Vacation!

We're off to a summer vacation to Wisconsin, Minnesota and Thunder Bay, Canada. We're not working at all, so it's a rare three weeks with nothing on the agenda but to enjoy ourselves.

Of course, our vacations aren't really what you consider normal. There's always drama when we come to town. I expect my son to bond with me more than he does, and he gets overwhelmed with having his dad in town, spoiling him for a precious few days. It usually leaves him moody and ill-behaved and doesn't bring us any closer. This time around, I want to teach him how to ride a bike. I remember teaching Natali when she was 5; she was a slow learner but finally came around.

My son, Andreas, is almost 7 and very tall for his age. He still can't ride a bike for unknown reasons. My ex-wife says she has tried to teach him but that he is just too scared. I see it as a sign that he is left immature in this and other ways, because he has no dad; this makes me feel guilty. I also see it as a sign that my ex-wife has too much going on in her life to spend the time teaching him how to ride a bike. He isn't in any sports either and has no close friends. This annoys me, but there is nothing I can do about it.

We talk about the kids, and invariably end up fighting. I bring up the unfairness of having to pay exorbitant child support and she threatens me with not letting Natali spend the next year in Denmark. I consider the implications of an all-out war between us: we have shared custody but she is designated the primary parent, even to Natali, who has lived with me this last year. I would have to stay in Wisconsin for the court proceedings for the tiny chance of getting a judge to let me get custody of one or both of them.

I don't want that at all. I don't to fight and I would lose, anyway.

We are actually caught in a weird detente. I pay generous child support; generous even if she had both kids living with her. Wísconsin child support actually thinks Natali is staying with her. So I don't bitch about the child support and she lets me keep Natali. If she were to open up the war, her child support would certainly be reduced; whereas I would lose Natali, should I fire the first shot.

This makes it sound like we hate each other. Quite the contrary, actually, but these cimcumstances are so hard to deal with that there is bound to be ample disagreement.

So, yeah, not a normal vacation. The Girl and I are taking one week away from all three kids, though. Yes, that's right. My mother-in-law, thankfully, has more than a thing for her Danish-speaking, blond grandson and has offered to watch him for a whole week! It's insanely sweet; and this is where Minnesota and Thunder Bay come in. Just the two of us, feeling young and unburdened. The best part, of course, will be coming back to the kids when it's all over, but the second-best part is us alone for a whole week.

The running is going well. I have been doing intervals and feel smooth, light and fast. It's not a PR-setting shape at all. More like the kind of shape where running is fun. I'll be pacing the pregnant Girl at Voyageur next weekend. Well, maybe not pacing per se. More like taking pictures of her and trying to not get in her way; she hates it when I run with her during races. Probably, my main task will be to get her to take it easy. For all her running-in-pregnancy bravado, she isn't planning on racing hard - but may need to be reminded once the gun goes.

And boy am I glad I am not racing. I think my range may reach as high as 50 miles in the next few years but not yet. Voyageur was terrible for me last year, so, instead, I'll do the 5K fun run the night before.