"Why are you doing dragging that home?" I demanded of my husband. Howard had been helping our son clean out his garage and was carrying a dusty, black-metal desk lamp with the broken end of a light bulb still in it.
"I got it for your desk," he said hopefully. Later, after he removed the bulb and dusted it off, I thought it might have possibilities. It was kind of cute, with a metal vine and leaves twisted around the curved neck and encircling the shade area, but there was no shade!
He put a bright tear-drop bulb in it and put it on the desk. It wasn't half bad! "We'll have to buy a shade," he said. I glanced around as he left the room and my eyes fell on a small bag made of hopsacking hooked on the knob of a standing mirror. On impulse, I slipped it over the shade framework and it fit perfectly. Then I switched on the light and was amazed! The metal vine and leaf underneath showed artistically through the rough cotton weave. It looked like something from IKEA!
Howard had been wanting me to make a cherry pie, so remembering I had a pie crust at home, I bought a can of cherry pie filling the other day. Then I realized there was only one crust left in the opened box, and the pie would need a top crust. Oh well, I could make one, I thought, but I didn't have shortening. I decided to use oil, but thought better of it, and wondered if I could make a crust with baking mix. I dumped some in a bowl, added a little oil and water, and rolled it thin. It seemed okay and fit over the pie beautifully. I brushed the crust with egg white and put the pie in the oven. The results were delicious! The crust was flaky and golden and so easy!
Whether or not my examples are invention or adaptation, I am glad of the invention and/or development of the iPad! Yesterday I heard mine give a distinctive sound, and when I went to check, there was my 4-month-old grandson, Isaac, wriggling and smiling on the screen! I had been missing him since we came home from their house nearly two weeks ago. My young granddaughters were at school, so my son kept the camera trained on the baby who was giving me his undivided attention via the face-to-face video call known as Face Time!
What a joyful quarter hour as I watched him kick and squirm! I wanted to kiss his adorable bare feet practically sticking into my living room! I could see that he had grown and filled out more in the short time we'd been gone, and by his twisting and turning, I could tell he was perfecting his technique for rolling over, a feat he had done once during our visit. Between his beatific smiles, Isaac enjoyed the sweet fist he shoved into his mouth or sucking on his middle fingers, as was his sister's habit.
When they had to hang up, Isaac was kicking his right leg non-stop, a trick the little genius had taught himself to make his spring-seat rock when we were there. His own invention, you might say!
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