Doug Van Pelt

Pump Up The Space Suit

I forgot to mention something else cool that happened during my outing with my family last Friday. On the way home we split up into two cars, and my oldest daughter went home with me. On the way in to the dance performance we noticed an amazing tree on campus near the art building. "I don't think I ever climbed that great tree when I was a student here," I said. On the way home I did something spontaneous, I asked my daughter if she wanted to climb it with me. It overlooks a creek and it was dark, so it was kind of a careful climb, but the tree branches are really big and round, and they level out just like arms to hold several people at once for a chat or informal meeting, if need be. It was cool to let my daughter experience that spontaneous side of my personality, which sometimes they won't see in the everyday course of being a parent and all.

One the way down, for some reason, I almost threw up in my mouth. That was kinda gross.