The Third Law

In physics, Newton's third law states that whenever objects A & B interact, they exert forces.

Here's the sentence most people remember:

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

For example, last Saturday me and Matt babysat Jack and George for a few hours and this is how it went:

Every time I touched a toy, Jack said, "MINE!"

Everytime George crawled to grab a toy, Jack grabbed it back and said, "MINE!"

Everytime Matt told Jack to sit down when he was eating, Jack laughed.

I warned Jack not to sit on the sofa's arm. He ignored me...then he fell off.

The second time I caught him doing this, I said, "Remember what happened last time?"
Jack contemplated this and laughed. Then he sat down.

When Jack was warned not to run with a big wooden whistle in his mouth and blowing on it like he was a choo-choo train, he ignored me.

When Matt grabbed it out of his mouth, Jack was horrified. Then he grabbed his B (blankie) and went to sulk in his room.

Me and Matt looked at each other and tried not to laugh.

Jack came out one minute later pretending that nothing ever happened. "La, la, la!"

Then he spent five minutes looking for his whistle, which he couldn't find because I had wedged it in the couch cushions, like I was a dog hiding a bone.

Then Jacks says, "I'm sad."
"Why are you sad?"
"Because I can't find my whistle."

So I crumbled and gave it back. I'm pathetic.

Then he shoved it in his mouth and ran away again.


After babysitting we ran some errands and then because it was such a warm sunny day we decided to get the car washed.

I love going to the car wash. My favorite is Dan's on Nicollet Avenue in South Minneapolis. They have all kinds of fancy options; we decided to splurge and got the floor mats washed for an extra $2. The Jetta was sparkling inside and out.

Here's where the third law comes in. Again.

Five blocks from home we were turning off the parkway when a car zoomed past and hit a giant slush puddle. It was only slightly smaller than the size of Lake Erie. A giant sheet of muddy ice water washed over our car, causing both of us to scream like hyenas.

"Well," said Matt. "That was nice while it lasted."
"Mmm-hmmm....All seven minutes of it."