Boys in the office, part two: disrupted hard drives and endangered fish
Saturday, September 28, 2013 at 10:41PM 
Suddenly, I thought about Lynx and looked over at my computer. There he was, punching lighted buttons on my hard drives - five altogether, including the two you see at the lower left, two terabytes each. While only one light was now turned off, Lynx had managed to knock all five off-line. I restarted the computer. They did not come back up. I shut the computer down completely, then did a fresh start. The hard drives did not come back up. I kicked all the boys out, shut everything back down and then went through a process I will not take the time to describe.
After another tense 15 minutes or so I brought everything back up. I felt bad about kicking the boys out, so I let them come back in. The older two wanted to feed the fish. I gave each of them three pellets and told them to give those to the fish and no more. As they fed the fish, I gave Lynx my full attention so that he could enjoy the glowing buttons without shutting anything down. Then, I looked at the fish tank. There were scores, perhaps hundreds, of pellets floating on top. The fish food container was nearly empty. I sent Jobe to the kitchen to get a cup and then scooped out scores and scores of pellets. Too much food in the tank can contaminate the water and kill the fish. I believe I got enough of it out. I will know for sure in the morning. I sure do love these boys. They have such enthusiasm for life they make everything interesting.
Reader Comments (7)
Naughty boys! That's a nice image with Sandy in the background. Thanks for the link Uncle :)
I had a similar fish feeding incident w/ William. They do feed with a generous hand...
I think your grandsons are very cute but they are small children and they need to learn about rules. You were right to send them out of the room when the computer was disabled. A two-year old needs to be closely supervised but also needs to learn that some things are simply off limits to little children. The older boys need to learn that "three pellets" is what you said and what you meant.
I adore my grandchildren but they know that there are rules in our house. Furniture is not to be jumped on, doors are not to be slammed, and food is not taken all over the house. They also have understood, from very early on, that silly behavior is not welcomed in the car. As a result, visits are fun and not disasters or near-disasters.
You will do your grandchildren a great service if they learn early that grown-ups have a right to make rules - they will encounter them endlessly in school and then in the workplace later on. The older boys should be told how dangerous overfeeding the fish can be and the little one should be told that wires and buttons that connect with computers are not for little children to play with. It's not rocket science. It's raising children.
Yes, Ganesh. Sandy has occupied this place on my wall paper ever since... She greets me whenever I open my computer, says "hi" whenever I clear the screen for a moment, for whatever reason, and says good night when I shut it down.
Debby... William has a most generous spirit.
Beaglemon - Did you ever read Tom Sawyer? Aunt Polly was pretty strict and set all kinds of boundaries. Tom pushed them all, broke through most, yet grew up to be a successful lawyer - or, perhaps more accurately, one of the greatest writers the world has ever known. If you see the moments I catch and the stories I write and then read into them what you appear to read into them then you read too much into them. These boys get taught all the rules and they spend their time sitting in the corner (as has also been seen on this blog). Can you honestly tell me your grandchildren never push through their boundaries and go beyond the rules?
Oh you make me miss my very own wonderful Grand Poppa who taught me a lot about life and patience. Your grandsons are lucky boys and you are one lucky Grandfather (and a good one too!).
Your grandkids are cute but I don't know how you and Margie keep up. Bill, you and I are about the same age. My nephew who is all about 8 years old was riding with me about a week ago while I was up in the area visiting his dad (my brother) what was in the hospital. We had about an hour and a half ride back to his house. I had a point and shoot camera in the car. He asked if he could take some pictures and I said yes. A few minutes later I heard this beep from the camera that I had never heard before. He managed to jam the lense. Probably pushing on it. Well it took some time but I finally got it working and put it in a little cubby hole in the dash with a spring open door. Next thing I know he says, "Uncle Jim I can't get the camera out. Somehow he had managed to get the door closed but there was no space to be able to push in and release the door.
To be quite truthful ... I was very glad to get him back home.
Belle, I hope my grandboys (and maybe grandgirl one day) will remember me as fondly as you remember your grandfather. Oddly enough, my grandsons are teaching me a great deal about life and patience.
LOL, Jim. I understand. Maybe its because they are grandsons, not nephews, but I don't know. I never got to spend that much time with any of my nephews and nieces and when I did and they were little, I was a young man and so we had a lot of fun.