When I was a kid and my mom did something clutzy or silly, she’d remark to herself “What a dumb cluck I am.” The phrase has stuck with me through the decades and I have oft-remarked when other people do something “dumb clucky.” For example, when a contestant on a game show, in response to “name a city in Ohio,” responded “Detroit.” I called him a dumb cluck.
Not that he heard me, but I do believe whatever karma you put out in the world, often comes back to you. So, lately I’ve pulled a lot of ridiculous stunts and have called myself a “dumb cluck” many times.
Today for example, I really pulled a good one. I have an antique medicine chest that I purchased many years ago. I used it to hold a number of items over the years, but in the past two years or so, it has just sat in our junk room, empty. So I took it out to the garage, intending to paint it and donate it to the local gift shop that supports our non-profit Hospice. I thought it would make a pretty autumn display holder for the front window.
I carefully set the chest on top of a three-drawer plastic stand. It was stable enough and would make it easy to paint. Then, I forgot all about it for a week.
This morning I went into our local butcher and bought several items for the weekend. I returned home and got out of the car, swinging my big purse and the large bags of wrapped meats out of the door. One of these two items swiped the side of the medicine chest, toppling both it and the three-drawer chest holding it. They crashed to the concrete floor and the glass door of the chest broke into a hundred pieces.
Dumb cluck move.
Then I made lunch. I had a new recipe for pigs-in-a-blanket that was low-carb. I had purchased low carb tortilla shells and rolled them around cheese and hot dogs. They were to bake in the oven, so I pulled out some parchment paper and laid it on the baking sheet, then carefully placed the piggies on the tray and popped them in the oven.
Lunch time arrived and I took them out of the oven. They looked great! The cheese was melted and the tortillas were browned and crispy. They were also stuck to the press-and-seal I had used instead of parchment paper. We had to eat the hot dogs and cheese unwrapped from the tortillas – unless we wanted a plastic film in our tummies.
Dumb cluck indeed.
As I write this, I noticed that I had not put away the big inflatable beach ball yesterday. It was out on our patio instead of the little “corral” area. I noticed this because it blew across our yard. So out the back door I went, chasing this ball into the front yard, out into the street and into the intersection in front of our house.
Thankfully, it’s not tremendously busy at this time of day, but I had to have looked ridiculous chasing the quickly moving beach ball around. By the way, big beach balls don’t have any hooks or tags by which you can pick them up easily. So several times, it slipped from my grasp and rolled away. Oh, for a video with which to win ten thousand dollars.
I had to settle for the title of dumb cluck queen of the day.
No comment here – way too many “dumb cluck” moves I could share of my own –
Mom sure had a way with words, often – still use some phrases I am sure came directly from her lips to my ears !!!