Tonight, I said goodbye to a dear friend. Barney went home to live with his real dad. I'm happy they've been reunited, but I will miss him and all the fun we got up to.
Like the time we dug the wetland filter and got so into scooping and making a mountain of dirt that we didn't realize we went too deep and had to fill some back in.
Remember when we dug up the downspout drain pipe and got it all fixed just in time for a rain storm, but then you head butted the gutter and split it open on our way out? I had to use extra pond liner to get the water away from the house.
Or that one rock we totally should not have been swinging around over the side of the machine. You pretended like you were going to tip over, but then caught yourself at the last minute. You joker!
And there was that time I made you carry the concrete stoop out of the side yard and you did a dino-wheelie the whole way out. Remember when we tried to break it by scooping it up and dropping it on the driveway, but it just crushed a hole in the driveway instead? I remember! Wife was mad, but we giggled to ourselves when she wasn't looking.
Even when you partied too hard and threw up hydraulic fluid all over the yard, all you needed was a new hose and you were ready to go again.
You were down for any task, and you were always willing to lend a hand.
I'll miss you, buddy. Come back and visit soon.
I'm currently working on a book tentatively titled "The Tree of Large Brains and Opposable Thumbs" (a play on the "Tree of Knowledge"). It looks at human evolution from the point of view of 3,000 years of folklore and legal writings. Much fun to write, and will hopefully be even more fun to read. So yes, here's to tool making!
