Hello, 911 dispatch . . .

Scenario: Just out of the shower and barely dressed. Phone rings. Gavin walks into the bathroom with the phone. With kind of a funny smile on his face he says, "Here you go, Mom." The caller ID says "City of Logan." I almost ignore it (my hair is dripping wet, after all), but I pick up.

Me: "Hello?"

C of L: "Hello, is this Ms. Shaffer?"

Me: "Yes, it is."

C of L: "Do you have a son named Gavin?"

Me: (somewhat alarmed, now), "Um, yes."

C of L: "This is 911 dispatch."

Me (thinking): "What??? Are you serious?"

C of L: "We just wanted to call and let you know that your son had called us. He wanted to call and thank the fire fighters and police men that came and did a presentation at his school a few weeks ago."

Me (wanting to melt into the floor with embarrassment): "Oh, um . . ."

C of L: "You should be very proud of him, though. He was very polite while talking to us on the phone. He sounds like a good boy."

Me: "Oh, um, thanks." (I'm seriously about dying here. Gavin just has a huge smile on his face, and I'm trying not to laugh and be mad at the same time.)

C of L: "So, we just wanted to let you know that he was downstairs playing with the phone and had called us."

Me: "I'm so sorry, but thanks."

C of L: "No problem. Have a good day, Ms. Shaffer. Bye."

So, after I got off the phone with dispatch, I explained to Gavin that while it was nice that he wanted to thank the fire fighters and policemen, we can't just call 911. It has to be an emergency. I told him that next time he wanted to thank one of them, we should write a letter.

"Oh, okay," says Gavin. "Let's go do it right now!"

So, he heads to the computer, pulls up the notepad, and starts to type. (If you click on the pictures, they should pop up bigger.) Here's his "letter:"




Toady's translation of his letter