Bullseye

I posted this on facebook, but am going to cross-post it here too, just for posterity.  And, of course, because I am me, I will go into much more detail here than is actually needed.

Last winter, when the house next to us was being built, a tremendous amount of earth was moved to build it.  Much of this earth was neatly trucked away, but an annoying amount washed across the alley that separates our houses and settled on the street next to our house. It's been there ever since:  an annoying sludge that is dusty when it's not raining and just yucky when it is.  It makes getting into an out of the car even more of a process than it already is with two young children.  Admittedly, some of the dirt washes down there from our own garden, but the house-building process made the dirt situation much worse.

So, I had the kids outside "helping" me hack back some of our plants today and for some reason, got motivated to deal with the dirt.  I shoveled up as much of it as possible and then got out the big broom and the hose.  By this time, Tali had retreated inside to camp out on the potty (once she gets on it, it's almost impossible to get her off it!), so Mateo was the only kid I could enlist to help.  He decided to take the hose and I took the broom. 

He actually did really well for quite a while, and we washed down the street right outside our house and I pushed most of the water down to the drain at the end of the block.  (Insert here to Portland street sweepers:  do you have a schedule?  do you ever actually sweep the streets?  When we lived in Oakland, there was a regular, weekly schedule, but here, they come every so often with no warning and if your car happens to be parked in front of your house, or if even a plant is sticking out into the street by more than a few inches, they go right around and you're out of luck for another three or four months.  I harbor much resentment about this.)

Anyway, here's where we get to what I posted on facebook.  I was busily sweeping the water down to the drain when I heard someone cry "ACK!" and turned around to see that our son had turned the hose on two passing, unsuspecting cyclists.  It was on the super-strong jet setting, so I'm sure they really got blasted.  He had actually told me a few minutes before that he was going to spray a bicyclist if he saw one, but I (#1) told him not to and (#2) didn't think he would actually do it.  Luckily they just kept riding and didn't seem to mind too much, but it was rather mortifying.  

Three year olds = so unpredictable!  Let's just say that he'll be sticking to watering plants far away from the street from now on.   And, I'm sure those poor people will give our house a wide berth from now on, as well!