Just Jo!

I woke with a mission in mind this morning.
After a brief interlude of the washing machine playing nice, it was back to it’s old tricks during the week, ie not draining, with the resultant dripping washing everywhere.
Before I’d even had a cup of tea (I was that determined!), I tackled the filter. Fair to say, the filter won.
The floor was awash….quite dramatically.
I retrieved 47p in small coins, a button and a bra pad….ohhhh!!! So that’s why it wasn’t draining….
Olivia emerged from her pit, “What’s happened?!”
“I fixed the washing machine.”
Not deterred in the slightest, she immediately turned round, donned her wellies and proceeded to get her breakfast….

This is the delightful ensemble she’s wearing to bed at the moment (except the wellies!). To protest the fact I haven’t turned the heating back on. You can see why she wasn’t really up for a photo call.
After breaking her fast, she then spent hours catching up with her blog.
More poetry, started a new English workbook, more maths and science. She also read some stuff on the internet about slavery, today being the bicentennial of the abolition of the slave trade in Britain. Did a wordsearch on the same subject (she likes wordsearches), had a go at filling in an empathy sheet (Sights, sounds, smells and feelings as the traders arrive, being captured, stopping for the night, a long walk, getting to the coast, on the boat, exercising on the deck….). Hasn’t finished that yet though, she wants to read some more about it first. We also found out some stuff about Olaudah Equiano. Whose portrait just happens to be hanging in our museum. Guess where we’re going tomorrow?
We also found some extracts from his book, which I’ve got as far as printing out, but neither of us have read them yet. Because it was about ten minutes before dinner. And there’s 8 pages. And, sometimes….occasionally, food comes before education. Quite often actually….
I’ve also scoured, scrubbed and generally beaten into submission all my baking trays. So they’re as sparkly as the day they were born bought. Except for the corners, ‘cos they were tricky and my hand was aching by then.
And that’s been our day. I’ll gloss over the fact of Olivia breaking yet another plate….
I wasn’t impressed, hence the frantic scrubbing of baking trays…. “I will not shout! I will not swear!” Well….I did a bit, but it would have been a whole lot worse if the trays hadn’t taken the brunt….
And I haven’t forgotten The World’s Stupidest Husbands! Here you go….

Every Action Has A Reaction

A wife related this adventure suffered by her husband in Michigan, USA.

A high wind had blown a huge tree branch across the electricity lines behind their house, and the line was close to breaking. Her husband decided to remove the branch from the wire himself.

Enlisting the aid of a friend, he balanced the ladder against the taut wire, climbed up, started the chainsaw, and carefully began cutting. He had almost managed to free the branch, and only one more cut was needed when the whole branch fell to the ground, releasing the wire. Of course, the wire sprang back to its original position.

The force lifted the ladder several feet into the air, along with its chainsaw-wielding occupant. The ladder slipped away, and Joe fell against the wire, knocking the chainsaw into his face, and missing his carotid artery by mere inches.

He managed to throw the chainsaw away from himself, preventing further injury from that source, but then hit the ground extremely hard. Fortunately, her husband survived with only a broken leg and some stitches. She was also adamant that next time they would wait for a professional!

I tried not to laugh, mainly because I once very nearly chopped off the end of my finger with a hedge trimmer while balancing precariously on a ladder….there was enough blood to convince me not to do that anymore! So I don’t!