it's raining eggs

Surfer Dude and a couple of his friends are members of the brand new Engineering Club at their Elementary School, and last week there was a competition held at the college right up the road. They all entered in a couple of categories, but the Egg Drop was the one that made the biggest splash -at least around here.


I'm sure you're all familiar with the Egg Drop. You take an egg and rig it into some kind of contraption that keeps the egg from breaking when you drop it from a certain height. Early last week there were four boys in my house in feverish preparation for the event. They each showed up on my doorstep clutching a dozen eggs and then disappeared into SD's bedroom to work out the kinks. They were engrossed, they were diligent...they were quiet. I chalked the silence up to an overactive sixth grade work ethic and went about my business.


That was my first mistake.


I was in the kitchen putting dinner together when I heard the sound of something hitting the patio outside with a big gushy splat. When I stuck my head out the back door to check it out, I almost got beaned by an egg hurtling way too fast toward the brick patio. I looked up briefly and then jumped back into the safety of the doorway as it began to rain eggs all around me. Four boy's heads peered out of the only screenless window in Gumby's room and watched intently, hoping (futiley) that one of the eggs landed intact. Meanwhile, three dogs peered intently out of the open screen door and as if they were one, bolted out for a little pre-Easter egg collection. I have mentioned they're Labs, right? Before I could get them rounded up, they had each wolfed down more than their fair share of raw eggs. Pieces of eggshell clinging to their muzzles, I corralled them in the house and went to have a word with the Egg Beaters. They sat upstairs, dejected. Forty eight eggs dropped and forty eight eggs broken. It didn't look like this was going to be such a hot event for them, although no complaints were heard from the canine corner.


Forty eight hours later, cleaning up yet another doggie present from the double ended GI Upset Store, I thought they should change the name of the event. The Egg Drop didn't do it much justice. It wasn't a fear of broken eggs that kept us from walking barefooted through a dark room without turning on a light.


Is Cause and Effect even an engineering term?