I love how little kids think, it's completely out of the box. Usually it's just funny and cute, but every once in awhile they come up with a legitimate idea worth trying. Julia did this the other day while we were watching the news. What made it even better was that her great idea was followed by a completely random, yet legitimate, alternative that reminded me she's still a little girl.
Overnight we received a decent amount of snow, so this morning I had to go outside and shovel our long driveway and sidewalk. Even though the snow was very dry and light, it still took me about 45 minutes to clear the entire area. By the way, a dead giveaway that you're not originally from the front range is if you own a snow blower. I'm not going to explain why - those who have lived here long enough know what I mean. Anyway, both kids kept their noses pressed against the sliding glass door, watching me as I shoveled the snow away.
Later that day I turned on the national news when I got home from work. Julia had apparently never seen a snow blower before, so when they showed a clip of people in the Midwest digging themselves out from the same storm I had to explain what she had just seen. I explained I don't have a snow blower, so I have to do it by hand with a shovel. Her response was, "but Dad, you have a LEAF blower. That could work!". I was very impressed with her idea, so I told her that I would give it a try the next time it snows. If the snow is as dry as it was this morning, a leaf blower might actually work.
After I praised her and told her that I would try it the next time it snowed, she came up with a backup plan. If the leaf blower didn't work, I could simply buy a bulldozer and use that to remove the snow. She had also seen that on the news. She assured me it would be OK since I could just park it outside. However, the model I purchase would need to have windshield wipers on it so I could see what I was doing.