As I’m not known for being emotional, it may surprise you to know that emotional moments are not foreign to me. In particular are what I call the “Dad” moments - those times in fatherhood when you’re so happy you could (and nearly do) cry. Unfortunately, all of my dad moments are rather odd, but here goes:

Reading “The Hobbit” to Gareth in the hospital - This one almost doesn’t count since it was Gareth’s second day of life and he was largely unresponsive, having just the night before gone through his traumatic entry into this world. Still, it was something I really wanted to do, so I headed into a little bookstore in Danville, grabbed their last copy, and got back to the NICU to proceed with the narration. It was something I had always pictured doing as a dad, even if I didn’t picture having to do it in those circumstances.

Introducing Gareth to Quake 3 Arena - Holding him with one arm and gaming with the other, I sat Gareth in my lap so he could see what his dad did for fun. We’ve revisited Q3A a few times since then when I was adapting joysticks for his use as input devices. Since then we’ve moved onto other less bloody games.

Gareth’s first trip to a movie theater - For Shrek 2, of all things. Years have been spent honing the sharp edge of my movie snobbery. I am intolerant of chatter, children, phones, and comedians in my theater environment. As such, I was always very concerned about taking Gareth into a theater with his suction gear which consists of a small suction pump connected to a canister and tubing. When you kick it on, it makes quite a bit more noise than one would imagine, which does nothing for a normally quiet movie setting. After Shrek 2 had been in theaters over a month, I took Gareth to a show I thought would be largely empty. It sort of was, but there were enough other attendees that I started feeling self-conscious. But when the lights dimmed, the trailers played, and the opening of the movie started to run, I forgot about everybody and just marveled that I was sitting in a theater with my son. Seriously, I teared up. Then, about 10 minutes into it, Gareth lost all interest and started crying like crazy. We left shortly thereafter.

Gareth discovers that the soul still burns - Due to the various joysticks I have for console games, we eventually gave up on PC gaming and moved to the basement where Gareth discovered Donkey Konga, Taiko Drum Master, Dance Dance Revolution, and Soul Calibur. After just a little time with Soul Calibur, Gareth picked up on the fact that movement was handled with the joystick and attacks were handled by the buttons. He quickly learned to move his hand to the stick to position his fighter and then move that same hand to the buttons to kick, punch, and throw. How could I not be proud of that? He has now added Wii Sports Baseball to his list of regular games. He also has an insane love of video game theme songs - I have only to whistle the Donkey Konga theme or hum the intro to Taiko Drum Master to make him burst into instant laughter. No, he does not know the Mario theme.

Gareth faces down Darth Vader - I spent so much time worrying about taking Gareth away from his support staff (nurses, doctors, therapists) that I spent no time contemplating how great a vacation could be, so imagine the 180 I did when we arrived at DisneyWorld and almost instantly ended up on a stage with lightsaber on hand, swinging at Darth Vader. Holy shit. From that moment on, we all had a great vacation, and I had another dad moment. That one became a Gareth moment, too. He enjoyed telling everybody he knew that he fought Darth Vader and that daddy dropped the lightsaber.

Gareth gets his first bike - And probably his last.  About the time I decided to get back into bicycling, Gareth decided he loved nothing more than to pedal a trike around his preschool playground. From that moment, I planned for us to find a way to ride together. I got three dad moments out of this event: a first moment when he sat on his bike for his fitting; a second moment when we rode it for the very first time even though it was raining and in January; a third moment when we rode together in the RBR rally. Our ride in the Colyer 4th of July parade comes close, but that wasn’t emotional enough to qualify under my “Dad moment” rules.

Walking Gareth to school - This is the moment that inspired today’s entry. This morning, I walked Gareth to his second day of kindergarten, meeting one of his classmates on the way, hanging out while we waited for the crossing guard, and dropping him off in his classroom. On the way back, I just realized how great it felt to do that, to be an honest to goodness parent of a child old enough, smart enough, and lucky enough to be going to school like any other kid when his whole life has been stacked against him.

I’m bound to have plenty more dad moments in my lifetime, but these are a good start. Here’s a prediction, though - my next major dad moment will come when Gareth is able to express himself without the help of others. I’m going to be a blubbering mess when that happens.

And then I’m going to worry about all the stuff Brandy and I have said in front of him over the years. There are some words he definitely knows that shouldn’t be repeated in polite company.

So a bunch of nerds (cool ones) made a life size R2 unit (pink) for a girl with brain cancer.

And now Hasbro is releasing it as an action figure.

Damn, that’s awesome. Check it out.

Speeder Trav
Originally uploaded by ratsinis.

I’ve recently learned that the glory of a three day weekend is to provide one with three days during which to ride. Gareth and I mounted his bike no fewer than three times while I did some short solo triking once.

Incredibly, Brandy joined us for one of our rides. She took the trike while Gareth and I went tandem. This is incredible because Brandy never really learned how to ride a bicycle past the training wheel phase. The trike is basically like having training wheels all the time, so she gave it a go and found she enjoyed it.

I did my first semi-extended street riding with the trike last night, taking it along College Ave and Harrison Rd in Pleasant Gap. Nearly everyone gave wide berth while passing, but the 18-wheeler that rumbled through town wasn’t as considerate. Oh, and whoever designed the sidewalk on South Main St needs to be shot. The angle at which driveway entrances are cut makes biking on that walkway severely painful. Same goes for pushing a wheelchair on it. After about three driveways, I ditched it for the shoulderless road.

Oh hey, while I’m here… If you haven’t seen it already, be sure to stop by this site to grab plans for building paper models of Star Wars and Star Trek craft. Quite cool, but I’d never have the patience to actually build them.

Dark Side Christmas
Originally uploaded by ratsinis.

We purchased and set up our Christmas tree today. I chose a tree that was too tall for our ceiling and far too wide to rest unobtrusively in our living room.

Fact of the matter is that we simply had to rearrange the furniture for it.

Even the guys we bought it from weren’t willing to lift it up onto our van. Instead, they delivered to our house at no extra charge just to save themselves the trouble. Yeah, it’s a big, heavy tree.

There’s a very clear Disney vs. Star Wars theme on the tree as Brandy and I continue to amass our preferred trinkets. Gareth is contributing far more to the Disney side with his various Pooh and Mickey ornaments. I need to swing that kid back over my way. We must bring balance to the Force. If only I could convince him to join me. Together we could rule the Christmas tree as father and son.

I love how I can rant one day about Lucas sticking it to me and then, AND THEN, not two days later, buy games and toys based on his properties.

LEGO Star Wars II is now mine, as are three new figures, and four new Star Wars “kids” figures (though, technically, they’re for Gareth - three troopers and Wedge, I couldn’t resist).

I’m guessing that this is how addictions work.

The unfortunate bit is that the basement is a bit torn up right now as I’m rearranging. The 360 is hooked up to the projector, but the speakers are not yet hooked up. No use playing a game if I can’t hear it, so I will instead have to wait until that task is complete.

George… I don’t know what to say about you…

You see, when the Star Wars OT came out on DVD, I forbade myself from buying them. I decided that I’d rather watch my old VHS copies of the films and see Han shoot first rather than buy the patched versions of the film. Nobody thought I could do it, but I did. I held out.

Today, my waiting was sort of rewarded. The OT was released with two copies of the movie in each case - one the patched 2004 version, the other the original theatrical release. Sure, the transfer of the original is from the freakin’ non-anamorphic laserdiscs, but at least it’s something, right? Right.

But then, just to spite those of us who love the original movies, George put almost no extras on this release. The 2004 version of the film has commentary, each disc has a trailer, and the OT disc has demos for LEGO Star Wars II, but other than that, nothing.

No hints whatsoever of the extras that accompanied episodes I-III and the 2004 DVD release of the OT.

But then, what should George care? He’s got my $60. And he’ll just screw me again when the inevitable 30 year anniversary mega-whammy box set of all the films is released next year. I swear, George does more iterative releases of his product than Apple does with their iPod.

At least now I won’t have to cringe when I hear the VCR make that loud chunk noise when the tape is rewound. I can watch these films over and over again without worrying about wearing out my only copies.