Next Comes "Can You Drop Me Off a Block Away?"
Thursday, May 28, 2009 Sunday was spectacular. I'm sure that knowing Monday was a day off contributed to that sentiment, but getting up to catch the first matinee of Terminator Salvation with Fury definitely propelled the day into cyborg ass kickin' mode from the start.
After lunch, I took Fury with me to the dog park. The dog park in our neighborhood incorporates a huge fenced-in dog area with a playground next to it. Since I can't see the playground from the dog area, we brought along our walkie talkies so I could check on him every once in a while (an underrated parenting tool - one of my first posts ever was about these) . Once parked, we went our separate ways, me with the dogs and him with his scooter.
Being such a nice day, the dog park was pretty crowded. So I'm sure this brought a few glances my way:
*beep* "There are no survivors. Do you copy? I'll keep searching. Over." *beep*
Eh, what the hell, how often in life do you get to play the leader of a ragtag band of humans fighting the tyranny of robots hellbent on exterminating you and yours?
*beep* "Agent Fury, this is John Connor. Continue searching for human survivors and watch out for the T-600's. There's a lot of them in your area. Over." *beep*
*beep* "They're everywhere! I just killed 20 of them!" *beep*
*beep* "Keep me posted on your location and progress." *beep*
*beep* "I just found Kyle Reese!" *beep*
*beep* "Bring him back to headquarters! The resistance needs him. Good job Fury. Over and out." *beep*
For the next ten minutes or so, I chilled with the dogs (and also dropped my phone in Krypto's poop, which was fun), then decided it was time obtain another status report from the front lines.
*beep* "Agent Fury, what's the progress of the prisoner extraction. Are the Terminators still in your area? Over."
*beep* "Dad, I'm just playing right now." *beep*
*beep* "Oh ok. You're ok?" *beep*
*beep* "Yeah. Over and out." *beep*
Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.
A few more minutes passed, when I heard the thump-thump-thump of a low flying helicopter approaching. This was a golden moment not to be squandered...
*beep* "Agent Fury. Hunter-Killers on the horizon. They're headed your way!" *beep*
*beep* "They just tried to kill me! Luckily I wore my armor today!" *beep*
And with that, and a smile on my face, I went to round up the dogs. Once they were leashed and ready to go, I pushed the call button one more time.
*beep* "I'm returning to base, Agent Fury. It's time to end this mission." *beep*
No response.
*beep* "Agent Fury, this is John Connor. What's your 20?" *beep*
Nothing.
I made my way with the dogs toward the playground to pick up my errant soldier. As I got closer, I spied two figures in the distance. One, my boy on his scooter, the other, a little girl on a pink bike. As they came around the bend, I flagged Fury down.
"Time to head home, Fury. Hey, did you lose your walkie?"
"No, it's here," Fury said as he lifted his shirt to reveal the device clipped on his waistband.
"But it's not working... see? [pressing call button] Agent Fury, Agent Fury!"
At that very moment, I realized some things.
That the channel on his walkie had been switched from 1 to 29.
That the girl had stopped a little ways ahead, and was waiting for him.
That John Connor may have saved the human race from annihilation, but right now, he was totally salting Agent Fury's game.
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Reader Comments (31)
My goodnes, it starts early these days, doesn't it?
Talk about cramping his style with your infantile games. BAD DAD!
Love it :)
That was entirely adorable. LOL All trying to impress a girl. It comes out of no where. It does make me sad that kids still want to play the games, but are embarrassed to do so around other people. I get it, but it still makes me sad.
You are one of the coolest Dads EVER. That's awesome
Aw Jimmy, I always knew Fury was a ladies' man.
I dont know why this simple post made me feel like 100 different emotions. Maybe because we're going through all this girl stuff too?
This whole watching them grow up stuff is harder than I thought.
But this post totally made me smile. Thank you.
Oh no! Ouch. Dissed for a girl.
First you're the wingman, next you're the third wheel. Not looking forward to that.
It's like when they find out how to work child-proof locks. Damn these kids for growing up on us!
I gotta think that feeling is simultaneously awesome and heartbreaking. I can't wait, but also hope I have a good long time before he's embarrassed of me.
It starts way earlier than we expected. Sitting in the kitchen the other day, my 9-year-old asked me if he remembered this little girl he went to school with in 1st grade. I shook my head. He says, nonchalantly, "Oh, really? She was my girlfriend..." and whatever else he said I don't recall, 'cuz I'm pretty sure I was on the floor after that word, "girlfriend" say what? Yeah.
Gawd, Dad, grow up will ya?? ;).
Heartwarming and bittersweet, for sure. He'll still wanna party with ya when he's 18 though...
Growing pains . . . they are not limited to the young. While the girls and I never saved the world, we did play games together when they were young. At 15 and 18 they want me to be Mom, but don't want me to hang around with them. I hear that comes later, when they've stopped rollikng their eyes and gain more self-confidence. Enjoy every stage!
Absolutely heartbreaking. *Sigh
Oh heck- how so you expect the world gets repopulated?
Did he just completely skip the 'girls are icky/have cooties' stage? He is too cute with that walkie talkie. Glad you guys had a nice long weekend full of movies!
way to go, dad. getting in the way of fury's smooth moves...
That's pretty awesome, actually.
Does it really start that early? Maybe I need to clamp down on three-year-old declarations of love and end-of-school-day kisses before this gets out of hand.
If I had any daughters I would totally start locking them up now.
The walkie talkies are awesome. The third wheel you played? Even more hilarious. Do you think he'll go for carrying those walkie talkies around once he starts dating? They would be handy. Not that a cell phone wouldn't be more practical, but that the embarrassment factor of the w-t's could potentially be very useful for keeping him safe. Just a thought...
This is my first time here. I'm about to spend the next hour searching your blog to determine Agent Fury's exact age in years, months, weeks, and days. I must no exactly when I'm going to lose my dudes to the enemy forces. So happy that #1 actually HELD MY HAND @ Hershey Park today; he's still mine:) Great blog.
Ok. That took me like 2 minutes. He's 7! Nooooooooo! Mine is 7 too. I'm so not ready for this.
Dude. Wrong movie. He totally needed to "go see about a girl".
awwwww, I am not going to tell you what comes next.
Just stock up on alcohol and a good lock.
First- I love the walkie idea. If I could get my boys to keep track of ANYTHING that would be a great idea now that they are so focused on being "older" and more independent.
Second- What a mixed bag of emotions. You're son's a ladies man (yea!) but dad is interfering with his game.
It could be worse...the Terminator "fun" hasn't stopped in our house yet. It has been going on 24/7 for over a week. If I find the toaster in my bed, closet or shower one more time I'm gonna scream!
OMG. This story is too cute and also makes me cry just a little bit.
DON'T GROW UP KID!!!
The good news is that in thefuture that you saved, there will dog crap resistant phones.
However, the robots will still take over, which keeps my husband from getting involved in my love of robots. Even when I brought up Vicki from Small Wonder was he not convinced of robot awesomeness.
Having walkies is genius!
But my heart broke a little reading this. Where does the time go?
Bwahahaha. I am soooo getting walkie talkies now.
Love the walkie-talkie idea. Must take that one up with the 8 year old. Thank goodness I'm the step-mom - I get to be cool so much longer than his mom- he still holds my hand in the store. Of course, his 13 year old sister still holds her Daddy's hand too. Then there's the 3 year old. The reason someone patented the monkey backpack/leash combo. But for a couple of years yet I am still the prettiest girl he knows. (He told me so today as he curled up on my chest to take a late snuggle-turned-2-hour-nap).
*Sniff*
Amazing how they can just flip the switch and go from Top Agent to Ladies Man in a heartbeat isn't it? Mine never cease to amaze me as well. They grow up way to fast in this world of ours - there are days (like yesterday for both of us) where you just wish you could make time stand still and enjoy the childhood just a few minutes more, ya know?
Give cutie a hug for me. You can have one too, seeing as you saved the human race and all from total annihilation. :-)