FYI

(This is an old forum post I found from Aug '08.)


If ever you get out of your car when it's running, make sure you put in
in park and don't assume having the E brake on will be enough. Also, you
might want to let your kids know that they don't have to press the
button on the E brake to raise it higher in case you go around the back
to re-close the hatchback and the car starts slowly rolling down on you
and you yell at them to pull the brake tighter. In fact, skip that part
and just have them put it in park so they don't press the brake's
button, releasing it completely, so the car comes rolling down really
fast and you're trying to push against it while running backwards and
you're almost all the way across the street before he jumps in the front
seat and slams on the foot break and puts it in park just as you are
about to get mowed down. You might also want to alert them to the fact
that the brake peddle is the one on the left, in case they didn't happen
to see it used one day long ago and have a good memory and then you
thank your lucky stars they happened to know that so they could slam it
down rather than mashing the gas and killing you because you were too
panicked to properly tell them what to do.

I also managed to electrocute myself today.

Thanks, I'll be here all night (if I can manage to keep myself alive
that long.

The Threads That Bind Us

It occurred to me today, as I was folding laundry, that all of us fold laundry. It's somewhat akin to taking a shit, or putting your pants on one leg at a time (a funny phrase, that-- I cannot be the only person who often sits down on the bed, puts her pants on halfway both legs at a time, then stands up to finish the job.)

I was thinking about how all of us, no matter how different we are, fold laundry. The crusty-haired crack head at the laundromat, the new young dad high on fatherhood, the cranky businesswoman, the harried mom with a baby on her hip and toddler at her side. Hands of all sorts shake and fold clothes of all sorts, all so foreign to each other they might not belong to the same planet, or similar as sisters living next door to one another who had their kids a week apart.

Then of course it occurred to me that not all people fold laundry after all. Some are so rich as to have others hired to do it for them. What a strange world we live in, that shines with every color on the spectrum, eh?

Then again, many crusty-haired crack heads probably don't fold laundry either.

It's interesting to think of all the different things people think of to occupy themselves while tackling a task such as laundry folding.

Clearly, my mind wanders.