Barefoot in the Snow

There is something about being a guy that means that we do things that women just do not seem to understand. I think going barefooted in the snow must be one because Judy just stares at me and shakes her head looking at me like I have suddenly lost all common sense and started growing horns out of my head as well.

I guess it is my Swedish blood and the cold does not bother me or maybe it means that I am the ultimate in lazy and I really do not want to take the time to put shoes on. I would like to make the point that while I do not wear shoes all the time that I am not a hippie because my feet are clean.

The first time that I remember going barefooted in the snow I was a child and was sick. I stayed at home from church with my younger brother who was sick as well. We were completely bored out of our heads and had my Dad set up a box on a stick with some bird seed underneath to see if we could catch a bird that came to eat.

The snow had piled up and it was really not a problem because the birds were hungry. We sat quietly by the window with the string edged through the door. When we could not wait any longer we yanked the string and as expected the birds all flew away.

Now, my father should have said that once the trap had been pulled that was it but he seems to have forgotten that one part. We reset the trap several times with the same results, the box would fall and the birds would scatter. This made my brother and I discuss what was wrong with the plan. Being boys who always solved whatever came our way. We realized that air resistance was helping to push the birds out from underneath the box.

We reset the trap (barefooted by the way) only we used a laundry basket and piled bricks on top to get the thing to fall with enough speed. It solved the problems we had before, no air resistance and enough weight to get the thing to fall.

Needless to say we caught 8-9 birds under the basket. We danced around the house high fiving one another until we realized that we now had a ton of birds but that the moment that we lifted the basket they would all fly away. Once again the brains that only a boy has we were able to come up with a solution, we would slide a piece of card board under the basket and bring our prizes inside.

The problem was that we had no cardboard but there was a small store a several blocks away so out the door we ran in pajama bottoms, t-shirts and no shoes. We did not feel the ice and snow between our toes because we were on a mission and could not let something stupid like shoes get in the way.

We finally got home with the cardboard and slid it under the basket. The plan worked perfect, we had the birds in the house and not a one got away. We proudly took them to our bedroom and what happened next is up for debate. Since this is my blog I am blaming my brother 100%, he knocked over the basket and the house now was filled with angry birds.

We started to panic and opened all the windows in the house and went around removing the screens so they could escape. Before we had succeeded at debirding the house my parents showed back up. They found my brother and I soaked from running barefooted, the windows all open, the screens removed and birds flying around the house....... needless to say they were not pleased.

If you know my parents then sometime you need to thank them for not becoming childless that day. I am not sure how I would handle it but thankfully my daughter is just that, a daughter. She is one of those people who just stares at me and thinks I am crazy.