Liam's Toy Firetruck

Liam's got this little talking anthropomorphic fire engine (really aren't all children toys anthropomorphic?). It's a cool little toy, but there is something very odd about it.

The toy's name is Boomer. It's got some phrases that it says when you press the flashing red lights. Most of them are pretty normal:

"We put the fire out!"

"Don't worry, help is on the way!"

"Firetruck sirens."

And so on. But every once in a while, when you press to talk, he'll say:


"Can we just put it in park and talk this though?"

New and [hopefully] Improved

A friend of mine gave me a really kind compliment a few months ago. Ironically it was right after I completely bombed a joke I was telling.

He said, "You know Tim, that's why you're so funny. Because you tell jokes all the time, and even if they end up bad, you still follow through."  (I'm probably paraphrasing.)

I don't typically think of myself as funny, although I try really hard to be. Call it a defense mechanism. But his encouragement really meant a lot.

And it got me thinking about this blog and what I write. I remember thinking when I was younger how much bolder and braver I'd be with older age. But I feel the opposite has happened. I'm more scared to write anything now than ever before.

His compliment inspired me to write more-- bad posts and all. We'll see how it goes.