Page 11 - LIfesOuttakes1
P. 11
Tinkertoys In My Cupboard l We have Tinkertoys in our cupboard. I’m not talking about the toy cupboard. I mean that I will sometimes pull out a bowl to put cereal in and, half asleep, pour in cornflakes and milk. I take a bite and receive 2000% of the unrecommended lifetime supply of fiber and plastic polymers. I really hate Tinkertoys in my cupboard. “Who put the Tinkertoy in my cereal bowl?!” I holler, as I search for my missing tooth. I really didn’t need to ask that. I knew who it was. It was a 22- month-old gremlin with blond hair, blue eyes, and piggy tails. She has taken a real liking to Tinkertoys. There are Tinkertoys in the bowls, Tinkertoys in my bed, Tinkertoys in my shoes, and Tinkertoys stuffed in the floppy drive of my computer. If I get up in the middle of the night for a drink of water, I am sure to step on a Tinkertoy and roll bruisedy, scrapity, crashity down the stairs. The last time that happened, my hollering could have put any decibel meter off the scale. I woke the whole house and most of the neighbors within a half mile radius. I swore I was going to take every Tinkertoy to the second-hand store. But that was then. My little, blond, blue-eyed gremlin has recently been sick. We spent three days in the hospital, with her temperature soaring to 106 degrees. She slept in my arms as I comforted her, keeping her from pulling on the IV that was giving her the life-saving antibiotic. I put cool cloths on her forehead, not daring to sleep for fear she would 6