'Copter found on shopping search

As I climbed down the hill carrying a suitcase, I suddenly heard the sound of a helicopter revving up its engines.
The sound was coming from the suitcase.
Let me explain, or try to.
I just rolled in Sunday afternoon from a two-week vacation packed with family activities.
We were able to spend time with all three of our daughters, my wife’s sister and brother and his wife, an assortment of my wife’s cousins, our soon-to-be-3-year-old grandson, and — most importantly — our first granddaughter, who was born Aug. 8.
As I said, it was a time jam-packed with family. The high point has to be our trip to Boston to visit Maggie and Josh and their daughter Johanna Ruth only about 14 hours after the baby’s arrival.
But there were plenty of other high points as well, most of them very low key but rewarding in a way that grandparents understand better than anyone.
There was, for instance, the afternoon my wife and her siblings had a meeting with an attorney to try to figure out a workable method of assuring the cabin in New Hampshire stays in the family for another hundred years.
Since our daughter Emily was attending an academic conference in New York City and her husband Mike was busy at work in Boston, someone had to attend to grandson Julian.
That someone would be Grandpa. Me.
My first suggestion was that I take him to Hooters so he and Grandpa could have some male bonding time while flirting with the waitresses.
But that was met with eye rolls you could probably hear back in Indiana.
And besides, there’s not a Hooters to be found in New Hampshire anyway.
So we were handed another agenda.
At the top of the list was the acquisition of a potty chair for the cabin. Julian’s kind of at the midway point when it comes to toilet training, and we figured having the right equipment would be a help.
I’d tried at a hardware store, two discount stores and a drug store and had struck out.
A trip to Keene would provide more shopping opportunities while the others talked with the lawyer.
And sure enough, after roaming a big name retailer with Julian in the shopping cart for awhile, we found just what we needed.
Not only was it a potty chair, it was a 21st century potty chair, one that played four different tunes when you hit the target. And after the tune, the potty cheered, “Yay!”
Okay, it was a bit much, but it was what we needed.
That shopping chore taken care of, we headed to a nearby big-box home improvement store. I’d been given a list of repairs that needed to be addressed; little things like repairing gutters and re-sealing an asphalt seam on the roof where it connects with the chimney.
With those items picked up, Julian and I headed off for a much-needed ice cream sundae (on his part). I left a healthy tip to cover the cost of the pile of paper napkins I left behind while attempting to keep him clean.
By then, it was time to re-connect with the rest of the family and head back to the cabin.
And the helicopter?
Well, that was something we spotted in the toy department right after we found the potty chair.
Like the chair, it’s wired for sound. Press a button, and the engines rev as if it’s ready to take off.
That’s what was bouncing against my leg as I carried the suitcase down the hill.
Fortunately, removing the battery on the toy helicopter is an easy matter.
As to the potty chair, I’m not so sure[[In-content Ad]]