The Sled

My dad was a little bit of a procrastinator, a trait he passed on to me.  But one year when I was about 5 years old we had a heavy snowfall, and all the neighborhood kids, and some adults were sledding down the hill near our house.  All except me.  I had no sled, and no one willing to give me a ride, so I went home in tears.   My dad took me into his work room, picked out some 2x4s and some plywood, and he made a sled for me.  I'd guess it took him an hour or so.  This is a man whose most common expressions were "not yet"  and "in a minute."  When he was done I took my sled to the hill, everyone was still there, and I sledded down.  I was a little disappointed that it didn't go fast like all the others, in fact it only went about 10 feet at a time before it would get stuck and I'd have to get off to reposition it to go another 10 feet.  But in retrospect, I think that  was part of the plan of making it out of 2x4s.  I was only 5 after all, and when he thought thru the sled plans in his head, as he thought thru everything before acting or speaking, it would not surprise me at all if he thought to himself that those 2x4s would go just about the right speed for a kid my age.