Annual traditions

I love the little traditions we are building as a family: today was the open day at the local fire-station: I've blogged about this before, I believe, and I probably will again. This year was much like earlier years (although last year they had a fantastic exhibit: an incident-center truck, with 360 degrees of mounted cameras giving a view of all around the truck, plus a bunch of communication equipment -- unfortunately they didn't have it here this year). One of the new features was a robot fire hydrant: or more precisely, a remote controlled fire hydrant, about 50% bigger than real life, with a top that lifted up to reveal remote controlled eyes, and a microphone and speakers so that the controller (preferably hidden to the children interacting with the toy wouldn't see him) could talk and listen.
Boo and Skibo figured out pretty quickly that it was a remote control toy, but even then they continued to interact for ages with it.
Other hits? Sparky, a dalmation (actually a human inside a dog costume), the emergency air ambulance helicopter, and the "can you knock down a tin can through a car tire with a fire hose".

Yours, thrilled that the community has these events,
N.