My kids do cool stuff

Yesterday I left my house before the sun came up. If you've been paying attention to me that's not really unusual. In the summer I do that a lot to avoid running in the heat,or to get to a race that's not around the corner.But it was really unusual to do it with my son. Nicholas is not a morning person.But yesterday we left the house together at 6:30 in the morning.It wasn't only 6:30 in the morning but it was 27°.

Nicholas currently works as a paraprofessional at the high school he went to. He graduated from the Harbor School on Governors Island. When he was there he led a research team that studied how different concretes affect the sea life around the perimeter of Manhattan Island. He was eventually paid for this research by the companies that are going to be rebuilding the seawall around Manhattan Island. Then he graduated college with a degree in the environmental sciences.

Every Wednesday morning he walks about a mile to the perimeter of the Gowanus Canal and takes a sample of water out of it. Yesterday I joined him and I took these pictures as he climbed over the fence and then reach down to get some water out of the canal.The tide was really low so he couldn't reach the water from the floating pier and I was really glad he was wearing a life preserver as he was so close to that Super Fund site. I told him I read that the canal is made out of 90% guns and 10% dead bodies. He told me that there's a little water there and he's going to get a sample of it.

I really don't understand what they're doing with the water, but I do know a few things. I know that you can do whatever you want when you wear a reflective vest. And if it will keep you floating i can do whatever you want twice. I know that Nicholas's workmates told him he was crazy for doing this once a week.But I also know he's into science and into going to graduate school. I also know from 23 years of experience that my son is not a morning person. Yeah he told me he was going to be walking out of the house at 6:30 a.m. and we walked out of the house at 6:30 a.m.

And then there's my daughter who also has a cool job. While it's adjacent to the water it really has nothing to do with the water. They operate the carousel underneath the Brooklyn Bridge.Sometimes I think the coolest thing that happens to me is that when my daughter comes to visit I get to have the key to the carousel in my house. And if you're interested Sabrina can cut and color your hair