Pizza Oven

My 14-year-old son, Kaleb, is full of ideas.  Most of them I ignore because they involve time travel or inventions that are just flat out crazy.  When he was eight, he invented, only in his mind, of course, what he called a “Re-tick-u-lator.” It was a clean energy source he envisioned where “You put in a small stream of energy in one side and you get out more energy on the other side.”  I took a video of him describing his idea in great detail.  It had something to do with power running through magnetic coils spinning off electrons and creating more energy.  I rolled my eyes and smiled.  Such a good imagination, I thought.

A few years later I was watching a program on Canadian TV about people with ideas they need money to develop.  This one guy walks in pulling a little red wagon with his invention and then goes on to explain his idea for clean energy by running a small stream of power in one side, spinning it through magnetic coils so the electrons fly off, and more energy gets produced out the other end.  I nearly had heart failure.  I couldn’t leave to go get Kaleb for fear I’d miss something.  When I told him about it afterwards he stomped his feet, made a big “humph” sound and rolled his eyes at me, mad as all get-out that I hadn’t taken his idea seriously and now someone else got a million dollars of investment money to develop the idea.  I told him, “How was I supposed to know?”  It’s not like there is a 1-800 number to call to tell someone my son has a great idea.

Not long after that he had another idea for better transportation.  He figured, based on things he’d read, that using a vacuum tube would be a much more efficient way of moving people from point A to point B.  I actually made fun of that idea, just thinking about people flying through a tube trying to figure out where to get off.  But then, wouldn’t you know, not long afterwards there were news reports about a new transportation system that was being studied that would be much more cost efficient than building roads, railroads or more airplanes, and it involved vacuum tubes.  I just shook my head and hung it low.

Kaleb’s latest idea though, was more doable.  He wanted to make an outdoor wood fire pizza oven.  He was inspired by one he saw this summer - so we turned him loose. He investigated different designs, figured out what materials he’d need, drew up some plans and decided where it would go.  To my surprise, he made it happen in fairly short order, with little help from his father.  Kaleb cut the brick, mixed the mortar and learned masonry in no time flat.  It was impressive to see him work.  

While it may not be clean energy or efficient travel, it sure turns out a mean pizza.