Dear So and So

[maillotpois]

Dear muscles on my shins,

Please stop hurting. I know that you like riding the bike, but we need to work on running, too. If you cooperate and feel better then I can walk around like a somewhat normal person again, instead of hobbling around. I'll give you some time in the jacuzzi tonight, ok? Will that help? Tomorrow we will try to run again. Hopefully you will cooperate.

Dear Fishdr:

Running stinks.

Love,

Reformed marathon runner

[DrBee]

Dear Reformed Marathon Runner,

I agree! But I'm driven to do a triathlon for some mysterious reason. Why did I wait to start running until the temps were in the 90's??? 5:15 am seems earlier when I'm running then when I'm on a bike.

Love,
waiting for the replacement tube to arrive

[Brandy]

Dear yummy foreign boys riding your road bikes from Vancouver, B.C. to the Mexican border,

Thanks for providing some eye candy for three stay at home moms while you were walking around your campsite shirtless. Oh, and you're welcome for the milk.

Love,

I may or may not have told my kids to go play on that tree in your campsite so I could walk over and talk to you

[maillotpois]

Dear yummy foreign boys riding your road bikes from Vancouver, B.C. to the Mexican border,

Thanks for providing some eye candy for three stay at home moms while you were walking around your campsite shirtless. Oh, and you're welcome for the milk.

Love,

I may or may not have told my kids to go play on that tree in your campsite so I could walk over and talk to you

Did you at least get pictures of "your kids playing in that tree..."?

[Brandy]

Did you at least get pictures of "your kids playing in that tree..."?

No I didn't want to scare them away.

Edited to add...I just had to double check my pics to see if any of them made it in to the background and nope. I'll have to check with the two other desperate mommies and see if yummy boys made it into their pics.

[EvilTwin]

Dear allergies
Could you please go away so I can ride without wheezing? Please? I'd like to be able to breathe again and not be air hungry and tired all the time. My eyes would also like to not itch. I know you usually disappear by July 4th, but would you consider leaving early? I know I live in the mid-Willamette Valley, and that the valley is one of the grass seed capitals of the the world, and that I'm mostly allergic to grass pollens, but please????
Thanks, Barb

[Aggie_Ama]

Dear New Apartment Complex Residents,

Why did you put that bizarre seahorse birdbath outside? It not only frightens my dogs, it is ugly. The complex looked nice, now your apartment is resembling the "My Flea" market outside Rockdale.

Curious about the birdbath,
Your Neighbor

[Brandy]

Dear childcare worker at Gold's Gym,

I understand that you had to put my child in time-out because he threw a block. You tell me that you put a movie on and he calmed down after said time-out. Why did you feel the need to force a conversation out of him? Why wasn't the time-out enough? You tell him that he can't play with any toys until he really sits down and talks to you about this and then you're surprised when he has a meltdown? Earth to you...not all strategies work on all kids. You can't force a thought provoking conversation out of most three year olds. Ugh.

Signed,
thanksforthe20minuteworkout

[RoadRaven]

Hi Brandy - its interesting that your childcare workers are allowed to use "time out" as a strategy for "behaviour management".

Over here we have changed the words... behaviour management" is called "positive guidance" and the strategies used have to reflect that phrase.

Timing children out can potentially get early childhood teachers into alot of trouble... it is written into our ECE Regulations here. So I will join you in your letter to this childcare teacher, and if she worked in Middle earth I would also be able to tell her I was going to report her "teaching strategy" to her supervisor/head teacher... and if that wasn't taken seriously, then to the Ministry.

Isolation from others is used for POWs, and should not be used for three year olds.

[Brandy]

Road Raven...I think the fact that we don't really use time-outs here at home is why he has a hard time with them there. He's one of those kids who when he knows that he has done something wrong he feels bad and doesn't want to keep talking about it. I was telling my husband that he probably felt really bad and he had already been in time out...forcing him to have a discussion about it afterward just sent him over the edge and into meltdown land Unfortunately, using time-outs there is the policy. It's really not the best situation and I try not to use it unless I absolutely have to.

[Duck on Wheels]

When my "little one" (now 23 y.o., 6'5", and very sweet and laid back) was in his terrible 2's ... and 3's, and 4's ... the day care teacher designed a whole program for dealing with, not only my explosive kid but several others in the same class. She did a year-long program on "feelings". They went to the art museum and looked at paintings to see what emotions the people in them showed. They listened to music and painted emotions as they listened. They read books on emotions -- anger, joy, sadness, etc. After a few months, these little toddlers could understand and express their own feelings better, at which point they stopped "exploding". Much easier to recognize, and talk about, your own feelings when you've used books etc. to learn about others' feelings first.

From there, this teacher went on to a several year program about trees -- which put an end to kids breaking branches off the trees in the park around the day care. The class would "adopt" a different tree each year -- a big pine in the forest one year, a neighborhood birch the next, and so on. They'd visit the tree in each season, and a botanist from the university gave them a toddler-accessible lecture on what the tree could be used for -- like making sweet syrup from birch sap, which they then did, or a trip to the paper plant to see spruce made into paper. Great program!

Then in grade school, when there was a littering problem, the whole faculty decided to do a program on colors and seeing your surroundings. For instance, my son's class spent one lesson on their knees by the windows painting the winter scene outside. learning that snow is not white and spruce trees neither simply green nor black. Not long after, he started taking pictures of sunsets over the fjord and sending them to his big sister (who was away at college) to make her homesick; he'd just stand there awestruck by the windows and say what a beautiful place we lived in, then take a picture to remind his sister of that. And yes, at least for a while, there was a lot less litter around the school.

So yep, time-outs and "serious talks" with 3-year-olds are not the best methods, just the "easiest" and "fastest" for impatient and unimaginative teachers.

[carback]

Dear weather gods,
Here is your weather schedule for the week beginning Monday, June 12th:

Monday June 12 - you may choose to rain this day. Rain yourself dry.
Tuesday June 13- if you're still feeling a little soggy, go ahead. Rain. Surely you'll be fully wrung out by midnight.
Wednesday June 14- Sunny. And Hot. Like +25 (celsius)
Thursday - June 15 Sunny. And hot. Like +25 (celsius)
Friday June 16- Sunny. And hot. Like +25 (celsius)
Saturday June 17- preferably overcast, maybe some sun. Not a chance of rain. Even a cold front would be acceptable. Please don't go any hotter than 25 (celsius). Or cooler than 5 celsius. Oh, and if you could keep the mosquitos and wind at bay, that'd be greatly appreciated too.
Sunday - I don't care what you do because I and 799 other riders will be done our race. You can even snow if you feel you need to let off some steam.

Yours in racing the ride of my life,

Rider 596.

[Kimmyt]

Dear Self,

Why do you suck so much at everything?

[Lise]

Dear Reformed Marathon Runner,

I agree! But I'm driven to do a triathlon for some mysterious reason. Why did I wait to start running until the temps were in the 90's??? 5:15 am seems earlier when I'm running then when I'm on a bike.

Love,
waiting for the replacement tube to arrive

It's a form of illness. I have it, too.

Favorite t-shirts from the Chicago Marathon last year:

Running Stinks!

and

But I thought you said 2.62!

L.

[Kimmyt]

Dear The Boy,

I know I told you that I didn't care if you went climbing this weekend (without me *pout*) while I stayed home for a family function. I guess I thought you would get the sarcasm when I said, "I don't care if you don't ever make time to meet my family". But I guess what I'm really saying is that a 5-year-old has more common sense than you.

Sincerely,

The GF

p.s. I can't help but feeling a bit vindicated that it's gray and rainy out and likely to be so for some of the weekend while you're leaving me alone yet again to face my family and explain that, no, you couldn't come and that, yes, you really do exist.