Dawn Is Me

NOTE TO SELF: Next beginning swim class at the Sidney Pool starts on August 8th.

Register Ricky for swim lessons before he falls into the river uninstructed.

From the kitchen, where I was busy conversing with ground beef, I heard an altercation taking place in Gino’s office between him and his youngest child. So, being the meddling type that I am, I excused myself to the beef and went to investigate.

I found Gino emphatically telling Ricky that he didn’t have the money and Ricky standing next to his desk with his I’m-going-to-cry-and-make-you-feel-bad face on.

Me: Ricky, how is Daddy supposed to register the game for you if he doesn’t have the money?

Ricky: I don’t know. [whimper]

Me: Well, why can’t you wait a couple of days until he does have the money?

Ricky: Every time I try to play, I can’t finish the game.

Me: Okay, since you won’t wait for Daddy, why don’t you pay the $14.95 to register the game?

Ricky (stops whimpering to frown in thought): I don’t know how to get the money out of my bank account.

Me: No, you’re not allowed to get the money out of your bank account.

Ricky: I know! I’ll change the cat litter to get the money.

Me: And how long would that take?

Ricky: I don’t know, about 14 days, maybe as much as 15 days.

Me: So you’re willing to wait two weeks to get the money?

Ricky: Yeah!

Me: And you know, you can’t change the cat litter every day. That would be a waste of cat litter. So it wouldn’t be 15 days, it would be 15 weeks. That’s almost four months.

Ricky: Okay!

Me: So let me get this straight. If Daddy is going to pay for it, you don’t want to have to wait two days but if you pay for it yourself, you’re willing to wait four months?

Ricky (shrugging): Sure.

… left his shoe in a tree.

Don’t ask.