I almost killed a 4 year old

Well, not really, but I did scare the hell out of him. This made me feel like shit. Scaring a child is about up there on my list of things to avoid right next to putting my hand into boiling water.

How this happened was that I attended a party at a beach house on Lake Ontario. The party was held at the house of a friend of Binarian by the name of DP. I dug a small hole in the sand that DP's 4 year old called Devlin jumped into. While he was in the hole it reached up to his mid chest. Everyone thought it was cute and his mother even took a couple of pictures. He wanted the hole deeper, so I dug it deep enough for him to stand in but not cover his head. As I was digging I was talking to his grandparents about how many idiots in spring break fall into these huge holes that they dig in the sand in Florida and the east coast. I had read an article about how they fall in and the sand falls over them and they suffocate. You can probably all see where I am going with this.

Well, being a child as soon as I helped him into the hole, he sat down right in it as a child does. By this I mean he sort of just slammed himself down by taking his feet out from under him. Well, sure enough he wedged his knees into the hole and got himself stuck with almost a foot of sand above him. I tried to pull him out but it only got him wedged even more. Then everyone went from laughing to panic as he started screaming because he could not get out. I stared panicing when his Grandfather pulled on him and could not get him out. Well, then everyone went into panic mode, I started digging a hole next to him so make room to dig him out. Everything happened so fast after he started screaming.

People dug the sand out from around the hole as I dug a hole for the sand to go. Then out of no where the neighbour dove into the hole and started digging Devlin out. After about 30 seconds that felt like 30 minutes he was free and I felt like the biggest asshole/fuckwad on the beach. My heart was racing my hands were shaking and my head was spinning. After filling in the hole with about 4 other people, I walked to the deck and his Grandmother looked at me and asked if I was alright. I said, "no." She ordered me to sit down and took my blood pressure. She then told me that I was somewhere in the 140's. My heart was an alligator! Everyone thought I was going to pass out or have a heart attack. It took me several hours to calm down, but Devlin, after a shower and a change of clothes, was happy and running around like nothing happened.

Yeah...I still feel like shit about it. All I hope is that I did not emotionally scar that poor kid. DP just laughed about the whole thing saying that his kid will now know not to jump into any holes. Of course, later that night he bit into a glow stick and leaked the toxic juice all over his shirt and face, which is probably worse for him then anything I did...I hope.

Oh, and the fireworks were very nice accept that the neighbour on the other side tipped a mortar tube and shot one of those mortar ball firework at a two guys who were chilling watching the festivities. Damn thing missed our group by about a meter and exploded into a ball of purple next the the ankles of the two dudes. They jumped around a leaped out of the way. It was the only firework mishap that occurred.

Damn, I learned an important life lesson today. Don't dig holes in the sand to bury children and order the child to not put his head lower then the level of the sand.
At least it will be a most memorable 4th of July for most.

ug. I feel sick.