The Two Best Birthday Presents: --------------------------- Happy Birthday To Me/ Im now 43/ Last night, my girls left us/ and slept under a tree. Well, not a tree exactly. They slept in a snow dome that they made themselves. We live in North Bay, and like everywhere else, climate change is real and has manifested in weird ways. During our March Break vacation in Arizona, the park rangers at Grand Canyon grimly informed us that instead of their typical 5 feet of snow accumulation, theyve had two snowfalls totalling less than an inch. Stay tuned, but their prediction is that they are going to have the worst wildfire season ever in the park. Theres certainly no end in sight to their record breaking drought. Up here, though, its not drought but some kind of odd prolongation of winter that people are buzzing about. Maybe its all just availability bias, but many of our acquaintances have commented that theyve never seen a NotSpring like this in the time theyve lived here. As the girls were prepping up their snow dome, our neighbour down the street (who also has two daughters, all grown up now...) was saying exactly that. He was also saying how he remembered snow forts as a kid, yet cant remember the last time he saw his kids inside one. Almost on cue, then, a silver four-door sped by past the driveway and Kens words as he waved at the driver were, They dont ask anymore, you know, because then I cant say No. We got the preps ready for the night in the snow dome that they had basically demanded. Important was the fact that parents werent ALLOWED in the dome overnight (solving my issue that Sheryl cant fit through the entrance at all, and I only managed it a few times while checking the structural integrity and in one case, I think I had to sublux out my shoulder to do it). I had gotten them to pack Emergency Kits of things they might need during the night, but I let them choose the contents. Both brought water bottles, a stuffy and flashlights. The one who gets nosebleeds brought a Kleenex. Both brought Oreos. I lugged out every heavy blanket in arms reach, and their two sleeping bags (Thanks Amanda Yates for the best Xmas presents ! BTW, one of the ones we have right now is actually Emilys). I gave them slightly better than even odds of lasting the night. Its the first day of spring. Its -7°C tonight. And theyve never overnighted (or even ASKED) outside alone before. At least they both remembered to pee. See the video for how I left them. I left out the part where I read them The Gruffalo as a bedtime story. Thats private. I played some Mass Effect 3 for two hours and then checked on them for the first time as I had promised to them (and mostly, to Sheryl Riley). Sound asleep. Then I went to bed for the night with an alarm set for 0315. Heard the door click open at 0130 and it was Abby, all cheerful and business about needing to pee, and cold despite the blankets, as shes still quite little. I gathered her into my bed, warmed her up and we talked about how much fun she had had. Then I tucked her into her own bed without asking her if she cared to go back out...as I certainly wouldnt have gone myself given the choice. Her parting words before passing out were, Youre the warmest dada... The door clicked open again at 0645, again before the next alarm I had set. Fionna was in. Cheerful, and needing to pee. What IS it about the cold and bladders? In any case, she jumped in to cuddle and then proceeded, for 20 minutes while absorbing Big Spoons heat, to tell me all the exciting things that had happened during the night. One of her observations is that Oreos ARE, in fact, good survival food, and help you go back to sleep at 0140 after a rousing discussion with your cold sister. And her commentary was, Dad....how did you get to be so WARM??. Were downstairs right now, and theres bacon over every flat surface as a breakfast birthday present from Sheryl. Dont ANYONE be giving me any other presents than this. youtube/watch?v=yQOH6i9Yf0I
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 11:30:02 +0000
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