Fathers Day 2010
On one hand, Fathers Day is not unlike many of my Sundays but that’s because I have a selfless wife and a selfish self. On the other hand, Fathers Day is unique in that Kerri feels less like jamming an ice pick in my ear because she has slightly less justification (or at least, she’s less overt about that ice pick urge). This little memory dump is about both a Sunday and a Fathers Day which, combined, act as a force-field against ice picks. Enough about ice picks.
Many of my pals are firemen and I was lucky enough to go to the LACoFD Annual Fathers Day Picnic along with Kerri and the offspring. If you haven’t partied with cops or firefighters, you haven’t lived. If you have, you’re lucky to be alive but that goes down an entirely different rabbit hole. Let’s leave the cops out of the rest of this because that gets dangerous on several levels. But focusing on firemen: They balance great fun with family friendliness; Kids are the focus and parents only get nutty in how extravagant they get with making kid fun. Does that make sense? Beer was free.
Couple of things I remember:
Abby and I did the egg toss together. Made it through 4 tosses before Abs ended up with egg on the toes.
Kirk and I won the egg toss 15 or 20 years ago but since Abby and I did that one, we settled on the water-balloon toss as partners. Huge balloons this year (like a 5 pound baby!). We were dialed — Set to win this bitch — And Kirk gave me a great toss on the 3rd turn. I caught it in a nest fit for a condor. And then I lost my train of thought for a micro-second and let it tumble out of my hands and it burst, along with Kirk’s dream for a kinda-repeat-ish thing. Darnit! My bad Kirk.:(
Abby and I did the paddle boats while Kerri and Ben did the ferris wheel.
Ladder truck from 125s spewed foam all over the place so me and Abby jammed down there. Kerri and Ben were stuck on the top of the ferris wheel and had to watch for a good long time before they could get into the mess.
Kirk was walking with this older boy held up through the foam but one crazy kid hid himself under the foam with a straw to breathe from and Kirk tripped over him hard. He did the “Dad thing” and turned as he was falling so he would absorb the impact on his shoulders rather than landing on his boy (+1 Kirk) but in the end I’m not sure who was more stunned. It was funny from the outside but a little dicey-looking for a moment. The kid with the straw was a-okay (this is a firemen’s picnic for Pete’s sake!).
Bought a few shirts for the family, neighbors and myself but at different times during the day. Seems like one of our bags got mixed up with someone else’s and while the family has their shirts, mine and neighbor Matt’s are gone. And Darin ended up with two (because of sizing).
I can either not recall any other details or am unwilling to divulge here. Probably a little bit of both. Beer was free.
Great Fathers Day for me. Thanks LACoFD for putting it on and Kerri for making it all happen!