The Sound of Breaking Glass

There is one sound that I do not like to hear. This is despite the fact that there was a song out by David Bowie called Breaking Glass, and a parody of that song called I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass by Nick Lowe, as well as a movie out called Breaking Glass starring Hazel O'Connor. All are British and the only one that I am vaguely familiar with is the Nick Lowe tune.

This came to my mind when I was putting clean dishes away from the dishwasher the other night. I opened a cabinet door and a glass Pyrex bowl from up above came flying out off of the shelf as if it had the wings of Pegasus. There was no time to catch it. This is also what I do when a volleyball is coming towards me. I duck to avoid being hit. It is called survival, which is probably the main reason that I am the last one picked for a team. Therefore; the shockingly loud crash of breaking glass on the cold, cruel tile floor for some reason brought the tune of Nick Lowe's song to my mind.

I can only tell you that this 3 quart bowl shattered into a kajillion pieces. Possibly there were three large pieces about one inch by two inches. The rest were shards of glass and splinters of glass. This required quick reaction time from my husband and I due to the fact that our 6 month old Golden Doodle was very close by. I, at least had shoes on, my husband did not, so I grabbed Davis, our puppy, by his collar to lead him away from the glass and to my husband for safe keeping. He needed to be held and kept away while I started clean up process. The clean up procedures were actually an easier task than trying to keep a very curious puppy entertained.

Some of the glass flew over 8 - 10 feet from where it originally had fallen. My mind went into overdrive, thinking about what I remembered reading on how to clean up shattered glass. I started with a broom and dustpan. I was hearing the words of, "NEVER, use a vacuum cleaner for glass pick up. It will ruin the vacuum cleaner and also have the effect of shooting out pieces of glass from the roller which will cause an even bigger problem." 

Of course, this happened after the sun went down so we were working with only the kitchen and breakfast room lights, some under the cabinet lights, plus the dining room lights. What we needed was a powerful search light; the kind they use in movies to stake out criminals hiding. 100 watt bulbs here and there just did not seem bright enough in my opinion.

Thinking that I had swept up most of it, I took a turn with entertaining Davis, so that another pair of eyes could come in and look to see whatever I had missed. Steve found plenty more. It is amazing how it hides until you are looking at it from a different angle. Somehow, he managed to get a small cut on his hand, so we now were cleaning blood up off the floor, along with the glass. Steve asked me to please go and get a plaster (band aid in American vocabulary) for his cut in order to stop the flow of blood. This did remind me of another tip I had read for cleaning up little pieces of glass. Simply wet paper towels folded over a few times to go across the floor checking for shards and slivers of glass. Where and why this information was popping into my mind is beyond me. Just as why was the tune of this song about loving the sound of breaking glass in my head now?

A flashlight, or torch, as my dear British husband calls it, was in order. He asked me to get the torch and shine it slowly around so that we could both use our eyes to find anything shiny. A puppy who scarfs down anything on the floor would not be safe if even one little splinter of glass got in his mouth. We each took two turns at searching for glass. Definitely, not how we had planned on spending that hour of time after dinner. Definitely, the ONLY way to spend our time in order to be sure that this precious puppy was safe in his home.   

The special effects that you hear in the song of I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass were playing over and over in my head as well as the lyrics of "Deep into the night, I love the sound of its condition flying all around." Yes, indeed. Flying all around! All I can say is I loved when this whole ordeal was over. No, I do not love the sound of breaking glass!

I will share something with you that I don't share with everyone. There is a part of me that I know has some bits of OCD symptoms. Truly, I was not 100% happy until the next morning came with bright sunshine shining through the windows and I could check one last time for broken glass. Then I could happily sing, Let It Go.