I owe my family an apology. Foley, Tech Man Schneider and I were chatting before Landmark Live last week. The birthing of babies came up. This is what real dudes talk about, right? Anyway, Foley and Schneider started reeling off the birth weights of their children. I had no idea that this was information I was supposed to be keeping in my head. I figured it was in a book somewhere or on a state issued certificate, but apparently it is Dad stuff to know. Anyway, when I admitted I had no idea what my kids weighed at birth, Foley started showing off his dad skills by throwing out their lengths.
I can honestly tell you that I never knew their lengths. They’re about 6’0 and 5’7” respectively at this point, I think.
I felt horrible. I’ve always considered myself a strong B parent. I had the good fortune of having a strong A- mother and a D- to F father, so my grading scale is well developed. Anyway, I’m a bit concerned that this might drop my letter grade in the annals of parenting history. I tried to prove my fathering prowess by explaining to these guys that I knew how big my kids were now. They explained that 30-year-old kids height and weight are irrelevant to good parenting. To be honest, I sometimes forget how old my daughter is. I think she’s 27, so let’s not even get into the age matter.
Don’t get me wrong, I could probably look up how big they were at babies, but at this point the damage appears to be done. This is the plight of the backside of middle age. History has been written and history can’t be changed. Carry on.
Don’t think I’m bragging about with my self-administered B parent grade. I had/have an A parent wife that I cheated off most of the time, helped me keep my grade in a good spot. To be honest, I didn’t parent my daughter much. I feared her from about 12-years-old on. I let her raise herself, just threw some money at the problem and stayed out of the way. She appears to have done a decent job, but I’m still too scared to ask much.
If you have not caught the Landmark Live with Parkville Mayor Dean Katerndahl you can still find it at Platte County Landmark and YouTube.
I found Katerndahl to be a very pleasant man, good interview and he had more in-depth budget knowledge than lots of mayor’s I’ve met over the years. I am not a Parkville voter, but I’d vote for Proposition U which is the use tax, but I’d have a hard time voting for Proposition P, which is the police tax.
Well, truth be told, I hardly ever vote for a tax, so that’s probably not true, but the use tax has more merit in my outsider point of view. That money would enable the city to issue bonds to pay for needed street improvements. I’m always a big fan of water, sewer, street stuff for cities. The rest takes me a little more convincing.
The interesting part of the use tax is how the city’s spending power for the Route 9 corridor improvements is being evaporated by wage and material inflation and now the increased cost of borrowing. I’m not sure that is going to improve, so it might be better now than later and if it does get better, the city could refinance the street improvement bonds.
(Guy Speckman can be reached at gspeckman@me.com or appealing his parent grade)
