There is a real danger to electricity, and I had the chance to ponder on that fact today. Now, when I was a child, my parents taught me to be careful with electricity. I learned to respect that current going through the wires. I learned how to replace a light bulb, how to fix a broken cord or plug, and learned what can happen when you’re not careful. Heck, I learned that last lesson again a few years ago on Christmas eve: I’d fallen asleep on the sofa with all the tree and inside Christmas lights on, and awoke to some sort of noise and what sounded like sparking….I’d overloaded a circuit and the plug in the wall (actually, it was a noise filter) was shooting sparks! I quickly unplugged it and felt the warm cord. Shame on me, I’d overloaded a 5 amp filter with, I’m sure, a lot more than that. The next morning a 10 amp filter was on it’s way, and now I use some heavy duty cords to make sure.
But, I’ve gotten away from the purpose of this post. You see, apparently, I’ve learned nothing about the real danger of electricity. I know this is so because I just spent the last bit of time cutting warning tag after warning tag off of a series of 7 watt lights! Yes, I have some little village type things I put up every Christmas, and this year I just could not deal with all the warning tags. There were four on each cord! Four! What did they say? Hell if I know, just some sort of warning about the dangers of electricity. Apparently I’m an idiot or a dolt, or just got up from a hundred year nap and don’t know a thing about electricity! Four warning tags! For one 7-watt light!
But the real danger, the REAL danger of electricity, the real danger is when you try to cut those tags off. It’s hard to get a scissors in there, and using a sharp knife is also dangerous–don’t want to cut the cord, right (See, I knew that and yet none of the warning tags warned me about the danger of removing them!)? So, the real danger of electricity is in removing those unsightly warning tags.
Hey, I wonder… if I’d cut myself while trying to remove a warning tag, could I have sued the maker, because no where did they warn me of the dangers of removing the tag, nor provide any easy means to remove the tag. I’ll bet some lawyer out there would take my case, make it a class action, and walk away with several million dollars. Me? I’d get enough from the lawsuit to buy a box of band-aids!