An idle hand, they say, is the devil's workshop, and in truth it is, because one thing you would have noticed is that you tend to get crazy ideas and plans to do ridiculous things when you're bored. Boredom is a state of idleness, and to be honest, it's not a good thing. Of course, I know we all need a break from different activities, but having too much of that to the point where you become bored and have nothing to do can be very dangerous, as you will most likely, out of desire to do something, do something outrageous that you might go on to regret. I've been in that shoe on several occasions, and just last week boredom not only almost put me in trouble, but it also got me injured and endangered my life.
So it started about three weeks ago, when I had a sore throat, and for whatever reason it refused to clear off after weeks of trying to treat it with some home remedy. One of the things I used to do was to regularly drink warm water and also cover my head over a hot water bowl so that the steam coming off the water could clear off the mucus that cluttered my upper throat. These have been trending for the past three weeks, and by Saturday of last week I was still doing that. However, sometimes in the afternoon I was so bored at home that I decided I needed to do something, and while thinking, I decided I should just boil more water. This is despite the fact that I still have enough water in my flask.
Since I was so bored, I didn't mind the fact that I had enough warm water in reserve, because I stood up immediately to walk into the kitchen so I could boil more water. I turned on the cylinder and placed the pot of water on the fire while I walked back into the room to wait for the water to be ready. Strangely for me, when I got into the room, I was still so bored that I started looking for something else to do so I could while away the boredom, and that was what led me to opening the Netflix app on my phone, and I began to watch a TV series. Watching that movie made me totally forget I placed something on the fire.
By the time I stand up to ease myself, I hear some sound coming from the kitchen, and that was when I realize I had left the water on the fire for at least three hours. But by the time I got to the kitchen, the water had not only dried up, but even the pot had become red hot and was already melting due to the intense heat coming from the fire. I quickly used a rag to bring down the pot and then tried to turn off the cylinder, but on grabbing the handle of the cylinder, my finger was burnt due to how hot the cylinder handles were. I was so terrified that Saturday, as I couldn't help but recognize the fact that had I not discovered that on time, the cylinder might have become so hot that it would have exploded, leading to a fire outbreak and endangering not just my life but also that of my neighbors.
Like I said, this just happened two Saturdays ago, and I'm still terrified about how boredom pushed me into doing something I don't need, and I ended up forgetting about it, even to the point where I got injured and almost got into trouble from that incident. Since then I've been extra careful and made sure not to let boredom push me into making rash decisions that I'll later regret. Now when I'm bored, rather than do something ridiculous, I'll just maybe try to sleep, watch a movie, or take a stroll around the neighborhood.
All photos are mine.