My wife loves the fact that she has a baby boy. Secretly, I think she is hopes that all our kids are boys…but of course, we’ll be thrilled with whatever other children come our way. Every time I do something that she says is gross, immature, I remind her that this is what boys do. For example, every boy picks his scabs. I don’t know why…there’s just an innate propensity that drives us to do stupid things. Another example, I must have been about 13 years old . . .
I knew you could light gasoline with a match. And I knew you could light things on fire with a magnifying glass, but I wasn’t sure if you could light gasoline with a magnifying glass. So I got a cup of gasoline, went out on my neighborhood street and tried some experiments.
First, were some peripheral experiments. I threw a lit match into the cup of gasoline. Well the match just went out. I repeated the experiment 2 or 3 times and each time it just went out. So I realized that all those TV shows where people throw a lighted match into a “pool” of gasoline and an explosion occurs, really doesn’t happen.
I then poured gas onto the street and threw a match at it. That didn’t work either. I found out that I had to hold the match to the gasoline to get it to light. Next, I tried lighting the gasoline with a magnifying glass. It worked!
Since my experiment to throw a match into a “pool” of gas didn’t work, I wondered how much gas was too much gas to sustain a fire. I dumped half the cup of gas on my “street fire” and it went out immediately. So I lit the street again, but this time I attempted to hold the cup over the fire and pour it ever so slowly. Turns out, that does sustain the fire. Unfortunately, I didn’t think that one all the way through. Fire tends to rise…right up the waterfall of gasoline and into the cup. Well, this startled me and that’s when I dropped the cup, making a nice splash of gasoline and fire. That’s when I learned how bad burning hair smells. Not to worry, I only burned off my part of my eyebrows…and they grew back.
I don’t think I ever told this story to my parents. Oh well, too late now.
I think Sheila is now scared to have any more boys.
I knew you could light gasoline with a match. And I knew you could light things on fire with a magnifying glass, but I wasn’t sure if you could light gasoline with a magnifying glass. So I got a cup of gasoline, went out on my neighborhood street and tried some experiments.
First, were some peripheral experiments. I threw a lit match into the cup of gasoline. Well the match just went out. I repeated the experiment 2 or 3 times and each time it just went out. So I realized that all those TV shows where people throw a lighted match into a “pool” of gasoline and an explosion occurs, really doesn’t happen.
I then poured gas onto the street and threw a match at it. That didn’t work either. I found out that I had to hold the match to the gasoline to get it to light. Next, I tried lighting the gasoline with a magnifying glass. It worked!
Since my experiment to throw a match into a “pool” of gas didn’t work, I wondered how much gas was too much gas to sustain a fire. I dumped half the cup of gas on my “street fire” and it went out immediately. So I lit the street again, but this time I attempted to hold the cup over the fire and pour it ever so slowly. Turns out, that does sustain the fire. Unfortunately, I didn’t think that one all the way through. Fire tends to rise…right up the waterfall of gasoline and into the cup. Well, this startled me and that’s when I dropped the cup, making a nice splash of gasoline and fire. That’s when I learned how bad burning hair smells. Not to worry, I only burned off my part of my eyebrows…and they grew back.
I don’t think I ever told this story to my parents. Oh well, too late now.
I think Sheila is now scared to have any more boys.
1 comment:
Erik, it's not just boys. I burnt my room down when I was 14 years old. My mom wasn't too upset because she used the insurance money to redo the kitchen and carpet and well I had a mattress on the floor for a year as my bed.
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