Last week was a busy week. We also had the little one doing her summer recital as part of Galina Andre's music school. It was in a nice theater in downtown San Jose.
She has improved a lot, now that she plays the violin every day in school. Before she was only taking lessons once a week and practicing twice a week. Now that it is a daily thing, she has more confidence and we can see the transformation from a shy hesitant kid to someone who goes for it!
She made me very proud. I am sure there will be videos from the music school.. I took a few videos of the final group perfromances and they are below.
Glad she likes the school and glad she loves to play! Makes my day to watch her practice on her own without me having to sit there and turn pages on the notebook or be the stand for no reason!
The last four days I have been getting sicker by the day and still managing work till it got to a breaking point on Friday morning. Simply could not get out of bed. Busy work days and no Yoga for four days did not help either.
Called in sick and slept through most of Friday. At bedtime, told wife and kids that come what may, yours truly is going to wake up at 5AM and do yoga. The alarm was set and off we went to bed.
Was still spitting out phlegm and as I walk to the bathroom, hear a car screech at high speed followed by a loud bang, a bright flash that lit up the entire house. Immediately power was out and all our emergency night lamps went on.
I ran out thinking someone may have crashed into our house itself and if there were going to be falling electric poles, the family had to run. It was also occuring to me that the folks in the vehicle might need help.
Ran out and saw a car had missed our garage but crashed into the electric pole. I yelled out to the guy in the car and he managed to open the door and stumble outside. Kept yelling to him to move away from the car, but he was not listening. There was transformer oil leaking from the top and his car was fuming from the airbags.
Meanwhile I keep trying to call 911 from my home phone and nothing happens. Then it strikes me that no power, no internet and it is a Vonage VOIP phone! Run back to the bedroom to grab my cell and wife says "dont go out.. sounded like a gun shot".. Told her a guy has crashed his car and ran out again and this time reached 911. They promptly send a few cops, fire trucks, PG&E and there was lot of action.
Turned out the guy was not sober and there were live wires that almost reached the ground! Good thing the cop told me to stay back and took the guy back. After watching the person go through a sobriety test and being taken away in handcuffs, then came the tow trucks, the spill cleanup crew, and more cops. Finally went to bed at 3AM knowing power was not going to be restored anytime soon.
Went to one of the guys and asked him "can I take my car out of the driveway in a few hours?" and he gives me the look!
They had put some absorbent stuff all outside our driveway to get all the stuff that leaked from the blown transformer.
So yoga in the morning was out. Yoga in the afternoon was also out. Finally got out of the house for an evening class and came back feeling good. We still did not have power and the wife wisely adviced me to shower at BYSJ before coming home.
After 18 plus hours of non stop work, the guys got power back to us 20 mintues ago!
Thanked the guys for their service. These guys are our true heroes!
Life is always interesting in the Narayanan household...
Jr. is part of a student exchange program and is spending the spring break in Asia. Given dads struggles in Asia over the last three years to get around, get the right food etc. and realizing learning Mandarin in your forties is not easy no matter how many languages you already have a grasp of, asked her to take Mandarin in school as the language.
She thought it was a good idea and went with it. Her Chinese is already way way better than mine, given she spends an hour at least on it every day and I spend 20 mintues in the night on days I get a chance. Also that brain is more moldable!
We dropped her off on a rainy evening to go be part of a 9 day trip to put her Mandarin to test, be with a host family, make new friends and have an experience that she will remember for a long time..
We are going through a partially empty nest syndrome this week. The house feels empty because the mom daughter or sibling fight noises have reduced to nothing!
I know that I did this to my parents and left the house and have not gone back, but my brother stays with my parents. Not sure if either kid will stay with us the way things are going.
The little one does come and sleep on my hand every now and then. So this morning I told her
"do you want to go to
Daddys arm college of engineering,
Daddys arm college of Medicine,
Daddys arm college of arts and sciences or
just stay with daddy?"
She gave me a shy smile and said "Daddy, you know I will have to go to College somewhere right? Don't worry, I will come back!"
Know she means it, but things will change. Made that same promise to my mom and went back on it because things changed, I changed.
Later in the day there was a discussion about that conversation and daddy was being psychoanalyzed and the conclusion was "maybe I am scared of being alone with my wife and worried about getting her undivided attention"..
Now that day, I dread! Right now anyone she turns her attention to, is under pressure and the three of us take turns. Imagine all the power of that glare concentrated on one person.. I will be like those ants burnt by sunlight being focused by a water drop in one of those National Geographic programs!
It is going to be an interesting time when the kids are off..
