9.9 - 9.8 - 10.0 - 9.8 - 10.0

This story happened during the winter storm of 2002 in Ohio. I love the snow when I don't have to go to work, or anywhere else for that matter. This particular storm, dumped 20 inches of snow on us over a two day period and was also the main reason that I now have a snow blower! I also did not care for this SNOW!

It was a Saturday morning and I asked Tim, if he would help me shovel the drive for the umpteenth time and he said sure. We bundled ourselves up, which consisted of putting on our coats and gloves and started the task at hand. Like I said, this was the umpteenth time of shoveling and we had a good amount of snow, (about four feet) piled up on both sides of the drive.

Tim all of a sudden stops shoveling and says, "Hey Dad! can I jump off the house into the snow?" The conversation went like this:

"NO!"

"why not?"

"what will the neighbors say?"

"Who cares!"

I thought about all the fun I had with my brothers jumping into snow banks, and playing tackle football in the street while we were growing up in Akron. I told Tim, "What the heck, go have fun." "If your Mom sees you, or hears you, I had nothing to do with it" As he ran to the backyard to climb the antenna to get on the roof he said, "Thanks Dad! I Love You" and I said, "Don't KILL yourself!" I smiled as I saw him disappear into the backyard.

Now let me take a minute to explain something here. I have been married to the same woman for 23 years at this time, and she has never helped me shovel snow. This was going to be a new story, because as soon as Tim disappeared to the back, the front door opens and out walks Kathi, dressed like Randy in the movie "A CHRISTMAS STORY" you know "I CAN'T PUT MY ARMS DOWN" Randy? Well her she comes to help me shovel snow. She says "wheres Tim?" I said "he ran off somewhere" so she said "what do you want me to do?" I glanced over her shoulder and saw Tim on the roof with an expression on his face of "what do I do?" I handed Kathi the push broom and told her to push the snow right here, pointing at a GIANT snow pile while I glanced up at Tim. He nodded his head letting me know we were on the same page. Kathi began pushing the snow across the driveway, and when she got close to the pile, Tim did an AWESOME cannonball into the GIANT pile of snow. Kathi jumped out of her skin, and if you've never seen a kanipshion, you don't want to because they are not pretty! Tim came out of the snow pile and gave me a high five and that's when the lecture started.

"What kind of Father lets their Son jump off houses?" I told her "I did it when I was young!" and she said "AND LOOK HOW YOU TURNED OUT!" I kinda had a smirk on my face by then, because not to be outdone by his brother, Greg was now on the roof taking his clothes off. I said a silent prayer that he at least keep his boxers on. He did! He had his Smiley face boxers on and was freezing. Just about the time Kathi said "What are the neighbors going to say?" Greg did a perfect Swan dive into the snow. As Greg came out from under all that snow, he ran by me muttering "HOT SHOWER, HOT SHOWER" The neighbors began applauding and whistling their approval and Kathi said "I'm going in the house!" She has never helped me with the shoveling since. I Love my Boys!