Tomato Soup

The following is a story I tell on myself which I wouldn't want anyone else to tell on me. I don't even know why I'm doing a post about this except that I just wanted you my readers to know that I, along with all of you, do dumb things once in awhile.

This noon for our lunch my wife was planning to make some tomato soup using that which comes from a can. We both detest the cans that have a lid that's supposed to open with a tab. Why not just let us do it with a can opener? The can opener will not work on these cans, so we are forced to use the tab.

Well as you might have guessed the tab broke off when Clara tried to open the can. I then said very confidently, let me open it. I retrieved my all-purpose tool which I thought had one of those openers that makes a pointed hole in the top, but this one doesn't have that. So I used the next best I saw on it, a pointed knife blade. I forced a small hole in the top where the tab had been, then proceeded to jab the lid with the knife blade. Suddenly the force of my jabs knocked the lid off and down into the soup with a "sploosh," and all at once there was tomato soup over much of me, the table, the floor, and in other places that we didn't notice until later.

As a result of that unwise action I needed to undress right there at the kitchen table while moving as little as possible. Using paper towels at first, Clara began to clean up the mess and I began to clean up myself. A clean set of clothes was in order of course, as was a small load for the washing machine.

The whole episode reminded both of us of a similar incident way back when we lived in Indiana. One night at bedtime Clara (8 months pregnant) pulled a gallon of milk in a glass bottle from the refrigerator and dropped it on the concrete/tiled floor. Milk and glass literally went everywhere in that kitchen. There are other details of that story that could be told here, but now we know that both of us are capable of making a major mess.

We are just glad that in neither of these experiences was anyone injured physically - only our pride, ego, or whatever you call it, a little bit. Thankfully a can of soup or a bottle of milk that gets destroyed doesn't hurt anyone. Perhaps I can learn something from this experience that will help me as I continue on my journey as

Pilgrim on the way