toys

Yes. It's spring again.  In my neck of the woods, thats what we call our area here, we got a brief taste of warm weather over the weekend.  I had the good fortune to have taken a 3 day weekend.  Which of course meant that I was drooling over the chance at getting out some of my warm weather toys. 

So I did.  I drained the crappy fuel out of the moped, and rode that around some. And then the hot rod. I discovered quickly that the battery from the last 4 or so years was junk, and stole the one from my car for the weekend. The old worn out engine in the truck started right up. So I drove that around the village a bit, and then out to the Iowan's new house to work with him a while.

And then it was time to drop the engine from the boat into a barrel of water and get it running.  you get the idea.

Every year, when spring comes, it is the same for me.  I love the excitement of escaping the winter doldrums.  I love walking out to the barn and looking at the warm weather toys.  The anticipation is intense.

But what I like most about spring is the toys.  It seems as though it takes me an entire saturday each fall to winterize the toys.  A bottle or two of stabil, Pull out the batteries, cover them up, Drain the water and refill with antifreeze.  It is a lot of work. 

But each spring, with each ignition of each engine.  That boring day of winterizing just floats away.  I look forward to my boys sitting in the back of the Hot Rod eating ice cream.  Loading the boat for a few hours of slaying bluegills.  Racing around on the four wheeler.   The days of summer are truly my favorite.

What escapes me though is the why.  How come I like those times the best?  Why is it that most of the truly good pictures I have of my kids and my friends were taken indoors? If my favorite moments are spent outdoors playing with things that burn gas, Why dont I capture those more often? 

I think that it has something to do with the moment. When I am playing with my toys, I get caught up in the moment.  I dont think to preserve it.  I dont worry about remembering it later.  I just enjoy the moment.  I tell so many stories about stuff my boys did, or things they said, but never seem to capture it for others to see.

What is funny about that is the polarity it seems to emphasize with what my own parents did. 

I have a smart-phone.  Where i used to carry a camera, a camcorder, a navigation device, and all of those other things, my cellphone now does all of them better and faster by itself. Which means that I can document a lot of things with my phone much faster than I used to be able to do.  But I dont.

15 or 25 years ago my parents had a polaroid.  And they have albums full of pictures of things that I may never have pictures of my own kids doing. 

What I think has happened is that we have gotten very used to having the ability.  We have forgotten the wealth of technology that is literally at our fingertips, and have begun to take it for granted.

When I was a kid, it was work to take a picture. To do so meant something was a special event, and you had to carry an additional device to embed it into your history.  Today, all you have to do to save that event is grab the phone in your pocket and take a high-res video of it.  Sometimes when things are that easy, I dont think that we hold them to the same level of importance.

So I challenge you tonight. As spring dawns. As you begin to leave the house.  And play with your warm weather toys.  Take the time to think about what makes them great.  Take a few pictures or videos.  Do a little journal keeping.  Maybe you'll have something to look forward to while the snowflakes fall.