18% Heart Attack

Dad read yesterday that for every hour of t.v. you watch, or computer time, per day on average your heart attack rate goes up 18%.  What a crappy statistic, we don't watch a lot of t.v. but we do spend a lot of time on the computer and playing video games.   We decided we need to make a few changes in our lifestyle.

First on the agenda was to get our cheerful little cherubs up this morning bright and early.  Well, early is a relative term so it was like 9:00 a.m., but that is early for us/them.   After a quick breakfast we were out in the barn cleaning out a goat stall.  Nothing gets your blood pumping like shoveling poo.  Or, if that doesn't sound convincing I throw out the "it builds character" line.  Next, we played a game of whiffle ball with these curved throwing things that have been in the shed but have only surfaced one other time.  Whiffle ball isn't really our strong suit but, with a little practice, we could perhaps start to look beginners.

After lunch it was off to the beach.  The kids swam and we sat in lawn chairs on the shore but, since we weren't watching t.v., I am almost certain that it didn't count as an 18% increase.  I am telling myself that anyway.  What could give me a heart attack is the people at the beach.  I can't believe more kids don't drown from misuse of their floating toys.  There was one boy there with a huge butterfly strapped on his back with his legs in two other holes, if he got out over his head and flipped over he would have been toast.  He made me so tense I could hardly watch.  Another family had a baby who could stand but not walk yet.  They had a harness on him with a really long tether, the ones people use so their kids don't run off at the mall, and most of the time he was screaming because he was scared.  When my kids were that age, I had two hands on them at all times if they were in the water, even the bathtub.  A man who looked he might perhaps be his grandpa, did finally put a life jacket on him but then he wanted him to lay in the water on his back while he sat in a lawn chair.  It was all I could do to stay in my seat.  There was police officer down there today because it was a holiday and he didn't say anything.  I guess he only gives tickets for breaking the beach rules not for being stupid and careless with your kids.

We got home and Spark wanted to play the whiffle ball thing again and Dancer rode bike.  Now I am sending them off to bed so we can get up early again tomorrow morning and shave another 18% off our heart attack rate.