Life lessons with Grandpap
I was 4 when my grandfather taught me the proper way to light a match. And none of this rookie, fold-the-cover-back stuff. The right way. Proper.
And I got the hang of it after just a few tries.
Well, it didn’t take very long before I wanted to put my newly acquired skill to the test. We grew up with a cast iron stove in the basement that heated the house through the winter. I had watched my father dozens of times start a fire in that stove and I knew the process with careful detail. Still, I wouldn’t dare to start a fire by myself. I was only 4!
But I got a lot braver when my cousin came to visit.
So there we were, 6am on a cold winter morning, rockin’ our onesie PJs head to toe, thinking we’d do the family a favor and get a fire going. My cousin really deserves no blame; he was just in it for the ride. Book of matches in hand, paper and kindling laid, I was ready.
I lit the match. Burned my finger. And dropped the burning match onto the leg of my onesie PJs, burning a hole, and proceeding downward to the rug where it started to smolder and a small flame grew up from the carpet.
With all the fear and fury I could muster, I pounded that flame out. As the story goes, I saved the house and the whole family that day.
Bonus: a fun tool I built
This is a Shortcut I built for the iPhone to generate a graphic quickly and easily with just your voice. First get an API key from OpenAI, and copy it to the clipboard on your iPhone. Then add this Shortcut “Make an image” to your iPhone Shortcuts. Once it’s set up, just say, “Hey Siri, make an image.”
Note: You will need an OpenAI API key of your own to use this tool. Make sure you have that key copied to the clipboard on your iPhone before the Shortcut setup process.
Also note: Once your image is created, the link will stay live for maybe 30 or so minutes. So if you like the image, download it or save it to your photos. After the time lapses, the photo will no longer be available by its link.
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