Friday, September 30, 2016

A Million Pieces

I have two sets of drinking glasses, one tall and one stout. Each comprised four glasses. Each now comprise two. I like glass, rather than plastic, but glass breaks, especially when it is dropped on a hard floor.

I observed this occurrence a few days ago when, drying the dishes after washing them, one of the stout glasses slipped out of my hands. I nearly had it a couple more times before it finally evaded my grasp. One realises that one’s primary concern is for one’s pets when one yells at them to get back even before one resorts to cursing and swearing.


Renn was nearest, and he was easily chased away from the danger zone. Josie was up a cat tree anyway, and stayed there, while Tucker ran for the bedroom, no doubt to warn all and sundry that the sky was falling. Cammie did what she usually does when she hears a loud noise or commotion: runs toward it to see what’s going on and possibly to give those involved a piece of her mind. She did not like being driven back to the bedroom.

With the beasts locked away or in hiding, I could clean up the mess. I have never seen a single glass, and a small one at that, shatter into so many fragments. There must have been thousands. It looked like the aftermath of a crystal hailstorm. I swept and vacuumed, vacuumed and swept. After an hour, I had gathered everything I could then see, and let the cats out again.

I am still finding the odd piece, sometimes right in the open. That’s frightening; my first concern is the cats’ feet, of course, but with each regular cleaning, I collect more remnants that were missed by earlier efforts. It is a bother, and all because of a half-second’s slip. But at least no one was hurt. Did I learn a lesson? Yes: for now, I am drying the dishes over a counter, where they have less distance to fall. How long that lasts until I forget or grow lazy is anyone’s guess. But I suspect there may be more breakages in the future because I am, as one book described certain people, someone who prefers a glass salt-shaker that doesn’t work to a plastic one that does.

No, that’s not an oblique reference to you, Renn.

18 comments:

  1. we have glasses shatter here before too and it makes mom a little nuts worrying about the pieces....which seem to appear for days after the event no matter how many times the evil vacuum is run

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    1. It's as if the tiniest pieces just get tumbled about by the vacuum-cleaner, not picked up.

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  2. I hear you! I always worry when something breaks that I will miss a piece of it and the cats will step on it and hurt themselves.

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    1. I'm still finding bits. Tonight there was a tiny piece twenty feet away from the point of impact.

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  3. Wow, what a mess! I'm glad neither you nor any of your four-footed companions was hurt in any way.

    I keep a couple of acrylic glasses on hand for daily use for just that reason. I did find a really nice, heavy glass set (4 @ $1.50 each, I think) at Value Village over the summer. I'm scared to use them. LOL. They're for guests!

    BTW, Nicki, too, will come right over to any disaster, not to scold, but of course to check everything out and "help". Derry's safe enough, he always runs for the hills when anything like that happens.

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    1. Under such conditions, I prefer the scaredy-cats to the brave ones.

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  4. I have to drink out of a plastic glass, only because Miss Pops knocks them to the ground on a regular basis. I use my glass ones when visitors come and I have to clean up quickly to make sure that she doesn't play in their glasses. I hope all the shards are cleaned up now.

    Have a nice weekend.

    Julie and Poppy Q

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    1. I can just see her knocking them about. Plastic is the way to go around Poppy Q.

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  5. I agree, it is amazing how many pieces a glass can shatter into. No matter how well you clean up, more pieces regularly turn up from some obscure hiding place. I can go months, or more likely years without breaking any, then I seem to break 3 or 4 in a month.

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  6. we had ta crack up, sorree two ewe & yur dad guys coz we noe thiz is noe laffin matter with all that looze glass everee wear.....

    but we had ta crack up at cammie's ree action ~~~~~ if dad had handed her a dirt devil vacuum.....we bet her wooda said two de glass:

    don't EVEN think about moving... you shards ~~~~~~~ ☺☺

    heerz two a bumblebee goby kinda week oh end guys~~~~~ ♥♥♥

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    1. Cammie has always come running at disturbances. It's funny when she rushes out at two of my other cats having a disagreement. She hisses at both of them, as if having a fit that there isn't peace and co-operation in the household. She's one to talk!

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  7. I KNOW how you feel...OH I know how you feel. I only use my glass glasses rarely. I love them..they are pretty BUT I drop things or they take wings and fly from the cabinet! Worse--- or just as bad is having dropped medicine. You must immediately drop to all fours, preferably with a flashlight and not let up no matter HOW long it takes until the all clear is sounded.

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    1. Medicine! I've never dropped that, thank goodness. I'd never know if I collected it all.

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  8. It's been awhile since I've dropped a glass, but Corelle dinner plates do much the same things when the shatter. I've dropped several of those in my times. Like your Cammie, Saku is my helper and I'm always afraid one of the cats is going to step on, or eat of the pieces if I don't find them all. And of course, I don't, the darn shards are sneaky.

    Hope you've got it all cleared up now!

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    1. I had a Corelle dish shatter, too. They rarely break, I've found, but if they fall right - or wrong - they are like bombs going off. And the pieces are like razors.

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  9. I love real glass vs. plastic but I am only using plastic these days. Acryliic, that is. I've had to adapt. My cats are too unmannerly to even entertain the idea of real glass. And to be perfectly honest, I'm not without fault myself. My Tigger is like Cammie. One crash and you cannot keep the boy away. Attempts to clean up are futile until he's behind closed doors.

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  10. I think everyone has broken glassware, and it is a concern. Sometimes I've been the culprit, sometimes the cats have knocked a glass off the table. I've started to use acrylic glasses, and I save the glass for company.

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