Celebrating Ottawacker Jr., sort of

When the invite came in, we weren’t totally sure whether he should go or not but, in the end, we decided it was a great idea, and so off he went. The invite was for a sleepover with three of his football team friends, essentially leaving immediately after his afternoon practice, and being recuperated tomorrow morning after the match. Normally, there is no issue at all in his going for sleepovers, he gets on well with people, enjoys other people’s company, and is a lot of fun to be around. The only issue here was that today is his birthday. Anyway, while you only turn 12 once, it wasn’t as if we could see him on the big day. And if one thing is sure, he’ll wring every ounce of celebration out of his birthday – one way or another.
 
So, happy birthday Ottawacker Jr. What a fine young man you have become. Who said genetics never lie? As is our wont, we started the day with the Traditional Measurement of Height, where we discovered he had grown another couple of inches since August. At this rate, we’ll run out of height on the post we use as a measuring stick. Then we carried on, at 8am, with U14 soccer, where OISC were playing OSU Blue at the University of Ottawa. After last week’s double debacle, there was a sense of nervousness in the Ottawacker household going into the game – but it all went really well in the end. Ottawacker Jr. had a fine game, and the team, after a slow start, managed to hold on for a 3-2 win.
 
Next, we headed back home for a shower and some breakfast, before Ottawacker Jr. led us all out to the Merivale Bowling Centre for a couple of games of 5-pin bowling. Ah! The innocence of youth. He took one hell of a beating. I’d like to say it was superior ability, but I haven’t got a clue what I am doing when I bowl (in fact, it was purely beginner’s luck, because I don’t think I have ever gone 5-pin bowling before). Anyway, he took it well – he can’t win at everything. Even on his birthday. To prove this, we took him grocery shopping to T&T, which is a sort of Chinese grocery chain. Home, and then Mrs. Ottawacker took him out to his practice and I bade him a fond farewell.
 
In hindsight, I wish we hadn’t let him go. It was such a weird feeling his not being there on his birthday. We sat around and kept on saying things like “I wonder what he is doing now?” and “well, we won’t do this again next year” – but in the end, we made it through until 10 o’clock and then decided to go to bed.
 
To cap a miserable end to the day, on her way back from dropping Ottawacker Jr. off at his training, Mrs. Ottawacker went shopping. When she tried to come home, the car wouldn’t start. And then it did. And then when she went somewhere else, it wouldn’t start again. So, when waited a while and managed to get it going again and then came home. The Hyundai is going to have to go back to the dealership, where we will no doubt be charged hundreds of dollars to be told that there is an air pocket in the transmogrifying duct. This also has left us scrambling for tomorrow. I ca almost feel a Bonnie Tyler song coming on.