California City

We had a very busy weekend, and if I have some time in the next day or two I may post about what we did Saturday too. But our experience on Sunday was so odd that it's still very much on my mind today.

We were trying to think of something to do CLOSE TO HOME. I wondered whether there were any swimming pools within an hour's drive of us (that's what we call close to home), since the Ridgecrest city pool is always horribly crowded and we're a bit fed up with the base pools. We considered Trona's pool, but somehow that just sounded so hot (it was predicted to be 105 in Ridgecrest and Trona's often a bit hotter). Then I suggested California City, about 50 miles south of us.

Cal City, as most people call it, is a very peculiar place -- I know, I know, the pot calling the kettle black, but really it is. Founded in 1958 by a college professor turned developer, it was planned as an enormous city that would rival Los Angeles in size. And get this, they LAID OUT the whole enormous planned city. Most of which -- the vast majority of which -- was never built, most of the roads not paved. Most of which is still there -- you can see the grid marks if you look on Google Earth -- and the city actually maintains the unbuilt, unpaved sections of itself. In geographic terms, Cal City is the third-largest city in California, though its population is only about 14,000.

It has some jobs -- a prison, a Honda proving ground (I think), and lots of people who work at Edwards Air Force Base live there. But overall, the town has a very depressed feel, almost like a ghost town. California City Boulevard, the main drag, is a BIG wide street -- with almost nothing on it. A few businesses here and there. Empty storefronts. Vacant lots. If you wanted to live in that part of the Mojave Desert, you could have your pick of where to build your dream home. But then you'd have to drive 50 miles to Ridgecrest to go to Walmart, so maybe it's better just to live in Ridgecrest. If you wanted to go to Denny's, though, you'd only have to drive 15 miles to Mojave (another jewel of the desert). I don't know, the choices are tough out here in eastern Kern County.

But Cal City does have one amazing feature -- a huge park with an enormous lake in it. The first time I saw the lake, I was looking at our part of the world on Google Earth, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. "Look at that!" I said to Rocket Boy. "It looks like a lake!" "It can't be," he said. I looked it up online, and sure enough, Cal City has a lake. A 26-acre artificial lake, according to Wikipedia. In the middle of the Mojave Desert, in a town of 14,000 people (more than a third of them renters) and almost no businesses.

More to the point, Cal City also has a pool. So this weekend I looked up the hours for the pool, and on the Cal City Parks & Rec page, under Aquatics, I found this:

PADDLE and CANOE BOATING
Marina offers paddle boat and canoe rentals to the public. 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm. Saturday, Sunday and Holidays. Memorial Day thru Labor Day.

And then it gave the fees for the different kinds of rentals. Hey, we thought, what fun to rent a paddle boat! Much more fun than just boring old swimming. So we told the twins we were going to do this and it would be sooooo fun, and we got all packed up and drove to Cal City, arriving a little before 3 pm.

There were very few cars in the big lot. We parked, got out, and walked toward the lake. Ducks and coots, hoping to be fed, swam up to us. To our right was the pool and to our left was an extremely decrepit building with a sign on it saying something like "Community Center Building restoration in progress." Uh huh.

We walked down to where we thought the boats would be and there were no boats. We walked down the walkway to the island thing (see first photo), which had picnic tables and was just very attractive altogether. No boats. No canoes. No sign that there had ever been a boat or canoe in or near the water in the last 50 years. Rocket Boy and I both experienced the feeling that we have gotten so familiar with in the last two and a half years -- the realization that the real story of whatever we've gone to find is oh so very different from what we've been led to believe. It's a very desert-y feeling.

Rocket Boy walked back to the pool to ask someone about the boats and came back with the news that the pool attendant had lived in Cal City for 6 years and had never heard of any boats going on the water.

So, we could have gone swimming then -- we had our suits and the pool was not at all crowded. But we didn't want to, somehow. So we walked over to the playground area of the park, which was pretty well shaded, and let the boos play for the next hour or so.

We did take one little walk, up a nearby hill (probably built from the dirt they dug up when they built the lake). There's a complicated system that pumps lake water up to the top of the hill and then it flows down the other side in a waterfall -- maybe that's how they aerate the lake? It was interesting. Here we are at the top.

But most of the time we just sat on a bench and watched the boos play. It was over 100, so even in the shade you don't really feel like doing much. We watched the other people in the park, and they watched us. Not a very high class of people there (we did nothing to raise it), but I suppose the rich people were all at home in their air-conditioning. I watched two teenage boys with blue and purple hair walk across the grass, one telling the other about a dream he'd had. Another group of teenagers led by a man in his 20s with Michelle Bachman eyes went over to a secluded part of the park and had some sort of meeting (I figured they were part of a gang).

At 4:30 we dragged the boos off the equipment (they could easily have spent another hour there) and drove the 50 miles home. That night, Rocket Boy wrote an email to the California City Parks & Recreation Department, asking them to update their website. I won't hold my breath on that one.

Bribery

Potty training has been coming along very slowly, excuse me, potty LEARNING -- I'm certainly not training anybody. And it's August already. And I want them to be all learned/trained/whatever by the time it gets too cold to run around naked all the time (late November or thereabouts).

So this week I decided it was time to take steps. They're really really really good about going in their potties (or outside in the dirt) when they're naked. We just haven't been able to make the leap to underwear. I thought about saying: "Now we will wear underwear!" but they can take their underwear off by themselves and there's two of them and only one of me. I don't want to run around the house pulling up their underwear (though it sounds like good exercise).

No, something else was called for -- a reward system, AKA bribery. Wanting to keep it simple, I bought some candy. Wanting to keep said candy from being eaten by Mom while the twins were at daycare, I bought gummi bears (I'd eat them if I were starving, maybe, but not otherwise). On Tuesday I announced that if they would wear underwear until the timer rang, they could have a gummi bear.

Well! This was very successful... at first. As soon as they heard about the bribe, boos immediately demanded undies (Percy the green engine for Baby A, Bert & Ernie for Baby B). When the timer rang (after 15 minutes) they were thrilled to receive a single gummi bear.

But then it got more complicated. As soon as Baby B got his bear, he took off his undies. "No," I said, "Keep them on. I'm going to set the timer again." So he put them on. But after a bit he took them off again. Then the timer rang. I tried to give just Baby A a gummi bear, but Baby B threw a fit. Finally I agreed to give him a bear if he would put his undies on again. He did, and as soon as he got his bear, took them off again.

The second day, they were again happy to put on undies -- as long as it was the same ones they'd worn the day before. I DO NOT remember this being covered in any of the potty training books I read. What do you do when they'll only wear one particular pair? Wash them out every night?

Then they started demanding gummi bears BEFORE the game started -- in other words, one before I set the timer, and another after the timer rang. Then they started demanding TWO gummi bears at a time. I know I sound like a pushover, but I'm trying to be easygoing and undemanding (unlike them). Maybe easygoing-ness and bribery don't mix? I swear none of this was in the potty training books.

I had taken a few days off from tree watering because we got quite heavy rains last week, but on Thursday I started up again. And since I water three trees a day for 20 minutes each, I decided to use the same timer for the boos and their undies. I also decided that at the end of the hour of watering, we could also stop practicing with undies. So that made the morning a little easier. When I got them into their diapers and clothes to go to daycare, I said, "Pretty soon you'll be wearing underwear at daycare!" (There's only one other kid in their class still in diapers.) They said, "Nooooooooo!"

Thursday night after dinner, Rocket Boy went outside to work on the yard and Baby A wanted to help. I told him he had to wear undies. He agreed (same pair he'd been wearing all week), and happily raked along with Daddy.

This morning (Flex Friday), Rocket Boy went out to work on the yard again, and Baby A wanted to go out too, only this time he wanted to wear undies and shorts. Such a big boy! But a few minutes after he went outside, he was back, crying -- he'd wet himself. I quickly changed him and told him it was OK, no problem at all. He wore a diaper the rest of the morning (his request).

So, although we'll keep practicing, I think we've got a ways to go yet. Sorry, daycare ladies. Good thing I bought that big box of diapers last weekend.

Growing pains

My little boys are getting so big and old. Although I know this isn't an original thought, I have to say I find it terrifying when they develop a new skill, especially one I didn't mean for them to develop. Last week they learned how to use the mouse on my computer, which means that I can leave them watching a Sesame Street song video on YouTube, and when it ends, another video will begin, because they've moused over to it and CLICKED on it.

I used to be able to keep them off my computer by turning off the screen, but then they learned how to turn it back on again, and now with this new mousing ability I was afraid they'd never play with their toys again, just mess with my computer all morning. So I took action. Normally I just leave my computer on all the time, but now at night I turn it off. In the morning, when Baby B says to me "Let's do songs on the 'puter, Mommy," I say, "No, the computer is asleep. It needs its rest." This will work until they learn how to turn it on, which will be next week.

But for the last few days they've played with my CD/tape player instead of the computer. Previously they were not allowed to insert or remove CDs, because they kept scratching them, but this week I decided to give up and let it happen. I put my favorite CDs up on a high shelf and left the children's CDs on a low shelf. I was sure the player would be broken within 15 minutes, but it wasn't. They've gotten really good at using it, which kind of horrifies me. I mean, they're THREE. But I guess most three-year-olds these days can manipulate all sorts of electronic devices. This is just what it now means to be three.

I like most of their toys (if I didn't, I'd casually lose them), but my current favorite has got to be their train set. I like it more than they do, I think. I keep accidentally buying more trains for it (to Rocket Boy's horror). Last weekend we were in Lancaster and we dropped by ToysRUs to buy diapers -- but also to look at trains. I let each boy pick a new engine, plus we also got a station crossing thing, that has gates that go down and rings a bell and all that. So cool. So expensive. But when we were driving (90 miles) home, opening the trains in the car, we realized that stupid Mommy had bought an ELECTRIC James for Baby A but just a regular Edward for Baby B. Oh dear!

Well, there was no way to lose the electric James -- Baby A had fallen deeply in love. So on Monday I paid a visit to the Ridgecrest toystore, where I found an electric Thomas, and now Baby B has an electric train too. The electric trains pull all the other trains around -- we have already burned out one set of batteries (in what? four days?) -- and because the boos attach too many other engines and cars to them, the trains often fall off the tracks. It's very traumatic and exciting. Boos play with their trains every day anyway, but this week it's serious -- the first thing they head for when they get out of bed. I can actually work on something else -- do the dishes, read the paper -- while they negotiate their train business. Such big boys!

Of course, all the way home from daycare today Baby A was screaming at the top of his lungs, begging me to pull over so that I could PUT HIS TRAIN IN HIS SOCK (Baby B had successfully put HIS train in his sock and Baby A was jealous). So yeah, they're still babies. But not for long...