At Our Pool - நீச்சல் பயிற்சி

We have been living in this subdivision for more than 5 years; I never got the pool tag before. This year we responsibly got it on time, to take Srinidhi to the pool. I am teaching him swimming this year.
ஐந்து வருடமாக இந்த சப் டிவிஸனிலே இருக்கிறேன் இதுக்கு முன்பு ஸ்விம்மிங் பாஸ் வாங்கியதே இல்லை. இந்த வருடம் ஸ்ரீநிதிக்கு ஸ்விம்மிங் கற்று கொடுக்க கடமையாக பாஸ் வாங்கிவிட்டேன். அடிக்கடி ஸ்விம்மிங் அழைத்து செல்கிறேன்.

He feels the safest. This is his preferred way.

Making Progress.

A Picture From Last Summer

Last summer, we took Srinidhi to the YMCA waterpark several times. He was afraid of water gushing from various fountains and didn't go near them. He enjoyed wading in the pool and the smaller slides and bubblers. 2004/08.
இது போன வருஷம் ஆகஸ்டில வாட்டர் பார்க்கில எடுத்தது.

Bes, Tecks And Cas

One of favorite things for Srinidhi is to identify and say the types of vehicles on the road whenever we go out. He can identify and say,
- bes
- schoo bes
- teck
- big teck
- small teck
- gabage teck
- dum teck
- feir teck
- ups teck
- mail teck
- mixa teck
- fla teck
- tow teck
- polize car
- race ca
- covetablahblah ca
- pizza ca
- taxi
- van
- iceceam van
- ambu van
and finally appa ca.

Train Trip - ட்ரெயின் ட்ரிப்

Srinidhi's fascination has moved from bikes when he was a year old to cars when he was year and a half to trains now at two. He constantly talks about trains and wants to play with his train set. I finally decided to take him on a real train He had been on Washington Metro Subway trains when he was five months old, he was too young then. We took him on Chennai Metro trains during our April visit to India, it was too crowded for him to enjoy.

I took him to the local Amtrak station weekend before past to see his reaction. He was so very excited to see the real train especially when the engineer waved at him and did a special toot-toot for him. Next day I reserved our tickets for the following weekend. We were to take the Piedmont at 5.30 PM, reach Spartanburg..errr...Salisbury at 6.15 PM and turn around on the Carolinian at 6.45 PM and reach Charlotte at 7.30 PM. An hour and half round trip with 30 minutes break sounded like a good idea, Well that was the plan!

(I keep making this mistake, I confused the heck out of the train conductor when we boarded and he asked me where we heading, and I said Spartanburg. BTW, Salisbury is around 40 miles northeast of Charlotte and Spartanburg is 80 miles southwest of Charlotte. My first customer, the one that was the reason for me to come to Charlotte in 1993 had large chemical plants in both the places and I had visited the Spartanburg plant. We often dealt with both plants at work. Some how Spartanburg stays at top of my mind and pops out for Salisbury. I had to pause and think for a moment at times to get it right. Veena corrected me both times, in the train and when she read this blog entry.)

ஸ்ரீநிதிக்கு பைக் மேல ஆசை (ஒரு வயது) போய், கார் மேல ஆசை (ஒன்றறை வயது) போய், இப்பொழுது ட்ரெயின் மேல ஆசை வந்திருக்கு (இரண்டு வயது). எப்பொழுதும் ட்ரெயின் பத்தி தான் பேச்சு. சரி, ட்ரெயின்ல அழைச்சுக்கிட்டு போகலாமேண்னுட்டு, டிக்கட் புக் செய்து போன ஞாயிற்று கிழமை அழைச்சுக்கிட்டு போனேன்.

Srinidhi was so happy to see the 'Engine 9' so close. For him, every train is 'Thomas Train' and every engine is 'Engine 9'. Srinidhi knows and can identify the following,
- Engine
- Passanger Car
- Tanker Car
- Box Car
- Caboose

Srinidhi pointing at the tracks and freight trains.

Shan, Srinidhi and Veena inside the Piedmont.

The Piedmont at the historic Salisbury station. True to their claim as 'historic' Salisbury, they are working hard to preserve historical structures including homes, shops and landmarks such as this railway station. You can see in the next pictures, this rather large railway station is kept in excellent condition even though current station uses only a very small part of that space.

We learned that the Carolinian was late by 75 minutes. Luckily for us there were several things to keep us from boredom. A bunch of kids were skateboarding in the historic station (though there is a sign loud and clear, 'No Skateboarding'). We amuzed ourself watching them. We watched several freight trains that went by and took a self guided tour of the historic station. Srinidhi had lot of space to run around and play. We had snacks and drinks handy. Veena also had her book handy to sit and read.

The station in chrge gave Srinidhi this toot-toot whistle and sticker.

A Southern Railway Sign from 1908 (See bottom right for year).

Srindhi playing.

Another view of historic Salisbury Station.

I took Srinidhi to show we can walk on the track. But as soon as he saw the track, he took the toy train he had and put it on the track!

The Carolinian finally arrived at 8.30 PM. This is the New York to Charlotte train. We reached Charlotte around 9.15 PM. We all thorughly enjoyed it. It was a fun trip.

Oh, an interesting story, almost forgot. When we were looking through the pictures we were shocked to see one guy in the Charlotte station. The reason is, we knew for a fact, that guy was waiting along with us at Salisbury for the Carolinian from the time Piedmont reached Salisbury. In other words, this guy did exactly what we did! He took the train from Charlotte to Salisbury and right back! We have photos to prove that. He did not even leave the station!! What was he doing ??? If you go back to the Charlotte Station picture, you will see him standing right next to the pillar.

The Da Vinci Code

We both finished reading The Da Vinci Code. It is a non-stop thriller, hard to put it down. It is based on the premise that..., well, I don't want to break the story if you decide to read. But, let me tell you this. The story traces events back to biblical days. We may never know if the individual events are true or not, but the overall theme is consistent with my beliefs of long time such as, meaning of words, phrases and events change over time and morph into unrecognizable from the original, sometimes even the total opposite of the original, partly due to time and translation and difference in cultural context and partly due to vested interests promoting one meaning or interpretation over others and partly due to sheer human ignorance. I also believe the history is just but one facet of the story that managed to survive. These are heavy subjects one can engage in extended conversation. This book touched these areas profoundly. I am not saying the events in this book are truths; I simply don't have the knowledge to do that. The minimum I am saying is this is not a 'wacky book'. It is a good fiction at the least. Give it a shot.

Yes Officer, but, but, you are just five years old

Yes Officer, but, but, you are just five years old.

On the other hand, how can a 31 year old impose as someones teenage son!

Insane

This lady is simply insane. I cannot fathom anybody reacting to the way she did for what happened. Click to read the story.

Saji Titus Baby Shower

Charlotte Malayalee Catholic Prayer Group holds weekly prayer meeting on Saturdays. They rotate the member that hosts the prayer. Last week it was at Titus Saji home. The prayer group had arranged for a surprise Baby Shower for Saji and Titus right after the prayer. They are expecting their second baby, a daughter. They have a 3 year old son Appu. After the cake cutting, everybody enjoyed a bunch of baby shower games.

Appu.

Baby Shower games 1.

Baby Shower games 2.

Our Cars

I don't think I ever talked about our cars before. This is our Acura MDX Touring Package Model Year 2002 parked in our driveway on a rainy morning. (I move the car from garage to the driveway in the mornings so that Srinidhi has some extra space to ride his bike without having to go to the street.) We got this SUV in Nov 2001. Those days MDX was in high demand and there was a waiting list. Luckily we found one available for immediate delivery in Columbia, SC, a 100 mile drive from Charlotte. We had to pay some premium over the listed price, but that was worth not having to wait. We have no complaints about this car except the AM radio reception is very poor with lot of static half the times. We need to talk to the dealer about that. We have a custom registration tag for this car, 'APPA', in memory of my dad.

My first car was actually a 1992 Ford Tempo (equivalent to today's Ford Contour) I bought as used in 1994. I used it for couple of years before joining IBM. Since joining IBM in 1996, I had very little use for it since I was traveling out of town all the time and was driving rentals. After having it parked idly for couple of years, I donated it to American Cancer Society.

Veena's first car was a brand new 1996 Saturn SL she got during Christmas 1995. We made good use of it until we got the Acura. The Saturn has been sitting idle in our driveway for more than three years now. We are thinking of disposing it off.