2:39 pm - Tuesday, Jul. 20, 2004
Boy's summer
If you are little, summer is a halcyon stretch of unfettered play time... for parents it's a pain in the ass. How are you going to find something to do and someone to care for your kid for like, thirteen weeks!?!? Boy is doing something different every week. Two weeks he's spent here at work, two weeks at summer camp, two will be with Simon while he's on break, and one with his Grandparents.

He came here to work in the end of May or beginning of June, I forget, but anyway, I took him on a tour of the building just for fun. I showed him the labs, and the room where we do production, and then I thought I'd take him up on the roof. I thought he'd be awed by the height and all the machinery up there. He sure was. Then I turn around to go inside and realize that I'd let the self locking door close. We were locked out. Boy grasped the gravity of the situation in a heartbeat, grabbed ahold of it and let it drag him out of the realm of logic. He was in tears, convinced we were doomed, DOOMED, to spend our few remaining days on the roof.

In the most comforting way I could, I told him I would get us off the roof, but I couldn't start doing that if I was busy comforting him. This shut him up. Then I explored my options. I could jump off. This was not my favorite. I could get somone's attention. I liked this better, but it proved to be nearly impossible, and certainly it would take longer than Boy's sanity could handle. I decided I would climb down a tree in the courtyard and bang on a window till somebody let me in. Boy was unconvinced that this was a good option. It was the last that I oculd think of, so I went for it.

First I took off my shoes and threw them down. Then I sort of jumped out to the trunk. That part was kinda fun, but I scraped the skin right off the top of my foot. I shimmied down part way- right into a Y in the trunk- and got my knee stuck. This required me shimmying up, which is way harder. I managed. Now I was stuck, because if I shimmied back down again I'd shimmy right back into the Y. So I decide to drop out of the tree onto my keister.

This I do. Right in front of the window of our tenants. What was their reaction? Don't know- I decided to pretend they didn't exist. I hollered up to Boy that I had made it, and I knocked on the door of the courtyard until my boss answered. She was surprised and amused (Ain't she a great boss?) Then I RAN throught the building and up the stairs and open the door for one very sad and scared little Boy. It's a funny story, but I can't help but wonder if he's traumatized.