Dec. 18: Thomas

 Here is a list of all the Thomases I know:

- Tom Philp. He was a reporter at the Brighton Independent back in 2000. We worked together. Former police officer.

- Tomas Ulbrich. I went to junior high and high school with him. Exceptionally smart. Math wizard. I believe he is a Eucharistic minister somewhere in Calgary.

- Thomas Ogas. He is a lawyer in California. We met through random chat on ICQ 20 years ago and created something of a friendship. We went to see a Flames-Sharks game in San Jose about a decade ago. He likes the Golden State Warriors. 

- Thom Peterson. An American magician who put out one of my favourite magical instructional DVDs (Behind the Curtain.) He revolutionized the McCombical deck.

- Tom McIlhenny. He was the debating partner of a guy named Mike Hessler. Mike and Tom would always whoop me and Jason in various debate tournaments.

- Tom Stone. He is a Swedish magician and genius inventor. I hope to adapt one of his most famous creations for my 2023 performing season.

- Tom Manley. He runs a local organic sourdough bakery and is the boss of Kelsey-Fay.

- Tom Jones. He is a Welsh singer who sang Green Green Grass of Home and the theme for Thunderball. More importantly, he covered the Prince song, Kiss.

- Tom Cruise. He is an actor. I think he did this movie where he was dancing around in his underwear. Not sure what it's called. I think maybe Business Risk.

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Of course, when my son gave me Thomas as today's title, he was really talking about Thomas the Train. This surprised me a little since he doesn't watch Thomas much anymore. Nowadays, his viewing material of choice is vacuum cleaner videos on youtube and Caillou.

But I'm happy he still likes Thomas. I like that my kid still likes testosterone-fuelled toys for guys.

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I have taken my kid on the Thomas train ride exactly two times. The first time was in August of 2017. Here is what my sister said about me on Facebook when she learned about our trip:

"Today, my brother drove for five hours so he could take his son to see Thomas the tank engine. As far as dads go, Shteevie has got to be one of the best. B-Man is a lucky boy."

That compliment made my dad. Especially since my sister has twice as many kids as I do and is, therefore, used to making twice as many sacrifices as I do.

Besides that whole Thomas trip was a ruse. The real reason I went was to take part in an all-night poker tournament the next day in Toronto. I won $300 and B-Man learned that he doesn't care for cognac.

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Here is a picture of kiddo at the Thomas event:

 Man oh man is that ever a cute kid. No kid in the world is cuter than that. 

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I thought that when B-Man saw Thomas in real life that he would get super excited and cry tears of joy and hug me and tell me that I made his dream come true and that this was the best day ever. But that did not happen. Kiddo just looked at the train and said: "Thomas."

"Do you want to ride the train?" I asked.

"Train," he said.

So we rode the train and he spent the whole ride looking out the window. 

Also on that day, he met Sir Topham Hat.

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We have since been back. Ash and I brought kiddo a couple years later but it wasn't as much fun as the first time. This wasn't the fault of Ash or myself. Nor was it the fault of kiddo, who was a little older and perhaps a bit more disenchanted with anthropomorphic steam engines. It was the fault of a tornado warning, which prompted the Thomas people to shut down all the activities of the day. Well at least we got the train ride.

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There is still plenty of Thomas representation in kiddo's room. He has Thomas posters on the wall, a shelf dedicated to Thomas trains, and some Thomas clothes as well. He rarely plays with them but that's okay. I like that they stand at attention in his room, guarding his childhood and his innocence.