Why Do We Break Everything We Touch?

Within 24 hours of being at Memaw and Pepaw's house, the boys had managed to break a drinking glass and a screen door. I know that we are a destructive crew. That is why I try not to borrow from friends, unless absolutely necessary, because it seems like once we get our hands on something, it is only a matter of time before it ceases to function or it ends up in pieces. Even if it appears to be no fault of our own, things just stop working in our care.

And it is not just limited to the little Workmans. When packing up camp on Sunday morning, I managed to clang the lanterns together and broke one of them. And as Eric was closing up the camper and preparing it for towing, the door broke off. Why us? Actually, Pepaw eased Eric's mind by telling him that the door was already broken, but even if it hadn't have been, it probably would have ended up that way after our hands touched it.

I guess the biggest "break" of the trip came on Saturday afternoon. I guess it was more of a disabling than an actual break, but it was still caused by a little Workman. After boating all day, we made one last stop to relax and let the boys swim out in the lake before heading back to camp. After soaking in the last bit of the day's sun, we were hungry, tired, and ready to start our journey back to our cove.

Pepaw went to start the boat. To no avail. Then he tried again. And again. And again. Finally, he conceded and concluded that we must have run out of gas. Luckily, he knew someone at the marina, so a friend came and brought us some gas. Problem solved!

Uh, not so fast. The engine still would not start. Pepaw continued to work and try to figure out what was causing the problem. After many, many tries, the white flag of surrender was waved, and Pepaw's friend began towing us in. We got about two minutes into our "drag," when Pepaw gave a little chuckle and said, "Well, I guess you can't run a boat if the engine is turned off." All eyes went to the emergency shut off switch that someone had pressed while pretending to drive the boat when we were anchored. None of us had thought to check there FIRST.

Hmmm...I wonder who could have DISABLED the boat?

Actually, it didn't take long to figure out, because Caleb confessed quickly that he had pushed the button.

Problem Solved!!

Pepaw enabled the engine and then we were off. No damage done. Just a lot of brain racking and waiting. But what else did we have, but time, on a relaxing weekend on the lake?

Thanks Memaw and Pepaw for all of your grace this weekend with the Workman Wrecking Crew. I will replace that lantern!