July 29, 2009

Quick escape

Quick escape

Other families don’t seem to have this problem, but my household is hard on screen windows. About half of ours are missing. Some were damaged in the early days when I practiced fire drills with my kids, which meant everyone hurriedly pushing out screens to jump out windows. Screens have taken hard use in the name of science as well: I think every one of my kids has done the seventh grade project in which you need to design a parachute that will safely land an egg on the ground.

Part of the problem is that I’m careless with the screen windows. I’m always taking them out to take a photo or throw something out the window, and I end up dropping them. Mostly, though, the fault lies with the screen windows for being poorly made. If seventh graders can design a parachute that will land an egg safely, surely someone could design a screen window that would survive an occasional drop from a second-floor window.

I never think about the missing screen windows until our first heat wave, when the air inside the house resembles a sauna, but only half our windows can be opened to let in the cool night air. Well, we could just open the windows regardless if we wanted to be mauled by swarms of mosquitoes. The good part about all those missing screen windows is that it’s easy to climb in and out of the house.

That’s Shaggy Hair Boy in the photo.

11 comments:

sherry said...

Your son's hair is beautiful. I really hope your kids realize how lucky they are. Down here in the last bastion of Republican/Conservative land, that hair would not be allowed at the public schools. Male hair can.not. touch the collar and "can not be styled in such a way as to circumvent this rule".

And yes, the rule has been challenged without any success.

And yes, we use an enlightened private school. It stinks.

Kathy Rogers said...

You throw stuff out the window?

That is awesome.

Madeleine said...

From the post title, I was sure it was going to turn out to be a picture of Quick. But I'm punny like that.

Busymomma66 said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one missing screens in this heat. My son is the culprit in our house. I'm not sure what he has against screens--lol.

YourFireAnt said...

Everybody throws stuff out the window.

Don't they?

T.

Liz Miller said...

Mosquito netting canopies for the beds and velcro-able mosquito netting curtains for the windows. Problem solved.

jo(e) said...

Sherry: Seriously? In this century? Living in the northeast, I forget how conservative other parts of the country can be.

sherry said...

Yes, seriously.
And hair can not be styled or colored "in such a way as to be distracting or unnatural"

And I didn't mean to make it sound like our private school stinks...it is great.

The rule stinks.

Anonymous said...

I think the velcro-able netting for the windows is probably your best bet.

kathy a. said...

velcro is one of the world's wonders. but it never stays effective when there is cat hair in the environment...

landismom said...

Our cats have slowly been destroying the screens on all our screen doors lately, which is driving me crazy. We have a huge double door between our family room and our deck, and every night that I leave it open, I have to rescue a cat that has jumped up on it in pursuit of a moth on the other side. Invariably, when the cat is removed, he or she rips another hole in the screen. I'm beginning to think that the moths and the mosquitoes have some kind of symbiotic relationship.