Vulcans

Last night we went to the science museum to see the movie 'Everest'. I am not climbing that. At least not without oxygen. Anyway, on the way home we went by a bar with the old Vulcan firetruck outside of it and a lot of people milling around. Eli apparently has some faint, fearful, memories of Vulcans at parades. Theo has yet to encounter them. We answered their questions about the who/why of the Vulcans, although answers are hard to come by on this particular topic. WHY are there vulcans anyway? I told them that they harass people at parades and write big greasy black V's on cheeks. I think I coined a new term, to be Vulcanised, to describe this action. In my mind it carries a similar, somewhat sinister connotation as the Balkanization of nearby nation-states....whatever that may mean. Then Jon and I got talking about something else. A couple minutes later I heard Eli telling Theo: 'Well, I used to be kind of scared of them, and then I ran into them at a playground, and I had my slingshot and I hit one of them and then they ran away, so I'm not scared of them anymore..." I asked who he was talking about and he answered with a shy giggle, "The Vulcans." So he has apparently vanquished them in his imagination. We got home and tossed them into bed (the boys, not the Vulcans). Theo was all riled up from the long evening and I went to settle him down a little bit. I lay next to him in bed while he chattered away. When I focused in on what he was saying, this is what I heard: "I told Eli I thought he should get a really really really long blue marker. Then he could stand a long way away and reach out and write a big blue E on the vulcan's cars. He could say he had 'Eli-i-tized' them! But he should probably only try to do this with a big group of friends. Not alone." It's true. If there's one thing that is certain in this life, never approach a group of vulcans alone. And always carry a long long long blue marker.