Adventures in Lighting

We had a Medusa-style floor lamp with five fixtures that we bought when we moved into our old apartment last year. Well, a year's worth of bouncy kidlings and other abuses led to screw in connections that didn't stay put where the vertical tube meets the base of the lamp and where the two vertical tube sections meet. Also, one of the lights worked intermittently, so there were still four reliable bulbs. It was a cheap lamp...you get what you pay for.

Then it moved across town and the layout of the living room changed and there was no longer a good place to wedge it to make it stay upright. It tipped over once and went from four bulbs that worked to one. I don't know whether it was dead bulbs or bad connections, but this poor lamp was so far past its prime that I didn't investigate. Then, yesterday afternoon, Bean climbed behind the rocker and knocked it over again and the poor lone bulb was doomed. Thus, last night I did what we should have done a month ago and replaced the poor thing.

Anyway, after the new lamp was hooked up, the kids were playing in the living room and big brother was (surprise, surprise) harassing little sister and the following conversation took place:

Me: Bug, no more roughhousing; be gentle with your sister.
Bug: She's not my sister.
Me: Oh, really?
Bug: She broke the lamp, she's not my sister anymore.