Is That In The Job Description ?

A friend of my niece, Brittany, was involved in a car accident this morning (on the way to driving my niece and herself to a final AP exam for their high school english class).  The friend is okay.  The other driver was at fault.  The car(s) involved will need some repairs, but all in all things will be just fine.

I had gone to pick up my niece and take her to the AP exam, but she was able to reschedule a make-up test.  So instead I just sat there and waited to give her and her friend a ride to our place to wait until they could return to their homes.

Anyway ... as all the paperwork was being filled out, my niece and I sat there wondering who was responsible for cleaning up the debris in the road?  Broken headlights and plastic bumper pieces were scattered through the intersection where the accident occurred.  And it occurred to us that we had no idea how that debris always seemed to be taken care of.

And then we saw this ...

I guess that answers that question.  Who knew that the Police Officer on scene would have a broom in his car?  Who knew that he would be specially trained to clear the street of remnant car parts?  And then I started wondering, is that in the job description for them?

"To serve and protect ... and clean up city streets after accidents."

Regardless, I think this Officer did a fine job, even if it might be one of his least favorite responsibilities.

Song Of The Day:
Whether you love the song or hated it because it got played so much on the radio, "Chasing Cars" by Snow Patrol is certainly memorable.  I also think it's applicable to this post, even if the police don't just chase cars all the time.

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Why Is Yardwork More Fun Than Chores ?

With the warmer weather slated for this week, I felt it would be a good use of time to get started on the LONG list of yard work projects today.  Trimming the bushes was more work than I thought it would be, but it felt nice to get it done.

As I moved to the backyard, I quickly found that basically all of my children that can walk (6 of the 7) wanted to be outside "helping daddy."  I was moving retaining wall stones in anticipation of clearing the dead stuff from the flower boxes, which left trails of dirt and crumbled stone parts all across the back porch.  The 3 older kids were helping to uncover the stones and carry them to our staging/stacking area.  Bless Brooklyn's heart for being tenacious enough to carry some stones by herself because they are heavy!

And then a funny thing happened ... Ben and Brooklyn began to argue over who got to sweep off the porch/patio area.  They both wanted to do it.  This is not funny by itself, but in context is basically absurd.  You see, in the house the "sweep the kitchen" chore is by far the least desireable among my older kids.  In fact, they often fight about who did it last so they can avoid it being their "turn" again for as long as possible.

So I didn't have a picture of the kids
helping outside ... so here's Baby #007
Spencer Joseph @ 3 months old.  :)

It got me wondering ... why are "outside" chores more desireable for my kids than "inside" chores?  Is this a long-term situation where the kids will be arguing to help all summer?  Or is it just exciting now because it is new, different, and "with daddy" instead of alone?
Whatever the reason, I'll take the help as long as I can get it!

Song Of The Day:
Today's song is "Tough Little Boys" by Gary Allan.  I chose this because Josh Jr and Ben worked pretty hard ... and they both volunteered to help (and were sad when I said we were done for the day).  This showed me how "tough" they are, but it also turned me into a little bit of a "big baby" because they're growing up so fast!

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