Saturday, June 18, 2016

Rewards

 Today is the day. My granddaughter has her yearly dance recital, the big show. The wife and I have attended these recitals every year. The first one saw her dancing to " I'm a little teapot " and now I shudder to think what she might be dancing too. The classical doesn't concern me but this hip-hop stuff is a bit much. Some, I think, is downright inappropriate ! But then I am a 62 year old grandfather.
 I really do enjoy the shows. Yes, there are two today and I will go to both. Always have and always will. The waiting in line doesn't thrill me but I think that comes from being in the military. The motto there being, hurry up and wait. Did a lot of waiting. I always try, like everyone else, to get the good seats. I want to take pictures of course and somehow I always wind up behind somebody with a head the size of the Hindenburg ! That is the first obstacle. Then I try to figure out when my granddaughter will appear and from what direction. The second show isn't the same as the first and so that doesn't help much. The one thing that annoys me the most is the saving of seats. I just don't think it is fair to send one person ahead and then save a row of seats for others to arrive thirty to forty five minutes later. If you want to get those seats, get there and stand in line like everybody else ! Hey, one thing to save a seat for your wife that sits down five minutes after you but, well, you know what I mean. I think it is rude.
 It is funny in a way. I wind up watching most of the show through the lens of the camera. Well, not the lens exactly, that led screen on the back. Uses up the battery fairly quickly and I have to carry spare batteries. Every year I talk about buying a better camera, a digital SLR with its' own battery pack. Then I look at the price and question myself. I'm no photographer and have no clue about 75% of the functions available. Right now I have a Nikon and the setting I use most, "easy auto. " That about sums it up. I do switch to sports continuous in an attempt to capture action shots. I've read that it is possible to remove individual frames from a video but I don't know how to accomplish that. I probably wouldn't have the patience anyway. I have not had much success in learning video editing programs and the like. All of them seem a little complicated to me. I'm probably just too old and set in my ways. It happens and that is alright.
 I've said it before and I believe it to be true. The accomplishments of our grandchildren are our greatest rewards. Not only have we raised children to become productive citizens but we can see that being passed on. When the grandchildren succeed you can take satisfaction in that knowledge. It takes being a grandparent to understand that. It is a level of maturity to take that satisfaction in the accomplishments of others. You do experience it when you are a parent, but grandparents take it to the next level. Well, at least the good ones do. Call it pride if you will. It is not really pride though, it is something more. It more a comfort and a satisfaction. For pride is boastful and vain and that isn't what this feeling is.
 Well I have to be off and running. I need to end this right now.   

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