Ok, I'm back. And I'm old.

Officially, today, I and DW have become "mature" people. The reason for this is that as of 9AM this morning, we are the parents of a high school teenager; it can only go downhill from here I am told. We now have four anxious years of balancing teen angst, with teen hormones, with school work and sports and thought processes to continuing education. Yep, we now have to look at how we are ever going to afford school fees for her in a few years. I don't know how my friend, Skibum, does it; he has two in, one to join in a couple of years and three more "acquired" ones to think about. Frankly, I'd look into investing in a grow house operation, if I were him.

Anyhow, I took TC to school this morning. I wanted to make sure she actually got there but I also had this Daddy pride thing of seeing her off to her first day of this new chapter in her life. She did not want to get out of the car. At one point I basically told her to get out and she looked on the verge of tears. Normally, this would be met with a nice Trini reaction. Today though, I appealed to her fleeting common sense. I mentioned the fact that we were going to move to Quebec and she agreed but after her four years at ND were completed. So, I said today was the first day in the precious four years she talked about so get over the fear, go in and get settled and meet up with her friends. After today, it will be just like grade eight, except for the schedule and the extra homework and the layout of the school (yeah, I know, I got away with it). She settled down which is when I noticed she had two more studs than the two studs per ear limit so I made her remove them.

Forget the fact that sitting in front of the school, I witnessed so many school violations a hall monitor would have run out of paper. Smoking within school boundaries, dress blouse outside of kilt/pants, wrong colour shoes, massive hoop earrings (the things have their own gravity), makeup (OY! the makeup caked on), multiple jewelry adornments on necks and wrists and ears), coloured or printed shirts under blouses, hair not the colour they were born with, logoed runners, rolled up sleeves and kilts that attract dirty old men (more than four inches above the knee, and it one respect, suspect to be within four inches of the waist). I'm no prude but with all the crap happening in the city, I really think parents should think a bit more before allowing their teenaged daughters to look like street walkers (as two fine examples jumping up and down in the middle of Kingston, allowing us to see what they were thinking, can attest to as examples). The pervs are out there and it is our job as parents to try to keep their attention elsewhere than on our kids.

So, thus begins the new chapter of school life for TC. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did (and not as little as DW did). I have a handful of life long best friends from that experience, and a whole lot of friends that I think fondly of. TC's Godmother, Godfather and Confirmation sponsor are all people I went to high school with. All those people were at my wedding. We vacation and hang out with these people as well. I hope that she is able to find the same kind of people as she progresses. Most of all, I hope she enjoys the journey and she gets as much out of it as she can. The kids today have so much more offered to them that they really take it for granted and do not understand what they have until it is too late. It will be me and DW's job to ensure that she does understand what she has available as opportunities and to steer her to make the most of it.

To that end, we have changed a many thing in our household to help her focus. The biggest change will be that there will be no TV allowed on until her homework is finished. We have several computers set up as PVRs and we have the west coast channels as well to view missed network programming. Not only does this mean no distractions for TC, it means that she has direct and full access to each of us for homework assistance. It also means that DW and I have the time and focus ourselves to do some things we have been putting off. For her, it means prepping for her Lotus Notes Admin upgrade exams as well as upgrading our Lotus Notes server at home. She will also be able to finally start on her Lotus Notes Developer track (a very good thing for her to have in the more restrictive Canadian market). I will be studying with TC and finally starting my Cisco certification training. It is way too long coming and an absolute necessity if I ever want to leave babysitting purgatory at work. There is an amazing opportunity to learn the inner workings of a Data Centre which will allow advancement either at my current place or elsewhere in due time.

We are also changing our eating, sleeping and exercising habits. All of this will have to be gradual, natch, but it is a necessary change as none of us are happy with our current body image and each of us are responsible for that in various degrees. So, the "treats" will no longer be once or twice a week, it will be once or twice a month (besides, we need the coin for gas fillups at these insane prices). We will also have regular meals at regular times. I work a fair bit from home at the moment so the onus is on me to actually leave the IT dungeon and go upstairs to fix dinner up. TC will only change when she sees us leading by example and achieving our individual goals. That will be our biggest task this year as her self esteem has taken a huge hit this year. And let me tell you, mine and DW's are on life support at the moment.

Anyhoo, enough of the self pity. I will end this so I can go off and accomplish a home task while the ticket lines are quiet. We have decent weather so work should allow me to get some personal stuff and pending work work done. Also, the place is a disaster area that we have just had enough of looking at. Which segues me nicely into a little shpeel.

New Orleans is burning. No, not literally, but definitely figuratively. If you can afford to, give as much or more to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I need to perform some online research before I can comment on the tragedy there. I have much to say but I want to ensure, unlike others, that I am not talking out of my ass before I make a statement. Our prayers and thoughts go out to the families and friends of anyone affected by the effects of that Category Five force of nature. When will we learn?

Peace.