So, this was the last piece from our original living room set. There's a whole story to the furniture that I won't go into (let's just say I never saw the furniture until after the whole sale was said and done), but in the end I really did kind of liked the furniture. The sleeper sofa died in 2006, and well, the love seat did to, since we got tired of A)falling in the hole from the missing spring (damn kids, anyway), and B)Jacob rolling the love seat, end over end, across the living room. Nope, not making that up. I have photographic proof. Even after we got rid of those two, we still kept the chair, because it was still comfy and nice to curl up in and read. Except in the last year, we've had a weird stage with Jacob, uh, basically using my comfy reading chair as a urinal. It had reached the point that no matter how much scrubbing and shampooing I did, it still had a funky smell. And it was missing a spring, so sitting in it wasn't all that comfortable.
And then on Friday, it's toast was cooked. Sort of literally. We had a floor lamp behind it in the corner, with (and this is really stupid) a compact fluorescent light bulb in it. You know, CFL's, the light bulbs that last for 2 years. Unless you're us, and your child somehow manages to break it, raining mercury dust down on your chair. And cleaning up that was just fun. Let's see. Clear the room. Open the windows. Turn off the a/c. Air out the room for 15 minutes. Use gloves and cardboard to scoop up the glass pieces. Seal in plastic bag. Use sticky tape to lift the dust particles from carpeting and upholstery. Seal in plastic bag. Vacuum only if on carpet. Seal vacuum bag or dust in plastic bag. Bleach clean vacuum cup if bagless. Air out room for an hour. Do not put any clothes that come into contact with mercury dust in your washer. Blah, blah, blah. Hope you're not glowing. (Kidding, Mom!)
And after all that, we decided that it wasn't worth it to keep the chair. While I think that the garbage company would have picked it up with heavy trash the following Friday, Rick set Brandon to taking the chair apart. It was sufficiently aired out (overnight outside) so he just needed to wear gloves. And his tools? A utility knife, and electric knife and a sledge hammer. Should I be worried that he stood there and said "Destruction is fun!" over and over again as he carved up my chair?
