Scenes from Burlington, VT #238

I have a neighbor in my apartment complex who is about 9 years old. And every day I see him hanging out with whom I can only assume are his two friends, his dog and a snow shovel.

Now, it might seem mean to consider his dog one of his only friends, but I have to believe that the dog isn't even really on his side, and is kind of forced to hang out with the kid. The snow shovel is the thing that kind of throws me though. Over the last week or so, we have had incredibly warm weather (if by incredibly warm, you mean 45 degrees). Thusly, most of the snow has melted away, so there really isn't anything to shovel. And in my infinite kindness, I have given the shovel the name "Scrapey".

At first I thought the kid was trying to use the shovel to clean up after the dog, but after seeing the dog do it's business on the lawn, and then watching him, the kid and Scrapey walk away, I concluded that the shovel meant a hell of a lot more to the kid than cleaning up after the pooch.

So the kid, the dog and Scrapey are out playing today and I am watching this unfold from my back deck. The kid starts scooping the water on the ground and I thought "Hmm...maybe he is trying to get the water to go into the sewer. No such luck, he was shoveling the water uphill, so that it would come right back down to him and reform the same puddle. That seemed a lot more of a self occupational activity than an actual chore.

And the thing about me saying that the dog wasn't much on the kids side? The dog lays down in the puddle...

Yeah, this place rocks the house....