Parent of the year

I had one of those 'parent of the year' moments today.  We were outside in the backyard for a good portion of the afternoon.  It started with me on the roof shovelling some snow off, then doing some snowblowing and shovelling off the trampoline (which we didn't get taken down before the snow fell last fall.  When I was on the roof I realised how much snow was on it and figured that probably wasn't good).  Julie was doing some chipping and trying to find the driveway under layers of packed snow and ice.  Eventually we were all outside and the kids were playing. 

I'm not sure if anyone has seen the show 'Idiot Abroad', but Julie and I have been watching it lately.  The basic premise is that Ricky Gervais sends his friend (the idiot) around the world to see magnificent sights.  There are some bumps in the road along the way to make for some more entertaining TV.  One show, Carl (the idiot) was going to Alaska to watch whales.  Part of the experience meant visiting an Inuit village and going on a pleasure hike with a guide through waist-high snow all day.  He was not impressed.  Anyway, as Jorja was leading Ginny through the mountains of snow in our backyard today, I couldn't help but think of this show.  We have an area for RV parking (which loosely translates to weed-growth area) between the garage and the neighbour's yard.  They went exploring back there and they were both up to their waists in snow.  It was rather slow going.  I was supervising CeCe on the play center and watching them. 

It was fairly mild today, so I thought I would see if a snowman was in the cards.  I picked up and handful and it wasn't quite warm enough.  I'm not sure what the Inuit word for this type of snow is, but I think it would translate as 'not quite soft enough to make a snowman, but if you pack it hard enough, you can make a snowball.'  So I made a snowball, which was packed pretty hard.  I looked over at the two explorers by the garage and thought I would lob the snowball in their general direction.  I thought maybe they would look up and get a kick out of it or wonder where it came from.  That's how I had things played out in my head.  What actually happened was a little different.

I lobbed the snowball toward them, Jorja looked up and it hit her square in the face.  She went down like she had been shot and started howling.  I ran over to her through the really deep snow, filled my boots, but kept on.  I got to her and wiped the snow from her poor shocked and wounded face.  She was still crying pretty good and said it hurt to open her eye.  I got her into the house and calmed down and explained myself to Julie who wondered what all the commotion was about.  It was quite the ordeal.  But this evening, she had no lasting damage and had forgiven me for my error in judgement.  Sheesh.  Who is the idiot now?  Later.