walkingman

One of the associates in my office can best be described as a cold weather nut. When the temperature outside dips into the sub zeros he loves to participate in extreme outdoor activities. He has been bugging me to accompany him on one of these adventures. This weekend against my better judgment the boys and I met him on a frozen lake to go ice fishing. He assured me that he had all the requisite gear and a shelter to provide us with some protection from the cold. I can attest that he had all the requisite gear as he had Santas sleigh filled to the brim with tons of gear. He told me that he needed the sled to pull his massive gas powered augur over the ice. We helped him pull the sled to the perfect spot and began the process of unloading. He fired up the augur and went to work on the ice. Soon we had lines in the water and were ice fishing. We then sat around and waited and waited. Being the gracious host he went to work setting up the shelter which appeared to be nothing more than several tarps duct taped together on a couple poles. It was definitely not high tech nor a big expense. As the wind blew the structure fluttered and seemed ready for takeoff. He offloaded a propane heater from the sled and cranked it up as well. It gave off tremendous heat to one side of your body while the other side just froze. The boys soon grew bored, frozen, or a combination of the two and begged to go escape this frozen hell. This gave me a perfect excuse to flee this hell as well. I do enjoy being out in the winter weather but sitting on a frozen lake during a snow storm waiting for a fish to bite just did not cut it for me.
We raced to the car and thanked the inventor of the car heater immensely. It was a pleasure to crank that baby up and just enjoy heat pouring out of every vent. We got home, took hot showers and then grabbed the entire family headed out to the mall for shopping and a movie. This year we had one nursing home resident and two children for whom we were Secret Santas. The elderly man was easy as he had a list of personal care items he wanted. The teenage girl just wanted a Wii game while the young boy wanted toys. Since the girl did not specify a title we bought her one at Wal-Mart along with a $20 gift card and included the gift receipt. We figured she could then return it and select a different if she wanted. The boy was easier as my sons bought what they thought he would like. We included the gift receipts for his gifts though in case he wanted to return and select something else. I think my kids had more fun shopping for these three people than they did shopping for anyone else. We wrapped the presents on Sunday and dropped them off to the respective agency. After shopping we went to see Narnia and had a great time. I think all the activities of the day caught up with the boys on the way home as they both fell asleep on the way. But once we hit the driveway they woke up in tandem and asked what was for dinner. Thankfully Mom had made vegetable soup and cornbread while we were out ice fishing. She warmed it up for us and it really hit the spot.