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1st and 2nd Epiphanies
Dec. 10th, 2019 08:09 pmSounds almost Biblical, as Dreamwidth titles go, doesn't it? And that feels totally appropriate, given the magnitude of the revelations experienced by my grandson and myself over the past weekend.
His first. We were driving back to his mother's house, after I'd picked him up at his dad's on Sunday night. And he said to me, "You know how we were talking about engineering and mathematics and the different things that engineers do? Well, I think I'd like to do that."
He went on to say that he knew he'd have to work really hard in school, especially after the past couple of years. But he really felt like he could do that, work hard that is, with college as his goal.
And that he'd like to start doing some hands-on projects in the basement workshop that we'd built. Also, he wondered could we go to Barnes & Noble, like we used to, to see if they had any project books that we could use?
And I'm thinking that, yes, we can certainly do that--if I don't crash the car, in the next minute, having been completely blindsided with surprise and elation.
He went on to ask if I knew where the best engineering school was--he assumed that, of course, I did--but told me that in his opinion it was MIT. Which, of course, I had to agree with. (I also mentioned that, off the top of my head, Purdue and Georgia Tech are considered to be decent schools as well.)
I suppose that I really shouldn't have been so surprised. I've talked quite a lot with him about always have a "Plan B" for his life. Had also reminisced, on occasion, about how amazingly well he'd transformed the 2-dimensional drawings that came with the Bionicals he'd loved--and built so many of--into the towering, articulated, 3-D creations he'd assembled as a kid. Totally on his own.
Including the one age-rated at 15+ when he was only 8.
And as I think about it now, he'd really taken that to the next level, a few years later, when he worked with me to build the workshop, having accurately translated my 2-D drawings as he measured and marked all of the saw cuts and pilot holes for the two work benches at the center of it.
(After which he drilled and countersunk all of the pilot holes, using the drill press, and helped with their assembly. I'm absolutely certain that the two Air Force flight engineers, who designed these benches for Chapter 1000 of the Experimental Aircraft Association at Edwards Air Force Base, would be impressed with our work.)
Anyway, once I recovered, I told him that we could definitely look for some books and line up some projects. And that I was impressed with how he'd thought this out.
Which he did. I'd just pointed at the pieces, from time to time, and he went ahead and put them together. Sort of like the work benches.
And that's where I'm gonna leave it for tonight. We traveled about a 40-mile circuit today, between two bookstores, to find what we were looking for. Because of that I'm pretty tired, so I'll save my own story for tomorrow...
LPK
Dreamwidth
12.10.2019
His first. We were driving back to his mother's house, after I'd picked him up at his dad's on Sunday night. And he said to me, "You know how we were talking about engineering and mathematics and the different things that engineers do? Well, I think I'd like to do that."
He went on to say that he knew he'd have to work really hard in school, especially after the past couple of years. But he really felt like he could do that, work hard that is, with college as his goal.
And that he'd like to start doing some hands-on projects in the basement workshop that we'd built. Also, he wondered could we go to Barnes & Noble, like we used to, to see if they had any project books that we could use?
And I'm thinking that, yes, we can certainly do that--if I don't crash the car, in the next minute, having been completely blindsided with surprise and elation.
He went on to ask if I knew where the best engineering school was--he assumed that, of course, I did--but told me that in his opinion it was MIT. Which, of course, I had to agree with. (I also mentioned that, off the top of my head, Purdue and Georgia Tech are considered to be decent schools as well.)
I suppose that I really shouldn't have been so surprised. I've talked quite a lot with him about always have a "Plan B" for his life. Had also reminisced, on occasion, about how amazingly well he'd transformed the 2-dimensional drawings that came with the Bionicals he'd loved--and built so many of--into the towering, articulated, 3-D creations he'd assembled as a kid. Totally on his own.
Including the one age-rated at 15+ when he was only 8.
And as I think about it now, he'd really taken that to the next level, a few years later, when he worked with me to build the workshop, having accurately translated my 2-D drawings as he measured and marked all of the saw cuts and pilot holes for the two work benches at the center of it.
(After which he drilled and countersunk all of the pilot holes, using the drill press, and helped with their assembly. I'm absolutely certain that the two Air Force flight engineers, who designed these benches for Chapter 1000 of the Experimental Aircraft Association at Edwards Air Force Base, would be impressed with our work.)
Anyway, once I recovered, I told him that we could definitely look for some books and line up some projects. And that I was impressed with how he'd thought this out.
Which he did. I'd just pointed at the pieces, from time to time, and he went ahead and put them together. Sort of like the work benches.
And that's where I'm gonna leave it for tonight. We traveled about a 40-mile circuit today, between two bookstores, to find what we were looking for. Because of that I'm pretty tired, so I'll save my own story for tomorrow...
LPK
Dreamwidth
12.10.2019
