learnteach

Told the parable of

"Why You Exhaustively Search for Lost Needles
When You Lose One In A Sofa"

to one of my adult kids today, who lost a needle, but fortunately on a hardwood floor. (It still took half an hour of searching.)

In the case of the parable, nobody the night I was there knew that a needle had been lost therein.

----- Look away NOW if squeamish. -----

The needle went through C's kneecap, which was bad enough, but having a needle through the kneecap ALSO means your kneecap and knee is [ahem] PINNED in that orientation until the ER people can remove it. If you try and unbend, it is probably horribly painful, because you have an effin' ROD OF NEEDLE in it.

In this case, assuming my memory is correct, the knee was bent at a right angle, as he was leaping onto the sofa with both knees in some kind of shenanigans at the time.

I was only a guest but I tell the cautionary tale to others every few years as the occasion warrants.

Carrying on with life, going to protests, acquiring new hobbies, writing my congresspeople, doing laundry and house maintenance, trying not to dwell on the bad stuff beyond what is needed to take the actions available to me as a generic citizen.

It's nice to have a functional AC in the car again. Car is 12 years old so not surprising it needed a new compressor. We like to drive them into the ground, and this one is doing well enough. Plus it's acquiring a useful layer of insulation from all the dog hair that is weaving itself into the seams.