I am sure like me you have often been annoyed over small things that happen in life. I remember when conducting weddings how it was not the big things in life that broke up marriages but the things that started small and became niggles and grew out of all proportion. The fact that a wife squeezes the toothpaste from the middle of the tube then leaves the tube lying about on the bathroom sink.
I was always a person who liked things in a strict order a place for everything and everything in its place. I, therefore, took bad having to share with somebody who did not see this as so important. I solved the problem by instead of being the first to use the bathroom for washing each day I waited and went second and put everything back in its place before I left. problem solved.
So it is in life.
Do any of you who are old enough remember the chalk and the blackboard? Now it is the chalkboard or whiteboard. My problem with that was the horrible noise that the chalk used to make. It sent horrible shivers up my spine.
It happened everytime someone was called out to solve a problem on the board. They would frequently hold the chalk wrong and sends chills up and down the spines of everyone in the class with that familiar classroom torture technique We had a name for it, "squeaky chalk."
Why does a piece of chalk produce that hideous squeal?
According to the book, The Flying Circus of Physics (With Answers), squealing chalk results from the phenomenon of "stick and slip." Incorrectly held chalk actually sticks to the blackboard. But when the writer bends the chalk enough, it suddenly slips and vibrates, sporadically striking the chalkboard and producing that squeal we hear. As the vibrations decrease, the friction between the chalk and the board increases until the chalk sticks again and the torture begins once more.
It was a very simple thing to eliminate. The first time I asked any student to do a task on the board I told a funny and gave a lesson on how to and how not to hold a stick of chalk. Problem solved.
A minister friend tells a true account of an annoying event in his life. The Public Library introduced a system called "Dial-A-Tale." Anytime a young child wants to hear a fairy tale, they can call the number and a voice comes on reading a short fairy tale to the listening young ear.
However, the number is only one digit different from my friend's number.
Because the small fingers often make a mistake, He gets frequent calls from a child listening for a fairy tale. After several unsuccessful attempts to explain a wrong number to the small child, he felt he had only one alternative.
He obtained a copy of Three Little Pigs, and set it by the phone. Now, whenever a child calls, he simply reads them the tale. A beautiful illustration of yielding personal rights. He didn't, as you might have thought, change his telephone number to avoid the "invasion of his privacy."
Problem solved.
It is so often the case that those little dilemmas can be solved before they become big issues we just have to stop and think and find a cheerful way to get around it.
Two caravans away from me the caravan site owners have planted a new young poplar tree. It is still very young so they have tied a support to it to give it a good start in life. Sadly the person the caravan next to it has used a bungy around it and another tree to make a wash drying line, the tree is bending under the weight. They are Spanish I cannot speak Spanish so how do I find a nice way to get them to find another solution for the drying of clothes?
Not a big isse one of lifes little niggles but I am sure there is an easy answer.
It is always wise to sort things out when they are just small little things before they reach explosive proportions.
Hve a good day. The painting was a rose I spotted yesterday on my walk growing wild.
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