We have been working hard to finish the guest room so that it can be turned into Maryam and Peyton's room once we have twin beds for them. On Friday, Tobin worked on putting in the new baseboards while I went through the filing cabinets and moved them downstairs. We have one two-drawer and one four-drawer cabinet. I easily and quickly cleaned out the two-drawer cabinet and moved it downstairs in a multi-step process: empty out the papers, files, etc; take them downstairs; take out the drawers and take them downstairs; move the cabinet downstairs. Then I started on the larger cabinet. This one took a lot more time since it has more in it, and many things in it date back to when we were first married or before. I had to decide what was still important to keep, what should be shredded, and what could be thrown in the garbage. During this process, Peyton and Maryam were alternating between "helping" us and watching TV/playing with their new toys.
I finally finished cleaning out the larger cabinet, and completed the multi-step moving process with the exception of moving the cabinet. Tobin offered to help me take it down the stairs, which I determined would be the best way to keep from hurting myself, the cabinet, or the house. I dragged the cabinet to the top of the stairs and left it there while Tobin finished up. I walked back to the guest room to check on Tobin, and a few seconds later I heard a terrible crashing sound on the stairs. Peyton and Maryam had been following me around through the moving process, and I had explained to them that we needed to wait for a few minutes before taking the cabinet down the stairs. They had stayed with the cabinet at the top of the stairs.
I'm not sure if Peyton was tired of waiting or if he decided to conduct a scientific experiment. This seems very much like something my brother Ray might have done as a child. "Let's see what happens when a large object at the top of the stairs is pushed. Will it fall? Will it roll? Which way will it go? What will happen when it reaches the bottom of the stairs?" All of these questions were answered in a couple of seconds. I ran from the guest room shouting, "NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" as if my voice could keep the filing cabinet from completing it's descent. My shouting and the tumbling, crashing cabinet scared my poor boy to death. He sat at the top of the stairs crying his little heart out. I think he quickly realized that it was a bad choice to conduct this particular experiment. Tobin and I could not bring ourselves to punish him because he felt so badly about what he had done. Peyton remained down-trodden and woeful until I apologized to him about twenty minutes later. Ah, the irony!
Our hardwood floor and the file cabinet took the worst physical beating. The floor has a couple of lovely, deep gouges in it (see the picture below). We had to pound out the top of the cabinet in order to make the top drawer fit again. It works ok now, and has a lovely dent on the top right corner to remember it's trip by.
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