A
Difficult Day

By now I had learned, long periods of silence and strange unidentifiable noises were to be investigated post haste. So there I was lying in bed trying to catch up on my rest when, “PChooo!”

Okay, I knew I needed to move, but somehow my body just said, “No.” I had every right to be exhausted. We had just finished building our home; I had been the electrical and lighting contractor. We had moved twice in as many months: once out of our trailer to an apartment, then into our new home. The Thanksgiving to Christmas holiday season was in full swing. Then there was work. I was an instrumentation development engineer, part of the “return to flight” group, after the Space Shuttle Challenger had failed. Many workers were putting in twelve hours a day with only one day off every two weeks. I had resisted such extensive hours, but still put in many extra days as part of the work effort. Today was my day off; I had every right to sleep in.

PChooo!

But there it was again. I looked at my wife as she slowly began to move. She was also spent. Working full time and trying to keep a handle on Nicholas was no easy task.

PChooo!

She slowly rolled out of bed staggered through the door heading down stairs.

“What are you doing!?” I heard her question.

The tone told me it was time for me to get involved.

As I reached the landing, located half way down the stairs where the living room and family room came into view, I could see where the glass ornaments from the decorations on the staircase had been broken on our new tile floor entryway. I realized that “PChooo” is the sound glass Christmas ornaments make after hitting a hard tile floor at a rate of acceleration greater than that of gravity. This was the beginning of a difficult day.

“Spare the rod; spoil the child” was a phrase I had often heard in my youth…