Pulling the Pulley
This was the consequence of deliberate planning and execution conducted by a very stupid 12-year-old me. My mom worked at my school and often stayed late, so I was stuck there too. I raided the school snack cabinet and supply closet to find some way to occupy myself. I found chocolate pirouette sticks and ate them all.
The popsicle craft sticks were also now gone. I had glued them all together to make a bunch of throwing stars and ambushed my little brother. I found a good length of rope in the supply closet and decided to head out to the playground to do something. At the playground, I found that the rope was too short for a rope swing.
My little brother chose to chase lizards instead of coming to the playground with me, so I couldn’t tie him up to the flagpole. That’s when I had a truly terrible idea. I decided to make an elevator.
I would tie a loop in one end, throw the looped end over the monkey bars, put my feet in the loop, and pull on the tail end of the rope until my feet reached the top of the monkey bars. A simple pulley of sorts.
I situated myself according to the design and attempted to actuate the elevator. I was not moving. I was obviously not pulling hard enough, so I yanked the rope hard. I landed on my neck, with my feet caught in a noose, up in the air like a caught mackerel. I learned a very important lesson about the physical properties of the natural world. Story credit: Reddit/Egg_IV