Monday, April 27, 2009

So I bought my son a Hummer

When you raise your kid like this:




There's a good chance he'll end up like this:


Actually that first picture is of Eric, but it's too good not to share. The rest of the pictures are of my first born son, Peter. Yes, by naming our son Peter Peterson, Christine and I made sure he had a head start on learning to write both his first and last names, which gave him a big jump over his peers.

Obviously, Peter inherited a great fashion sense from his old man, but he also got a lot of smarts from his mom. Last spring he graduated with dual degrees in Chemistry and Physics from Eastern Washington University and now he's teaching and doing grad work in Ice Physics at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks. Like the hero of a Zelazny novel, Peter has figured out that if he just stays in school forever, he won't have to pay back that massive student loan debt he's wracked up because his parents are poor hippies.

Christine and I are very proud of both our boys (I should brag about Eric in some other post) and I wanted to get Peter something that would be useful for him in the wilds of Alaska. And when I came across this killer deal on a barely used Hummer, I just had to get it for him. You know Alaska is the great frontier, wild country. Bears, glaciers, Sarah Palin and all that. A man needs a rugged vehicle to get around.

So I bought my son a Hummer.

I'm sure it's going to cost more to ship it up there than I paid for it. It's a good thing it isn't one of the really big ones like this:


It's the one that looks like this:

Now I have to find a box and figure out the best way to ship it north.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent

10 comments:

  1. Summer is nearly here, so isn't it obvious how to get it to him?

    Unfold it again ... sit on it ... and pedal. Just keep an eye out for bears on the way. How far did you say it was to Alaska?

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  2. Congrats!

    This would have been easier to ship:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/56062272@N00/3305472588/

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  3. Brian Benson6:49 AM

    In the first photo, is that by any chance a Radio Shack TRS-80?

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  4. Karl,

    The problem isn't distance, it's time. I'd love to be able to leave the shop long enough to ride to Alaska (I'd have to figure out how to get back, however!) but summer is the super busy time at Bike Works. And Peter can't shake the time loose from school to fly down here and ride back up there. It looks like the bike is going up there in a box.

    Kent

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  5. Brian,

    The laptop in the first photo is an Olivetti M10, a close cousin of the Radio Shack Model 100. Both machines were made by Kyocera. The BASIC burned into the ROM of those machines was written by some guy named Bill Gates. I wonder what ever happened to him?

    Kent

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  6. I heard somewhere that he is poor and lonely. Nerds...

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  7. I'll admit you had me there for a while. I was thinking Kent has lost his mind.

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  8. Since I appear to be among geek friends... the computer in photo 3 wouldn't happen to be a 1st generation 256k Mac hooked to a dot-matrix (of course) ImageWriter? And did you also have the giant cube bag that made it "portable" (using the term loosely, since a lead Dahon would probably pack down smaller and lighter)?

    My Gen-1 Mac was upgraded to 512k, and man, did I think I was the STUFF.
    [gramps mode on] And now, these dang kids carry MEGABYTES in their POCKETS! Why in MY day, we DREAMED of having megabytes![gramps mode off]

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  9. Jim Laudolff8:36 PM

    Depending on if my company stays in business, I could have a lot of free time this summer and could bungee that baby to Bob and pedal it up there. Not sure what to hope for.

    By the way, has your love for bikes and the commitment to the car-free life rubbed off on the Peterson sons?

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  10. mike c9:23 AM

    (I'd have to figure out how to get back, however!)C'mon -- you can't tell me that the madly inventive mind who engineered the modern-day retro-direct (and countless Coroplast contraptions) couldn't also come up with a way to carry that little Dahon on a Hummer?!? :-)

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