Evening Excitement
Jul. 3rd, 2008 08:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deird_ljLast night I almost dropped half the contents of my pantry onto the kitchen floor.
It was all because I wanted chocolate, and was too lazy to fetch my stepladder.
A brief explanation of 'shelves' might come in handy at this point:
- Shelves, according to my kitchen pantry, are rectangular boards placed at regular intervals up the cupboard, perfect for holding various containers of food.
- They are supported by little tiny stoppers - one in each corner - that fit into the sides of the pantry. These stoppers don't actually grip the shelves at all - they just sit underneath them. Gravity does the rest.
- Now, if someone too lazy to use a stepladder walks up and puts pressure on the front of a shelf, the entire thing will tip forward, and lift off the back stoppers. In fact, if it's done really well, then the shelf will also pull forward enough that, if it's lowered back into its correct, non-tipped-up position, it will be an inch out from the back of the pantry - and it will completely miss the back stoppers, and tip backwards instead.
Yep. That's the way it works. As I discovered last night.
A timeline of events, in quick succession:
1) I opened my pantry, and reached up for some chocolate.
2) Because I wasn't using the stepladder, when I reached up to the top shelf, my arm ended up pushing on the front of the shelf.
3) The shelf tipped forward (as explained earlier) and dropped the front row of items onto the floor.
4) I panicked, and let go of the shelf - foolishly thinking that this would return it to its normal position.
5) The shelf missed the back stoppers on its way down, and tipped backwards.
(NB: The top shelf was now tipped back on an angle - the front still resting on stoppers, and the back bit resting on the shelf underneath it. Got that?)
6) The top shelf was now pushing all the stuff on the second shelf towards the front. The first row of items on the second shelf hit the floor.
7) I grabbed the top shelf, and tried to pull it back into position.
8) There was still a big gap between the top shelf and the back of the pantry, so all the items on the top shelf now started dropping, one by one, onto the second shelf. Luckily, there was room for them - due to the second shelf having all its stuff pushed forwards (see: item 6).
9) Trying to stop stuff dropping, I pulled it up even more.
10) The shelf tipped forwards again, and dropped the second row of items onto the floor.
At this point I started panicking.
Think about it for a second: I have a whole bunch of stuff lying scattered around my kitchen floor, an unstable top shelf ready to tip the rest of its (extremely smashable) contents off at any moment, a second shelf under attack from its higher counterpart (full of very breakable glass jars), and a cat who is freaking out at all the noise. I'm standing in the bottom of my pantry, holding on for dear life to a shelf that definitely isn't stable.
And I'm home alone.
Somehow I managed to sort it all out. Eventually.
What I find fascinating in all this: one of the items on my top shelf is a box of sprinkles (for icecream). Whenever I get it out, I inevitably end up with sprinkles all over the floor. But last night? There were random bits of food flying in every direction... and the sprinkles stayed on the shelf, in their container, and didn't make a mess at all.
Weird...
A brief explanation of 'shelves' might come in handy at this point:
- Shelves, according to my kitchen pantry, are rectangular boards placed at regular intervals up the cupboard, perfect for holding various containers of food.
- They are supported by little tiny stoppers - one in each corner - that fit into the sides of the pantry. These stoppers don't actually grip the shelves at all - they just sit underneath them. Gravity does the rest.
- Now, if someone too lazy to use a stepladder walks up and puts pressure on the front of a shelf, the entire thing will tip forward, and lift off the back stoppers. In fact, if it's done really well, then the shelf will also pull forward enough that, if it's lowered back into its correct, non-tipped-up position, it will be an inch out from the back of the pantry - and it will completely miss the back stoppers, and tip backwards instead.
Yep. That's the way it works. As I discovered last night.
A timeline of events, in quick succession:
1) I opened my pantry, and reached up for some chocolate.
2) Because I wasn't using the stepladder, when I reached up to the top shelf, my arm ended up pushing on the front of the shelf.
3) The shelf tipped forward (as explained earlier) and dropped the front row of items onto the floor.
4) I panicked, and let go of the shelf - foolishly thinking that this would return it to its normal position.
5) The shelf missed the back stoppers on its way down, and tipped backwards.
(NB: The top shelf was now tipped back on an angle - the front still resting on stoppers, and the back bit resting on the shelf underneath it. Got that?)
6) The top shelf was now pushing all the stuff on the second shelf towards the front. The first row of items on the second shelf hit the floor.
7) I grabbed the top shelf, and tried to pull it back into position.
8) There was still a big gap between the top shelf and the back of the pantry, so all the items on the top shelf now started dropping, one by one, onto the second shelf. Luckily, there was room for them - due to the second shelf having all its stuff pushed forwards (see: item 6).
9) Trying to stop stuff dropping, I pulled it up even more.
10) The shelf tipped forwards again, and dropped the second row of items onto the floor.
At this point I started panicking.
Think about it for a second: I have a whole bunch of stuff lying scattered around my kitchen floor, an unstable top shelf ready to tip the rest of its (extremely smashable) contents off at any moment, a second shelf under attack from its higher counterpart (full of very breakable glass jars), and a cat who is freaking out at all the noise. I'm standing in the bottom of my pantry, holding on for dear life to a shelf that definitely isn't stable.
And I'm home alone.
Somehow I managed to sort it all out. Eventually.
What I find fascinating in all this: one of the items on my top shelf is a box of sprinkles (for icecream). Whenever I get it out, I inevitably end up with sprinkles all over the floor. But last night? There were random bits of food flying in every direction... and the sprinkles stayed on the shelf, in their container, and didn't make a mess at all.
Weird...
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 01:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 10:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 08:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 10:28 pm (UTC)If I keep it out of reach, I don't eat it until I really need chocolate.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 05:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 10:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 08:51 pm (UTC)