Never thought I'd say...

"NO CAPES!"

Remember the scene from "The Incredibles" where the designer is detailing scenarios where heroes have met a tragic end because of their capes?  Sucked into a tornado, jet engine, missile, etc.  Well, now I can relate.

The kids and I did a service project today, and went to our neighbor's house to rake leaves.  Helen passed away in April, and Charlie is now living with one of their daughters.  Their lovely old home sits sadly vacant, and the big yard was piles with leaves from their many beautiful trees.  We swept, power-blew, and raked for quite some time.  In fact, my forearms are reminding me of all that hard work as I type.

Anyway, My 5 year old boy decided that he needed a drink and ran home to get one.  Naturally, he wanted to get back to raking by means faster than running, so he rode his Spiderman bike.  Here's where the problem comes in: he was wearing his long Superman cape.

I hear him holler and ran around the corner to see him leaning waaaay back on his bike, a look of panic in his eyes, and his cape wound very tightly in the tire chain spoke thingy.  I quickly loosened it from his neck and carried the bike home.   Once there, the back tire got disassembled and the cape was released.   It was mangled!  You know in cartoons when someone shoots a wall with a machine gun and there's a zig zag of holes streaking across it?  That's what the cape looked like. 

"Don't ride your bike with a cape on," I implored the little fella.  And that got me thinking of other unusual things I've found myself saying.  Here are but a few:

"Get your pants out of there!"

"I said 'sectional', not 'sexual'"

"A little barf never hurt nobody."

"Shampoo is not for eating."

"How did he even get it in there?!?"

"What's in my shoe?"

"He pooped WHERE!?"

What have you said?