Thanks to a now-daily routine of waking up with my infant son first thing in the morning, I'm becoming reacquainted with the cartoons of my own youth.
While I can stomach the pre-school-level broadcasts on the "NickJr" channel fairly admirably, eventually something will come on that's just geared for such slow-wits, it makes Mr. Roger's Neighborhood seem like theoretical physics by comparison. When those shows come on, I go up one channel to a cartoon network that replays all my old favorites, and I feel briefly ashamed that I think of them as my "old favorites."
First off, there's "The Smurfs." I really did love that show when I was just a lad, but it just doesn't hold up well now that I'm 35. Each and every smurf is presented as a total stereotype, right down to the insufferable "Brainy" who always ends up being catapulted out of the smurf village by his fellow exasperated smurfs. Why does he always, ALWAYS land on his head. You'd think a smurf that's supposedly as smart as Brainy would have the sense of mind to attempt some sort of in-air course correction so he at least lands on his feet; then he could attempt a roll of some kind. At least there would be a chance of him saving his glasses from being crumpled AGAIN.
Then there's the whole Gargamel and Azrael dynamic. Gargamel's bipolar relationship with his cat is frankly dumbfounding. One minute Gargamel is laughing maniacally and talking to Azrael about his plan to catch the smurfs, and Azrael responds by almost TALKING. But, the next minute, when Gargamel's great plan unravels, he all but kicks that cat across three counties. After watching that play out enough times, I can't help but think Gargamel is responsible for that paper punch on Azrael's ear. I just KNOW he did it.
"The Smurfs" is usually followed by "Wacky Races," one of those cartoon abominations that constituted the long list of Hanna-Barbera dreck. The biggest problem with this show is that it actually only ran for about five months between 1968 and 1969, and only produced 17 episodes total. So, in my efforts to keep my boy content, I've now seen every episode roughly 12 billion times, and each viewing annoys me just a little bit more each time. Now, when that dog, Muttley, does his little naughty raspy laugh routine, I actually wish for it to be possible to physically punch a cartoon character.
There are some other cartoons I'm becoming reacquainted with, but "The Smurfs" and "Wacky Races," are the two I most often see before leaving for work each morning. I shudder to think how cartoon insane I'd be if I were unemployed.
Walked the boy through Best Buy tonight. Verdict: I'm woefully behind on technology gadgets right now. Not that I think that's necessarily a bad thing. It's just a thing.
But, it was instructive. I once trained myself to learn "Fatality" combos for "Mortal Kombat" on Sega." Those were simple compared to the joystick operations I watched a young man perform tonight, just for regular stand-up and jiu-jitsu moves.
When my boy starts playing games via Nintendo Cerebrum Wii, I'll be pretty much screwed.
Well, tomorrow, if all goes according to plan, we'll have carpet installed in the basement. It will be the culmination of an ongoing basement remodelling project that began back when I first purchased the house back in 2004. There will still be much work to be done, not the least of which will be untangling the nightmare plumbing issues that have plagued the house from day one, but with the installation of the carpet, 4/5 of the basement will become fully livable.
Over the years, I've resisted taking out an additional loan to complete the basement project, mainly because the basement wasn't a huge priority. The upstairs provided more than enough space for my wife and me. It made more financial sense to pay for incremental steps towards the final finished product.
The addition of the infant boy, however, changed that dynamic considerably. We still have enough space, but once the boy starts crawling--which should be in next couple weeks--we'd be sorely pressed for space and room to maneuver. Thankfully, I've had enough in my savings to pay for the rather substantial projects we've had done over the last month and-a-half. It should be worth it though. The basement project basically doubles our living space, so I'm excited to see what it all looks like when I get home from work tomorrow.
When I think back to what the basement used to look like, with its burlap fabric acting as a ceiling, the ancient panneling, the iron gas fireplace and just the general creepiness of it all as a whole, I'm amazed at what we're about to have in its place.
Just having carpet is somewhat exciting. While I love the hardwood floors we resurrected back in 2004, I do miss the bouncy, soft feeling of carpet, and I suspect the boy will enjoy crawling on carpet rather than spinning his wheels on the slippery hardwood.
It has all cost a lot of money to get to this point. Thousands and thousands of dollars. And, an eventual new gas fireplace will also be necessary before next fall, which won't be cheap. But, we're about to have a whole new house to come home to, and that's pretty damned cool.
