Oct 15 2007
Make Mine Fire Engine Red
I’m pretty sure this was an accident.
(click for a closer, finer look at the evidence)
About a week ago Saturday, Benjamin and I went to Home Depot to build a firetruck. You know, the kind that’s little and holds crayons in its back end?
Cloudy skies started us off just right. We climbed out of the minivan to the sound of a dozen hammers pounding nails in 12 different rhythms, bouncing makeshift tables of particle board supported by white buckets.
We grabbed our fire truck kit from a woman wedged between her chair and a folding table. The hammers and glue awaiting us shook in time with the nail-pounding cacophony. Benjamin took a few whacks at a nail before deciding to watch me work.
Bless his heart, the hair will grow out.
Rainy skies hurried us to a somewhat haphazard finish, a short break in the minivan, and our pitching in to help employees move the operation to a covered area. After we bought a pint of paint Benjamin picked out for the truck (suckers), and a 99-cent can of black spray-paint to use as primer (cheapskate), we headed home.
Infer what you must from the pictures that follow, and by all means click to see them bigger. I know I would.
The two holes in the hood would be from when I first nailed that piece on upside-down.
Hey, we were getting soaked.
For the rest of the story and the finished product, you’ll just have to wait click here.
*ROTFLMAO* The product is almost completely made FOR you, and you put two holes in the wrong piece of wood? *LOL* Too funny.
Looks like Ben had a great time… though I’ve never heard of the Deep doing that for kids around here. Great concept.
Is the whole Home Depot Kids thing new…or am I just noticing it. We went to our Botanical Gardens last weekend and the Depot had a big tent set up where kids could make…birdhouses I tihink. Norah was a bit young, so I didn’t get too close. But it seems they’re really hitting the youth market these days.
The mirror picture is cool. I love Ben’s face in it. I ave no idea what the reflector is, though. It looks like a bathroom behind you…but surely you didn’t whip that camera out in the men’s room.
Nice cliffhanger, too. I’ll be here for the reveal.
So cute.
Thanks for sharing that story and the pictures.
Cas
Moksha, if there’s one thing for which Mark can be counted on, it’s whipping it out in the bathroom. Was that the hand dryer?
I like Ben’s bucket stacking abilities. Very much in line with my sons’ lining up tendencies. To bring order from chaos, that is the directive of this next generation.
Nah, I don’t think it’s a dryer. I’m actually leaning toward the auto-flush mechanism on a urinal. Would he? Could he? In a public bathroom? Please tell me I’m wrong, Mark
Ah, yeah, I think you’re right.
That does look like a urinal thingie. When it comes to photographical opportunities, that man’s inhibitions go right down the drain. You remember that last Blue Straw episode, don’t you?
Now I’m curious about that guy approaching from behind. No doubt about to yank the camera from Mark’s hands.
Pissing pissing people off is pretty problematic
When taking pictures of reflective flushers automatic.
And yeah…what ever happened to Blue Straw? We were promised grand adventures. I guess he just doesn’t need his fans now that he’s got out of that drain. Apparently all the fame went to his little plastic head.
I’m surprised nobody’s commented on Ben’s pushing down that little girl.
I considered the reflection picture for a Wordless Wednesday post, but forgot about it while writing this up last night. Bummer. Would have been a good one.
The answer is, yes, Ben was standing at a urinal, and that is the automatic flusher reflecting our images. The legs in the background are mine. They look very far away because I reached around Ben with the camera in macro mode, and due to the shape of the reflective surface.
Warning: Idiots with cameras may be closer than they appear.
Nobody else was in there, and my camera certainly would have been firmly in my pocket had we any company.
As far as my limits on where I’ll take a picture? I once shot a picture while sitting on a port-a-potty seat. The way the light came in through the plastic roof vents was just cool.
Dave and Moksha - Yep, it’s a cool thing they’re doing, I think. Free kits to build cool things for your kids, and no severed fingers from sawing wood into the shapes needed!
Simon and Moksha - Blue Straw will return.
wow, thanks for sharing that!! Have a great WW.
I keep forgetting about saturdays at home depot! we have to check it out this week!
If I had made it in time, I would have been the one to comment on the little girl push-down. At least it wasn’t a tackle, which is usually Ben and LC’s mode of physical activity. In fact, just last night I was watching “The Contender,” because you know I’m a boxing freak, and LC proceeded to give us this little bit of insight while we were trying to get him to go to bed instead of watching it with me.
“Well, ya know…I love boxing. I just love it. Ben and I played boxing on Mark and Shannon’s bed. Ben punched me in the face, and I shoved him into those doors, and then we both cried. You remember that daddy?”
“Not particularly, but it sounds about right.”
The Home Depot thing is a REALLY cool idea. How many parents get there and think…”Oh yeah, I need this, that, and the other thing while I’m here…” Ingenious. Plus they probably got a good $7-8 out of you for the kit, paint, etc. “Might as well get light bulbs…they’re on sale!”