Thursday, August 14, 2008

Adventures in Housesitting, part 2: Breaking Things

During the eleven months that we lived in Massachussetts I think the only thing we broke was a large plate. I don't recall our having broken anything at our current apartment--Brandon chipped a bowl pretty badly, but it's still usable. And we've been there about eleven months, also.

My point is, we're not especially clumsy people. And yet, in the two and a half weeks we've been housesitting, we've broken the plastic handle on the fish pond filter, a wooden spoon, a glass, and a decorative ceramic unicorn. Last week, Brandon was watering the plants when a little switch on the hose attachment, apparently weakened from many years' usage, suddenly flew off, leaving the attachment useless and unfixable.

Finally! A more or less valid application of Murphy's Law ("If anything can go wrong, it will")! I've always thought there should be a Murphy's Second Law--something along the lines of "It will always be the worst case scenario." The difference is subtle, and the laws are related--like the first and second laws of thermodynamics--but I think a lot of people think they see the application of Murphy's Law where truly Murphy's Second Law is more appropriate ...

1 comment:

Joshua said...

Don't forget about the zeroth law of thermodynamics.