By Pat Bataillon
I am not going to lie; I did watch television last night. I want to write about what I watched last night. But I had a little mishap involving a knife last night, so I am operating with a bit of a handicap this morning, typing a little slower than usual. I would like to explain, because this was not a cooking accident, nor a hunting accident. It was a MacGyver accident.
A MacGyver accident is an accident easily solved with whatever is at hand – usually household items – and a little ingenuity. I had one of those.
I moved into a new apartment about a month ago and I enjoy it. I also enjoy the little things in life. I like a bar of soap in the morning to be solid instead of soggy. A soggy bar sits in water throughout the night and a solid is in a dry habitat.
When I moved in I made a soap dish out of an old Tupperware lid. It works great – no more soggy soap. I don’t have a dustpan so I use the back cover of an old notebook. Now I can afford a soap dish and a dustpan, but where is the fun in that?
Two nights ago I cracked; I had had it with my toothbrush storage method. It sits in the medicine cabinet and takes up way too much room. Something needed to be done. My bathroom features a toothbrush holder but the slots in it are too small for my Oral B. Having this luxury go to waste has bothered me for the last few weeks because I want to take advantage of it, and I think it looks pretty slick to have toothbrushes hanging rather than laying.
So I hatched my plan for a hanging toothbrush. I figured that I could cut a Tupperware lid to fit over the existing toothbrush holder and cut proper holes in it for a toothbrush. Flawless plan so far. So yesterday, after making the proper measurements, I began to cut the lid – as well as the tip of my left index finger, drawing blood.
I tried to fashion a bandage out of toilet paper and soon realized that was not sufficient for the amount of bleeding involved. I then held the wound together in order for the blood to coagulate. I applied some Neosporin and a bandage and, presto, the blood stopped.
I finished making the rig and it works wonderfully. Sometimes I impress myself with the amount of physical pain I can take and still function normally. I was on the verge of losing consciousness due to blood loss out of my quarter inch gash and yet I was still able to finish my task.
I wish MacGyver was still on.
Posted on September 14, 2006