Saturna

my favorite breakfast spot in town is Brother Juniper's College Inn. it is a very small and humble place, with an amazing menu, tons of vegetarian and vegan stuff. they are only open until 1pm most days and only until 12:30 on saturdays. jah isaac and i often go there after going to yard sales.

this morning, we slept until about nine, skipping yard sales due to the heat. i called my mom to see if she would like to meet us at Bro J's for breakfast, and we set the time for about 10:20. i told jason what we were doing and he expressed a desire to go, and actually got up and went with us. this is a rare and momentous occasion, as he usually has gigs late on fridays and sleeps until much later than 10am.

we arrive to find that our friend Don happens to be there with his daughter Aeona, so we get a large table outside and all sit together. things are going somewhat stressfully because jah isaac wants to ride bikes and generally wreak havok upon the porch and its inhabitants. he woke up in a yucky mood, and if i had been more observant to this fact, i might have not set this course of events into action at the outset.

my mom decides she is going to take isaac to her car to play until our food is ready. he loves to explore her car, turn on the windshield juice, etc. about five minutes after going to her car, my mom walks over to tell us that jah isaac has locked himself in there. she had put him in his carseat and he asked for it to be buckled. he was holding her keychain and apparently pushed the 'lock' button without her realizing, so when she shut the door, she was locked out - her spare set of keys shining brightly from the driver's seat.

jason and i go over to see if we can talk the baby (gosh, he is so not a baby anymore, but he will always be my baby.) into unlocking his carseat and pushing the unlock button on the keychain. he refuses to even attempt to unlock his carseat, which is not surprising since it is ingrained into him that this is a big NO-NO. i walk around the corner to the locksmiths, and they are closed, so i call the emergency number. the guy is about 20 minutes away but he heads on. in the meantime, i go back and start offering jah isaac ice cream and candy to unlock his carseat, and he chooses this crucial time to be an upstanding citizen, refusing bribes of any sort.

he has only been in the car for about ten minutes by this time, and my mom had her big shades up over the front windshield so it wasn't too hot in there, but he was obviously beginning to sweat. jason happened to see an undercover car cruising the parking lot across the street, so i ran over and told the officer what happened, and asked her if she had a slim jim. she did not, as it is now illegal for police officers in TN to open your car if you have locked your keys in there. she says she can call the fire department or have an officer break the window.

by this point, i am getting nervous and do not trust that the locksmith can get over to us so quickly in noontime saturday traffic, so i agree to whatever we need to do. before i know it, there are more and more cop cars arriving, and apparently there is one guy on the way with a slim jim. by the end of it, we have three cruisers, two undercover cars, the last one arriving with sirens on and everything. this man, who apparently had some rank, whipped out his slim jim and within moments had my son out of the car. i called the locksmith and cancelled.

we thanked them all, enjoying an experience with the police that was positive and the epitomy of the promise to "protect and serve." we gave jah isaac some water, and he promptly went back to trying to ride a bike that was a foot taller than he is, completely unfazed. my mother, however, was reduced to tears and fearful that we will never let her hang out with our son again. i have called her three times to reassure her this is not the case. we all did learn that this kid is fast, for sure, and i have faith that we are all a little more aware of how fast. he might as well be Robert Dashall Parr in my book, he is so fast and so smart.

needless to say, i have my doubts that jason will be getting up early for breakfast again anytime soon after all of that. thankfully, upon arriving home we all took a nap and started our day fresh, with a not-so-much-baby who is in a better mood.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 30th, 2005 at 6:09 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.