College Goals

Tonight I met with Little Kat and Momoko. Reviewed some goals I have given Little Kat. He needs to get health insurance by the time he is 26. It would be best if his employer provided it. Therefore, he needs a full time job/career. Easy way to make that happen is get a degree.

At this point, Little Kat may only earn an associates degree. For some fields that is enough. Little Kat needs to sign up for next semester. He did not want to take classes that have high fees. He also did not want a class that is only offered onsite at the main campus.

We reviewed Little Kat's transcript. It was bad, but not as bad as I had feared. He needs to get some good grades next semester to come out of probation. Currently he can only take 2 classes per semester (perhaps for his own good). Can't fail another class or he will be put into the dog house at school.

Little Kat and I filled out the community college work sheets to understand the cost of different courses (1, 2, and 3 credit courses). The more credits, the more tuition they charge you. Some classes have really high fees thought such as art and anything culinary. Time to get Little Kat's college career restarted.

Working Vacation

The family was scheduled to take Thanksgiving vacation out visiting grandma and grandpa. Little Kat left first. I drove him to the airport early one morning. It was so early he did not go to bed the night before. He was happy to find coffee in the airport. I then proceeded to drive to work at the office. Traffic was slow on the highway due to 2 lanes being close.


Kit Kat drove Momoko and I to the airport the next day. Kit Kat packed her car as she was spending the weekend over at her friend's house. Our initial gate had a plane that was broken. We got redirected to another gate but had to wait as a delayed plane with our stewardesses arrived. I rented a white Chevy Tahoe to haul the family around.


Spent a good deal of time working at Momoko's dad's house. Used a hedge trimer to chop down trees and shrubs on the fence blocking his irrigation system. Cleaned out a small shed. Hardest part was preventing us having to hang onto items so other family could check whether they wanted it. Took a full Chevy Tahoe to the local dump a few times.

Little Kat School Woes

Little Kat has previously been on probation at college for poor grades. It culminated in him being suspended this semester. That means he cannot take any classes. He was told he could try to come back the following semester. I told him as long as he did go back to school, nothing would change about his status in the household.

As the time for registering for next semester got close, I asked Little Kat if he knew about the deadlines. He did not. I gave him the dates and expected that he would register for the next semester. The registration at the college opened up. But Little Kat did not register.

I asked Little Kat why he did not register. He said he forgot or did not get around to doing it. I told him to figure out his classes and register. Turns out he could not register. He needs to get taken off from suspension. So I told him he had to go to the college and make that happen.

Little Kat went with Kit Kat to his college. They told him they don't start work on taking students off suspension until December. I gave Little Kat explicit instructions to arrive at the college the first work day in December and get this taken care of.

Little Kat seems to be in a rut. What he needs to do is start to get serious about college. He is going to have to get back into school next semester. There is no way he is going to sit around and miss any deadlines, not on my watch at least. I think he is at a crossroads. This is the last chance to get back on the college horse.

Repairing a Safety Issue

I noticed the bracket on the handrail at the top of the stair had broken. The thing snapped in half. This is dangerous at most of us hang on to the handrail tightly. Kit Kat has already cut her hand a few times on the sharp edges. The top of the handrail is no longer stable.

Was going to let the handyman fix this. But he takes a while to come. So I decided to do it myself. Tried to unscrew the base from the wall. The screws had a weird star pattern. I had some screwdrivers with this type of head. They were too small. Luckily Little Kat had a bit that matched the size.

Momoko drove me to Lowes. I went straight to hardware. A company rep took me directly to where these brackets were. It cost a couple bucks. Luckily these new screws had a Phillips screwdriver head. They were also shorter than the old ones (much easier to screw into the wall).

Momoko held the handrail in the air while I screwed in the base. Then I screwed the clamp into the handrail, connecting the top piece of the bracket to the handrail. Safety issue mitigated. No need for any rework. This thing feels secure now.