Don't Forget the Duct Tape!

That was what I heard Faith yell across the yard as Isaac headed into the house.  He was scurrying quickly along with his head down.  I was in the kitchen so I intercepted him.

“What are you and Faith working on out there?”

“Umm, why?  What did you hear?” He replied warily.

“Just wondering what you came up with to do.”

“Well, we were playing toss the shovel, but we had to stop.”

“Toss the shovel?  The sand shovel, right?  Not the snow shovel or the metal shovel.”

“Yep.  But we quit that game.”

“Why?” I asked, internally cringing at what else they may be inspired to do.

“It got stuck in the tree.  We need rope, purple duct tape and a ladder.  Faith is in the yard making sharp sticks.”

“Are you trying to get the shovel down?” I asked with alarm over the sharp sticks part.

“Nope.”

“Oh.  What are you plan- how about we just try to get down the shovel?”  I figure climbing the tree is safer than whatever it was they were going to do that required sharp sticks and a ladder.  And they can not have my purple duct tape.  Red maybe, or yellow.  Not the purple.  Some things have to be sacred.

“Can’t.  I broke the lowest branch falling out of the tree yesterday.”

“You fell out of the tree yesterday?”

“Well, I didn’t fall, just my cape got stuck up when I came down.  And then the branch broke off so I got free.”

“Hmm… How about we don’t climb trees wearing capes anymore.”

“Batman does it.”

“Ok, if your name is Bruce Wayne and you do not need to worry about health insurance or new clothes or being sued by the neighbors when you destroy their property, then you can climb a tree with a cape.”

“Ok, I will do that on Tuesday.”  (Really, where does this come from…)

“So let’s get that shovel.  You need something to step on to get to the lower branch.”

“I will have Faith be a step stool.”

“Noooo, how about just dragging over the toddler slide and using the ladder for that?”

“Ok.  Hey, can we still have the rope?”  I shake my head no.  “How about that duct tape?”  Another shake of my head.

 “Well, there goes my next idea…”
And I didn’t want to ask.