the word of the day is

job. j...o....b....

just a little 'friday' humor for you.

the word of the day is actually cardboard.

i've learned that cardboard can be your best friend or your worst enemy. you can cut it, tape it, bend it, fold it, rip it, crease it, and cuss at it. sometimes it is your friend, other times it will cut your damn finger like a razor blade. you know when you have that perfect size box for that certain item? yeah, that's when cardboard is your friend. it's when you start trying to mold it into another sized box that it becomes your enemy. the more time i spend with it, the better i get at deciding when to go with it or search for another. sometimes it just isn't worth the bleeding finger.

i'm usually at the mercy of friendly shops in the area when it comes to cardboard boxes. they usually have a pile of it waiting for the recycling company or a pile of it waiting to go to the dumpster. many of them have been so kind as to put aside good shipping boxes for me. that's just an excellent situation. the more cardboard to choose from, the less chances of me running to the medicine cabinet looking for a tourniquet.

cardboard stinks, too. every once in a while i will make the mistake of leaving a bunch of it in my car with the windows up. ick. the car smells like a wet dog. a wet cardboard dog.

there is tape-resistant cardboard, too. i can get a box perfectly ready to go and turn around and the tape has all begun to flee the edges. i quietly cuss to myself when tape sticks to everything around me, including me, but won't hold down the edges of the blasted box. how can it do that?

it's amazingly heavy, too. many times it's heavier than the item i'm shipping. i marvel at the way a box will resist when i try to rip it or cut it, yet it will collapse completely on the expensive item inside with the slightest provocation.

in the end, what you have is a guy, me, writing about cardboard.

'cause it's the word of the day.