A rainy night with Quinn and Dad
It's been thunderstormy off and on today. We lost power twice before 8:00. As bedtime rolled around, Quinn asked if she could sleep in my bed, and I said OK. Of course, it wasn't enough for her to stay there. She wanted me to stay in the bed and talk to her. So we talked for a bit.
She talked about how her ear is hurting because she didn't put sunscreen on it and she's been outside all day at day camp. I said maybe she could get a hat, and she wasn't interested in that because she would look silly (or different, I suspect) but I said "You could get a cowboy hat, because they have big hats to keep the sun off of them from being in the sun all day."
And then we got into a discussion of why they were called cowboys even though they're on horses, and so I explained how cattle drives would happen, and how cowboys would drive the cattle from western states to points east where they would be slaughtered and shipped.
And then that led into a discussion of how Chicago was a shipping hub because it was the farthest inland you could sail from the east (ignoring Lake Superior and Duluth), since boats were the fastest way to travel before cross-country rail and certainly the highway system. Fortunately, I just happened to have a road atlas in my bedroom so I flipped on the light and we examined the map of the United States and how the St. Lawrence Seaway feeds into the Great Lakes. And of course, that led to discussion of New Orleans being both a path to Europe and the mouth of the Mississippi.
And then THAT got into a discussion of state borders, and how lots of state borders are crazy crooked because they follow the rivers, but sometimes they just have to draw a line, so when we drive up to Grandma's in Wisconsin, there's a sign that tells where the border is, but when you cross the Mississippi into Missouri, you know you're crossing the border because you're crossing the river. She didn't realize the Mississippi ran all the way from the bottom of the US to up into Minnesota.
And then we had to look at all the straight states and I pointed out how even the straight-border states like Colorado and Wyoming have little jogs in their borders, and then we looked at where Grandpa lives in St. George, Utah, and how he drives up and down I-15 to Beaver, UT for the census, and then we talked about how census takers have to go to houses where they know there's a house but haven't mailed their forms in so they know how many people live there.
And by then it was about 10:00 although I had to guess because the alarm clock was still blinking from the last power outage and it was well past time for her to go to bed. She said "I never knew I liked transportation so much!" She gave me a kiss and went to sleep.
Who needs Father's Day? I live it every day.
She talked about how her ear is hurting because she didn't put sunscreen on it and she's been outside all day at day camp. I said maybe she could get a hat, and she wasn't interested in that because she would look silly (or different, I suspect) but I said "You could get a cowboy hat, because they have big hats to keep the sun off of them from being in the sun all day."
And then we got into a discussion of why they were called cowboys even though they're on horses, and so I explained how cattle drives would happen, and how cowboys would drive the cattle from western states to points east where they would be slaughtered and shipped.
And then that led into a discussion of how Chicago was a shipping hub because it was the farthest inland you could sail from the east (ignoring Lake Superior and Duluth), since boats were the fastest way to travel before cross-country rail and certainly the highway system. Fortunately, I just happened to have a road atlas in my bedroom so I flipped on the light and we examined the map of the United States and how the St. Lawrence Seaway feeds into the Great Lakes. And of course, that led to discussion of New Orleans being both a path to Europe and the mouth of the Mississippi.
And then THAT got into a discussion of state borders, and how lots of state borders are crazy crooked because they follow the rivers, but sometimes they just have to draw a line, so when we drive up to Grandma's in Wisconsin, there's a sign that tells where the border is, but when you cross the Mississippi into Missouri, you know you're crossing the border because you're crossing the river. She didn't realize the Mississippi ran all the way from the bottom of the US to up into Minnesota.
And then we had to look at all the straight states and I pointed out how even the straight-border states like Colorado and Wyoming have little jogs in their borders, and then we looked at where Grandpa lives in St. George, Utah, and how he drives up and down I-15 to Beaver, UT for the census, and then we talked about how census takers have to go to houses where they know there's a house but haven't mailed their forms in so they know how many people live there.
And by then it was about 10:00 although I had to guess because the alarm clock was still blinking from the last power outage and it was well past time for her to go to bed. She said "I never knew I liked transportation so much!" She gave me a kiss and went to sleep.
Who needs Father's Day? I live it every day.