We humans are strange creatures in all sizes, shapes and with many weird comings and goings.  In his “Fruitcakes” song, Jimmy Buffett, in good humor, suggests that maybe we need some more baking – some of us came out of the oven too early.  Maybe it’s not so much Fruitcake people but more Fruitcake moments.  I sure have had a lot of those Fruitcake moments in my lifetime and as I look around I see others perhaps having some of their own too.

My family does not like me to drive when we go anywhere – husband included.  I don’t know why other than almost killing him one time when giving him a push start in my car onto a country road from around our horseshoe drive.  We got a good head start that way.  At the end of our drive, I stopped and looked both ways for traffic after giving him the final push – he was just hanging out there (luckily just a rural road) in a dead car.  All I could see were his arms flailing and mouth going.  Oops!  I’d better get out there behind him and push!  (You may be saying by now, “What dumb….”. I know but I need to be cut some slack here. I was newly married and barely 20.)

Another time, different home in the suburbs, I was backing our big orange van (vehicles again – go Denver Broncos 1977) out of our driveway and as I straightened out and moving forward, I noticed in my rear-view mirror my husband in the driveway jumping up and down, again arms flailing and mouth moving. I couldn’t hear him but knew something was wrong, so I stopped.

Apparently, I had run over the hose that was stretched across the driveway with the sprinkler attached and it had snagged when I backed up and caught up underneath.  Only problem was that the hose was also attached to the house and stretching as I pulled out – I was house-attached with a long umbilical cord.  When I got out on the street and started forward it had stretched so much it made deflating balloon-like gyrations before dislodging from the house.  The neighbor across the street told us later he was watching the whole thing unfold from his picture window and chuckled all day at work with that sight firmly implanted in his brain.

Then there was another Fruitcake moment I remember when I was elementary school age coming home from school one day.  I walked in the front door just ready to yell “I’m home” and looked up and saw legs dangling from the ceiling.  “Mom – Is that you?”  My mother had gone up in the attic for something and mistakenly stepped off the main floor board in between the slats and down she went.  Luckily, it had just happened and she was able to hold on and wasn’t hurt.

I have a whole family with stories like that – guess I came from a gene pool with more than my share of Fruitcake moments.  We’ve all done it and more than ever seen our fellow humans having the same brain lapses.

Maybe next time we can cut them or ourselves some slack and just say, “Been there – just another Fruitcake moment in paradise.”

Oops, there’s another one.  I was so engrossed in writing this post and having fun with it that I was 10 minutes late for my dental appointment.  As I was running out the door, my husband said, “Guess you’re having another one!”  Making no excuses for being late but the dental office was kind and cut me some slack.

I’d love to hear what stories you have had or seen – please share.