The Deer Family (Mostly) Comes to Life

You might recall that a few weeks ago Jason had a moment of temporary insanity because he was blissed out at Costco. Costco is Jason’s happy place, and after a few weeks of missing out on a Costco trip Jason had the holy grail of Costco trips: he got to go alone. The endorphins clearly caused Jason to temporarily lose his mind, and he sent me a text telling me the deer family was back at Costco. After two years of skillfully avoiding the deer family, he voluntarily brought home the deer family.

One of his reasons for avoiding the deer family was that he didn’t want to have to put it together. Unfortunately for Jason Carter has been a ball of excitement about the deer family and asked about 27 times per day when we were going to put up the deer family. Jason broke down and brought out the box with the deer family a few days ago.

Building them was not as torturous as Jason had anticipated. Of course there were some awkwardly placed bolts and screws that were almost impossible to hold at the right angle to get them in, but I think Jason would agree that it could have been a lot worse. Then we had to spend some time properly positioning and anchoring the deer family with Carter’s guidance. Then he had to get each of us plugged in and fiddle with all of the cords.

Finally it was time for the big moment. We gave a nod to Clark Griswold as Carter and I assembled to watch the big moment when the main cord was plugged in. We clapped and cheered as the deer family lit up. It seemed like Jason’s work was done. However it was still full daylight when we plugged the deer family in and it took me a few moments to realize there was a problem.

The problem? Jason’s head and antlers were not lighting up. It did seem fitting that Jason’s deer was the problem child in our deer family. Jason checked connections, stared at things, fiddled with nothing, stared some more, wiggled a few things, yet his head remained dark. Then he gave up and said he had done his part, so our deer family does have one dim member, Jason.

Occasionally Jason’s head will light up when the deer family is first plugged in, and his head and antlers glow proudly. Then they go dark after a minute or two. We have ordered a replacement Jason which will hopefully arrive in a few days. I am hopeful that replacement Jason will be fully functioning, unlike the original Jason. I guess we will find out.

the deer family had “some assembly required”