Life: “I’ve got a screw loose”

I do believe I just had my “Thank you, God” moment of the week. I’m sitting on the couch this evening, having gotten the little ones off to sleep, when I hear a loud thunk-thump from upstairs.

Great. Reed’s fallen out of bed again.

I pull my ass off the sofa and head upstairs where I find Reed sleeping soundly in bed. But something doesn’t seem right. Hey, why isn’t the fan turning (we run our ceiling fans a lot at night)? And why are there only three blades up there?

Turns out, a screw had loosened and one of the blades had flung off–causing the sound I’d heard–loosening one of the other blades which somehow wedged against the fan housing, causing it to seize. Sheez. Another quarter turn in rotation and the falling blade would have hit my sleeping son. I mean, you think about the rotational speed at the tip of one of those blades and it really comes down to that screw letting go a split second later.

I guess I’m just saying that I’m really thankful that we don’t have to go in for stitches. Again.