It’s March. Spring’s almost here. A friend pointed out on social media the other day that it’s hard for him to get excited about temps upwards of ninety, humidity, and mosquitoes, so I guess it’s all in your perspective, but as much as I love cool weather, I enjoy spring too. It makes me want to get outside, even though that always brings to mind the year I suggested, “Let’s bike to Charleston for spring break!” I mean, it sounded perfectly reasonable to me, but my family continues to give me grief about what a dumb idea that was. I guess, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt,” but I still think it sounds like a fun adventure.
The middle one was in college in Charleston and we all had working bicycles. I figured we could take backpacks and a couple of small tents and time our days to end up at campgrounds along the way. Fun, huh? Now, how long we’d have been able to stay once we finally got there and how we were going to get back was still a work in progress, but the idea had potential. It wasn’t a completely dumb idea. At least I didn’t think so.
The perceived dumbness of that idea didn’t even come close to the one I’d had for my seventh grade science project. Donna Driskoll and I made an electric hot dog cooker. We cut one end off an extension cord, shaved the wires near the cut, split them apart and wrapped each one around a nail. We inserted one of the nails into each end of a hot dog wiener and plugged it in. There was a loud boom, the hot dog exploded, and every light in that wing of the building went out…for the rest of the day. The good thing to come out of it is that I now have a healthy respect for electricity. Took a long time for Mrs. Walton to be able to look at me without her lips being set in a hard line but I think she came to my wedding, and I think she hugged me, so she must have gotten over it. Somewhat. Wouldn’t recommend trying that one at home. Just sayin’.
I’m not the only one in our household who has had a dumb idea or two, though. I remember the time Kent and I invited some friends over for dinner. We’d had some trouble with yellow jackets that spring. The guys were standing out beside the front corner of our house and noticed a yellow jacket fly into a hole in the ground near the shrubbery. Kent got the idea that they should pour gasoline down the hole and stick a match to it. I have no doubt he would have done it, having had my eyebrows singed off by another of his bright ideas while we were dating. Thankfully, the wives overheard what they were thinking of doing and put a stop to it before they blew our house up. No one can accuse me of being the only one to have dumb ideas in our family.
Then, there was that spring day around baseball season when the kids were in elementary school. We got into our van, all fastened our seat belts, and I reached forward to turn on the ignition. To my surprise, there was a small chip, apparently from a rock, in the bottom left hand corner of the windshield and a crack beginning to make its way across the glass. I knew it hadn’t been cracked when I parked the van the day before.
“Has anyone been throwing rocks?” I asked, turning around to look at the kids. The middle one’s eyes were like saucers and the blood was quickly draining from his face. “I couldn’t figure out where it had hit,” he confessed weakly. “Dad and I were throwing tennis balls over the house and I wanted to see if I could throw a rock over it.” Turned out, it had been Kent’s idea and that they’d had great fun. He just didn’t happen to caution Middle One not to throw anything besides tennis balls over. So, Dad got the blame for giving him the dumb idea in the first place and we decided his terror at realizing what he’d done, along with his honesty and quick confession was consequence enough. It was an expensive lesson. Now that he’s grown, I have to admit it was an amazing throw. Back to front, over the house, opposite corners. Not bad.
As of this writing, I still haven’t convinced anyone in the family to bike to Charleston for spring break. Also, as you might imagine, there have been plenty of other dumb ideas contemplated around this time of year (spring) in the Smith household. But, while there have been some crazy ideas, there have also been some great ones: camping trips, hikes, cookouts, ball games. Spring has always been a time for us to get outside and do something fun.
I hope you and your family are planning some adventures together this spring, even if it’s just to get into the park or back yard and soak up some sun and fresh air. Enjoy the time together. And don’t forget the bug spray, those mosquitoes are out for blood.
Blessings!
