Now it's down

The best part about it was listening to the cats offer to help. We were keeping them out of that bedroom precisely because they wanted to help. Even after explaining their deficiency in opposable thumbs, and a lack of understanding about how to neatly pack things, they insisted they could help. But the tree is down, uneventfully, and everything packed away again for another year. No doubt it will go by very quickly.

I was even downstairs for a brief core workout and stretching session. However, the real workout was holding onto a squirming cat who was getting his nether bits washed and combed. Every now and then that needs to happen. I think combing the knots out actually makes him happier almost immediately after, even if he isn't very happy about the warm water running over his butt.

Every now and then I get a kick out of watching the fail videos. Yes, I realize this is sick, but there's something fascinating about it. Every now and then there is one where something unexpected goes wrong, and the boat turns over in the cradle and falls upside down into the water. Some of them are drunks trying to do something they couldn't do sober and at the height of their athletic prowess. These guys, and it's mostly guys, deserve everything that happens to them.

But most of them are people demonstrating that wheels, a jump, and a video camera often adds up to stupidity incarnate. It is clear that none of the people involved had the least thought along the lines of "what could obviously go wrong?", let alone a thorough examination of the various potential causes for failure and pain.

Sometimes the stupidity demonstrator gets up right away, but I'm sure that isn't going to last. Many of these people are, or should be on their way to a hospital for head X-rays and dental care. Much like the guy who proved that his brain isn't a vital organ, via "cleaning his cross-bow", these people don't seem to show any inclination to use theirs. The potential for injury is there even if things go perfectly.

My only consolation is that some of them look to be too young to breed, and they way they have rammed their crotch into some unmoving object leads me to believe they won't be reproducing. Which is good. I often take a Darwinian view of such things. This is the safest society humans have invented to date, with many previous hazards removed or mitigated. Now people have to go to some lengths to injure themselves, and they seem willing to do it.

I just wish we didn't have to pay their hospital bills. Perhaps we need a stupidity judge. When people go skiing out of bounds and need an expensive rescue, such a judge could determine if they were being stupid. To me, walking, skiing, or snowshoeing past the "out of bounds" sign without adequate preparation is prima facie evidence of stupidity, and they should have to pay the rescue costs. As is being towed by just about any motorized vehicle. Or operating powerful motor vehicles with inadequate training, or outside their operating parameters. And most frequently, attempting to operate their own bodies outside their established operating parameters with inadequate training or preparation.