Latin names for parts of the ear. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I even learned about parts of the ear. I would think that would be part of anatomy and physiology wouldn't you? Hmmm. Perhaps because the ear doesn't actually partake in any commercial fitness related activities it wasn't deemed mission critical info?

I'm glad the kid is being tested on these topics instead of me. I can't hold much of anything these days. To my point; I require more potty breaks in a day than the average kindergartner. I've also had far fewer accidents than they have. Winning! I'm just sayin'...

Fourth grade seems harder than I remember it. The books seem heavier too; the backpack containing all the day's work is probably a good third of my son's height and weight. I guess it's all worth it. He is definitely learning more in fourth grade than I remember ever learning.

But then again, as I said before, I don't remember much.