Super-duper careful guy

The kids and I are reading The House of Scorpion together. It's set in the future and there are clones and a social system that is sort of communism-gone-awry. There is this one part where these kids have to raise a flag every morning and recite something like the pledge, and Kira said, "Hey, that reminds me of the Pledge of Allegiance." and Sam said, "Yeah, I used to raise the flag when I was in fifth grade but I got my pinky caught in the pulley three days in a row so from then on kids couldn't raise the flag."

For some reason I thought that was so funny. He reported it as an accident and told the teachers it was probably dangerous.

Also tonite we were watching Nature on PBS and there were some people trying to destroy a yellow-jacket nest (hive?) and they were all wearing the protective gear and made a big deal out of duct taping their sleeves shut so the bees wouldn't get in and sting them. I asked Sam if he would dare face the swarm of wasps if he had all the protective gear. He said, "I'd do it if it was only one wasp." The mental picture of Sam in sting-proof coveralls and a net taped down over his head doing battle with a single wasp made me laugh.

Which reminded me of the time when he had to have surgery on his leg when he was five years old. I was taking him home from the hospital and he was sitting in the back seat and I was driving in Minneapolis traffic. He said in a sweet little voice, "Oh, look! A bee!" I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a gigantic wasp with hangy legs circling my sick little baby's head while he watched it in wonder. It stung him twice before I could stop. On the face. I felt like a terrible mother THAT day.