Tuesday, June 22, 2004

The age old adendum -- Put it back where you found it... dammit!

My poor dear, constantly-berated sibling always wonders why I feel so hesitant to let him use my stuff. Why my lends are always accompanied by "Be really, REALLY careful with it", "remember not to leave it outside" "please lock it up, just don't let it get stolen... okay?"
He wonders, and there is a decent explanation. It's because, while he is my brother, and I love him, and I want to lend him my stuff in good faith, I also want to try and cover all the possibilities of things he might do to my stuff that might compromise it in some way. Because I know, from years and years of experience, that if you don't cover all the bases, he will find something else, the one thing you forgot, to mess up. And certainly, it doesn't mess things up for him, but you end up, say, arriving at work on your bike and discovering that you hadn't noticed he'd removed the pouch with the bike lock in it when you let him borrow the bike the night before. So you sit at your desk wondering if you've got enough time to skip out of work and run to Canadian Tire for another lock... and planning the pleading way you'll ask a fellow employee if he'll kindly lock his bike to yours... and finally, you just phone your brother, and let the phone ring and ring until he finally picks it up... and tell him that he needs to come to your work and return the bike lock to the correct place (around your heretofore unprotected vehicle). You feel bad, you've gotten him out of bed, and he has to make the trek to your work, and he says mournfully "but I left it on the ground beside your bike!" and you think, oh, it was my fault after all... and then you catch yourself thinking that and think instead "Why the hell would you leave it on the ground next to my bike instead of just velcro-ing it back the hell on?"
Argh. He better get here soon.

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