A Boy's First Felony

There's something special about the day a boy commits his first felony offense. Especially when he's three. It happened about a week ago here on our quiet little street. Well, quiet except when Non-English Speaking Neighbors play their loud, obnoxious music and three-year-olds commit felonies. He didn't mean to. It wasn't on purpose. But it still happened.

With the recent wet weather, Orange Truck Kids have been playing out in their driveway and front yard more so as not to sink into the miry swamp that is their back yard (ok, so it's not a swamp - just soggy and wet - just like ours). We've seen a lot of the pink bike that obviously belongs to OTK #1 and the little red tricicle that OTK #2 seems to enjoy pushing, but not riding. But on this day, OTK #2 wasn't weilding his little red trike. No, it was a Big Orange Truck.

It was a Friday. I was at work. Husband was at home, on his day off. He was at his favorite "day off" spot, basking in the glow of his monitor, when through a crack in the blinds something caught his eye. It was a large, orange vehicle demolishing our mailbox and rolling across the yard/driveway. The truck stopped at Razorback Fan's house and he saw Orange Truck Guy running across the yard. Of course, curiosity got the best of him (and we'd just lost our mailbox) so he went out to see what was going on.

It seems that OTK #2 was hanging out in the giant orange beast, which happens to be a 70's model Ford, while OTGuy was lifting weights in the garage. Apparently this is a regular occurrence for them, so no big deal. But OTK #2 bumped the wrong gadget and slid the truck into neutral. And if you know anything about the region in which we live, there is no such thing as flat terrain. There's a slight downward slope on our street, and the truck began to roll. It rolled two houses down the street before hitting enough of a curb to stop...but not before taking out our mailbox. Thankfully, no one was hurt but I think that OTK #2 was scared out of his mind. He's three - who could blame him?

OT Guy and Girl were very apologetic...they're really nice people. Not the type that purposefully raise their children to be felons. They offered to pay for a new mailbox and even tried to help Husband get it installed. The installation is another story...it took me, Husband, OTGuy, HLB, and Dad to get that task accomplished. But we'll leave that for another time. Let's just hope that our lovely mailman approves of the new receptacle. I don't think I could take any more mail drama.