A few things I learned after a play date with my cousins Max and Danny:
- Digital cameras, which are fine for shooting interiors, rocks, trees, mountains and people my age, don't have the speed required to capture a child.
- When playing with little boys from Ohio, one must be precise about equipment. Not a "bulldozer" but a loader. Not a "truck" but a combine.*
- Pushing two kids around in a wheelbarrow will wear you out long before it does them.
*Addendum: While playing, Max said that I could be "boss" and that I should tell them what to do. I suggested picking up all the leaves in the yard.
Consulting with mom later, I learned that "boss" is supposed to tell them to do any or all of the following:
- Transport the backhoe loader to the jobsite via flatbed trailer
- Offload the backhoe loader
- Spread new asphalt on the road
- Steamroll the asphalt down
- Transport the backhoe back to the yard to hose it down
- Pick up coffee and a donut at the yard to eat on the way to the next jobsite
- Transport the backhoe loader to the jobsite via flatbed trailer again
- Choose the front loader bucket or the back backhoe bucket to do the job
- Dig a foundation with the back bucket and dump debris in a dump truck
- Forget the backhoe loader then transport a crane to the stone shop to offload stone slabs from the truck
- Decide if we need to use the mobile crane or the tower crane
- Finalize the crane decision and offload all slabs in record time
- Start over.
"Note: All job assignments are given in a 'boss' voice behind a cupped hand i.e. walkie talkie," explained mom. "The worker is known as 'buddy.'"
Roger that.
