the wheat from the chaff ...

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Well it looks like Jon Udell's new screencasts require a version of flash that is not provided for linux. Even if this is not true, his screencasts won't play for me anymore even though google video plays fine, for example. I'm tired of using software like flash that is proprietary, it's just so much more hassle than open source software.

So I've deleted Jon's blog from my roll, and unsubscribed from him on bloglines.com It's too bad because I know he cares about his audience ... not as much as others, I guess.

Swimming Lessons

Breakfast

Sam was scared of the water, and so you can imagine how he did not want to go to his swimming lesson that day. Sam was five years old, and now he heard the water running in the bathtub. "Mommy? Why do I have to take a bath if I am going swimming?", Sam asked as his mommy came out of the bathroom.

Mommy ignored his question as she headed back to the kitchen. "Jennifer ?! ... Who left this food on the table?", she brayed as she started to pick up the dishes from breakfast.

"Sam did it!", Jennifer answered from the other room where she was busy picking out her bathing suit for their lessons that day.

"Stop blaming Sam", Mommy replied, "He is not the cause of all our problems ... this is YOUR cereal in this bowl. Do you want me to tell daddy about this?"

Jennifer was silently sweating at the thought of mommy informing daddy about that, but then forgot it when she found her favorite pink bathing suit in the bottom of the drawer she had emptied onto the floor.

Little Sam was nervous after hearing his seven year old sister, Jennifer, rat him out, because he knew that he had left his cereal bowl on the table too. Even though he was relieved after hearing mommy defend him, he could not forget how scared he was of the water.

Swimming

Well, they got their bathing suits on, and headed for Mrs. Sweeny's house.

Mrs. Sweeny was their swimming teacher that summer. It was a normal swimming lesson. Jennifer could not swim as Mrs. Sweeny instructed, because Sam was either in her way, or distracting her, or not paying attention to Jennifer's instructions to watch her, so that Sam could learn how to swim. Mommy was still hungry because she had not eaten breakfast, so she went to Phatera Bread for a bite to eat while the kids were swimming.

Then something wonderful happened. Just before it was Sam's turn to swim, he remembered that Mommy had left the bathtub water running before they left for their lessons. He wondered what would happen, because Daddy had always told them not to get water on the floor.

Sam knew just what he had to do. He had to learn to swim because the house was going to be full of water when they got home, and who was going to turn the water off? He did not have time to worry about getting blamed for it by his big sister, he just needed to learn to swim. And that he did. He jumped in the water, and paddled over to Mrs. Sweeny to her suprise. She had always had to coax him into the water before, and had never seen him so eager to swim.

"Wow Sam, you are doing good already today", Mrs. Sweeny said.

Sam did not really know what to say, he just kept thinking about turning that bathtub water off. Mrs. Sweeny taught him how to float on his back, and how to kick his legs under water, and sure enough he was swimming better than he had ever done before.

Mommy got back from Phatera Bread, and she looked happy now because she was full.

"Sam did very well with his Swimming today, Mommy", said Mrs. Sweeny.

"Really?", mommy asked looking happier yet, and wondering how Sam was overcoming his fear of the water. She looked at Sam ...

"What's wrong, Sam?", Mommy asked, seeing the expression on his face.

"Mommy!", Sam said, "The bathtub water!"

Mommy's face turned pale. She remembered that she had left the bathtub water running.

"Sam ?!, why didn't you tell mommy before we came here?", Jennifer blamed.

"Get in the car, kids!", Mommy commanded, and they all dashed to the car still wet from the pool.

Back at Home

"It's a good thing we have our bathing suits on, don't you think, Mom?", Sam asked as she sped home in their van.

Mommy fainted, in the front yard after she had a nervous breakdown watching the water rush out of the their front door. The entire house was flooded with water four feet deep.

Sam, dove in and swam into the living room toward the bathroom. Jennifer followed him in worried he might drown.

Sam swam in and stood up on the coffee table in the living room with his head above water. They saw their dog, Sandy, standing up on the kitchen table trying to stay dry.

"Did you leave the water on again, Sam?", Jennifer asked as she swam up to the table Sam was standing on.

Sam did not listen to her, he dove in again, swam into the bathroom, and turned the water off. Jennifer followed him, and found him standing up on the counter by the sink. She swam over to the tub, swam down and pulled the drain plug, and then got up on the counter with Sam, and they watched the whole house drain down.

"Glad I pulled that plug", Jennifer thought, as she watched the house drain.

"I wonder what Daddy is going to say when he gets home", Sam said, looking at Jennifer.

Well, when Mommy woke up in the front yard, the house had drained.

"Sam swam in and turned the water off", Jennifer told Mommy, "And then I pulled the drain plug, and the water all went down the drain."

Mommy did not know what to think. She slowly crept back into the house, and saw that the floor was wet, so she went throughout the house and openned up all of the windows and doors. "I wonder what Daddy is going to say, when he gets home?", Mommy thought as she considered all that had happened.

Daddy comes home

Later when Daddy got home from work, Sandy rushed up to him panting and full of joy, and Mommy asked, "How was your day?"

"Things are going swimmingly," Daddy replied, "Wow, the house looks great ... did you mop the floors?"

Little Sam looked at Jennifer, Jennifer looked at Mommy, and Mommy giggled, and they all started to laugh.

What would you tell your Dad?

Happy days ...

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Another day, another smile :-D


Praise the Lord.