Darling, it's all for you...

For the past few months Fergus has held onto the desire to one day be the backup goaltender for his favourite team, the Phoenix Coyotes. He’d be the guy on the bench with the hat on.

The other night he came to me with another idea (perhaps his job when the NHL is not in season): “Dad, when I grow up I’m going to be just like you except I’m going to work at a store and be the guy who helps people find the right aisles.” In addition, he informed me that - as a family member - I would have the privilege of going into the back of the store with him to check out all the boxes and stuff.

Fergus is really working hard on grasping this whole “working for a living” concept. He seems fascinated with why people have to go to work and that you can choose what you do in life. During our conversation the other night he wanted to know all about every job I had ever had and then asked me if I had ever been fired. He seemed a bit surprised and upset to hear me say that I had not, so he moved on to asking me if I had ever screwed up.

Of course I told him I had done so, many times, and proceeded to inform him about the summer I worked for the forest service fire protection office. I was up in a helicopter picking sample cones off trees (for some reason!) when we spotted some smoke coming from the base of a group of trees. I was asked to mark the tree with a roll of paper so that the suppression crew could more easily locate the site later on. So I chucked the roll out the window. As we flew away the pilot looked back at the tree and then informed me that we should swing around and do it again… and “this time let the roll unfurl!”

Fergus and I laughed and laughed (of course, for his purposes, I embellished things a little by saying it was toilet paper as opposed to cash register tape).

For now, Ferg is readying for his future in the Ice Capades...