There are in place in the universe, universal rules which govern our daily lives. I am not talking about those rules which we learn in school. Not Newton?s Three Laws, not Einstein?s Theory of Relativity, no, the following are rules we usually discover as we go through life. At least as regards to our own personal experience, we know they are rules since that reoccur with such maddening regularity. Although they might not meet the rigors of scientific testing, we all know, deep down that they are the only solid rules which govern life on this planet.
This following list is by no means exhaustive and each reader has his of her own discovered rules which, when added to the list, will cause the rest of us to so ?oh, of course!? These universal rules include:
Electric cords will tangle. Although they usually do so in private – Christmas tree lights, for example, no matter how carefully put away, will always be tangled when taken out of their packing – some cords will defiantly tangle before your very eyes.
Electric cords and hoses will snag on the slightest obstacle. It wouldn?t matter if you were dragging the hose or cord over glass, the cord or hose will still snag on some hitherto unseen imperfection. Conversely, if you should want the cord or hose to snag for some reason, you absolutely cannot get it to do so.
Dropped tools or parts will always roll to the most inaccessible point. The challenge here is to determine which inaccessible point. The average workshop has a million such points.
A companion rule when working on your car is:
A dropped tool or part will always roll to the exact center of the underneath of the car: Like previous rule, this also is the most inaccessible point under the car.
The time it takes to complete a job increases as the time allotted to it decreases: Also known as The Handyman?s Curse, this means that a five minute job with eight hours time to complete it takes five minutes to complete. A five minute job with only 5 minutes allotted to it, on the other hand, takes eight hours.
Non-Kink Hoses: Do.
The most inaccessible screw or bolt will be the tightest: As you ponder this situation, you can almost hear one worker tell another, ?there, I?d like to see someone get that one loose.? Occasionally, the worker will round the edges of the bolt or mess up the slot in the screw head, a nice touch.
The grocery line you choose will be the slowest: If you change lines, the line you left will become the fastest while the new line you joined becomes the slowest.
All of the above are part of the overall theorem – If it can go wrong, it will.