Daddy Duty: One year later, 'Cars' still rule screen time
I was sitting on my couch Saturday morning watching Isabella play, and I started to think about what I’d write about this week.
Sometimes, coming up with ideas can be tough.
This is my 203rd Daddy Duty column, and this past week was a fairly quiet week, so subject matter doesn’t always present itself in a timely manner.
I then started to wonder what I wrote about at this time last year.
So I says to myself: “self,” I says, “why don’t you see what was going on last year and see how different it is from this year.”
I searched back in my archive and found the column that was written during this week in 2017.
The headline: “Feeling Run Down by Disney’s ‘Cars’.”
Hmmm. My life really isn’t that much different from last year.
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Sure, Isabella is talking more, and she has a lot more personality, but situationally, it’s amazing that “Cars” is still a constant.
In fact, as I sat on the couch contemplating like “Socrates” on what my next literary masterpiece will be about, Isabella was watching “Cars 2.”
We also have “Cars,” “Cars 3” and “Planes,” so at least the rotation includes four movies.
I hear there’s a “Planes 2,” so the good people at amazon.com might be hearing from me this week after I get paid.
In reading my 2017 column, it said I had seen the first “Cars” movie at least 50 times in the few weeks after she had discovered it at Florida Hospital following surgery to remove a tumor from her spine.
I couldn’t even attempt a guess at how many times I’ve seen that movie now.
I don’t think 500 would be an exaggeration. It might be that many for the second movie, and about 100 times for the third one, which she got for Christmas.
She knows the lines to all the movies, and I seriously believe it’s why her speech is developing so well. She repeats the lines all the time.
She also sings along with the songs. During the credits to “Planes,” when a Lenny Kravitz song plays, she turns on her karaoke boom box toy and sings along.
No, apparently my life situation hasn’t changed much over the past year.
I did, out of curiosity, look back at my column from this time in 2016, and it was about weekend naps.
It said how much I enjoyed getting an hour snoozer in the middle of a Saturday afternoon while Isabella napped.
I miss those days. Now that Isabella is almost 4, she doesn’t nap on the weekends any more.
I can only wonder what Isabella will be like in mid-April 2019. She’ll be wrapping up her VPK year and readying for kindergarten.
Time sure is flying. I guess I should cherish every moment, even if all of my memories have the echoes of lines from “Cars” movies repeating in the background.
I’m sure there will come a time in life where I’ll really miss these days and those movies ... Just not any time soon!
Contact Walters at 321-242-3681
or twalters@floridatoday.com.