December 18, 2006 - Monday
Ian's father broke his collar bone in a bicycle accident a few weeks ago and, in the course of hanging around after Harry's birthday party on Saturday, happened to mention that he was going to have to buy some firewood for Christmas instead of chopping it himself as he would have done. He said he had some already cut logs that were ready for splitting, but that he obviously wasn't going to be able to do it given his arm. He's a nice guy and it got me thinking that maybe I should just split the logs for him. I wouldn't want to ask, because he'd surely say, "no, it's no problem." But chopping enough logs for a fire Christmas day would probably take me no more than ten minutes or so. I figured that I could do it after Ian got on the bus in the morning and his mom went for her morning walk. The only trouble would be that, while Harry would have gotten on the bus by then, Jeremy would still be at home.

I was pretty sure that Jeremy remembers when Harry stayed home alone for a brief time when he was sick and I thought that maybe Jeremy wouldn't mind that same sense of independence. After all, in this case I'd be right across the street and able to see the house. It would literally be no different than if Jeremy were inside and I were out chopping our own logs or mowing the lawn. When I brought up the idea, Jeremy was a little apprehensive, so I offered to have him come with me. But I told him what I'd be doing, and why (to help out Ian's dad) and that it he'd just have to stand around outside, and he decided he would rather just stay at our house. And so that's what we did.

It turns out that I didn't chop any wood after all. I went across the street with my splitting maul after I saw Ian's bus (different than Harry's bus!?!) and his mother leave for her walk, but I didn't see any logs except the few that were instead on the fire irons. I walked around there house a couple of times to be sure, then went back home. "That didn't take long," said Jeremy. I think he had been watching out the window, but I don't think it was because he was nervous. In fact, I think his reaction might have been more indicative of disappointment that I was back so quickly. But whatever it was, I think he was pretty cool about it.


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