Stuck Happens

My kid only gets unheard of ailments. When she was pretty young she came to me one day and said that the flappy thing in her throat was stuck. Huh? I looked, and sure enough, that flappy thing that hangs at the back of your mouth was stuck to the roof. Neither of us knew that uvula is the correct name for the flappy-thing-that-hangs-there-unless-it's-stuck-and-therefore no-longer-flappy. We watched the flappy thing for a day or two, thinking it would hang again, but no, so I called the doctor.

When we explained the problem to the doctor she rolled her eyes and said something like "Right. Your flappy thing, which we call a uvula by the way, is stuck to the roof of your mouth." Then she looked, and her shocked professional opinion was that the flappy thing was indeed stuck. She went off to get some hand tools while we basked in the joy of being one up on the doc. She returned with long metal thingies (also not the correct medical term), told child to open wide, and suddenly, all on its own, flappy thing was flapping again. There was nothing for the doctor to do except bill me.

My writing thing gets stuck sometimes. Like dealing with the wayward uvula, I ponder the problem in all its strangeness for a day or two, call for help when determined necessary, and eventually, after much worry for no reason, the writing thing starts swinging again, all on its own.