It lived on top of our fridge in elegant state--sometimes empty, sometimes and very temporarily full. It held cookies, rolls, scones and occasionally my jug of crystallized honey in a conveniently inverted position.
Once upon a time.
The jar and its fellows on the fridge top have a enemy, however. It is the tilt of our house and therefore the tilt of everything else. When the fridge door is slammed, the little fridge top community feels the pull of the tilt towards the edge. Usually, I am alert to the insidious creep and can counteract the effects.
Usually.
On this particular day, Jonathan made his trip to Costco and returned laden with frozen bounty. (I know, it's me that is supposed to be the merchant ship from afar but when I do the shopping, far is definitely involved--far too much spending.) As I stood at the sink, washing up, he came in to put the items away. In the midst of our discussion of what items needed to be moved into the fridge, the final bump took place. The jar, weighted by the aforementioned honey, tipped off of the fridge and shattered on the first solid item in its path--the back of Jonathan's head. It then proceeded to fly, in various smaller pieces, in a manner consistent with Newton's Laws of Motion, until brought up, with great suddenness (and more shattering) on the next solid item--which was, for most pieces, the floor.
The pieces landed just like this--label and all. Once the shock wore off (and I was sure that Jonathan wasn't seriously hurt*), we could appreciate the perfect layout and lighting.
Shards of glass went everywhere. Because the fridge door was open and there were multiple shatter points, there were pieces all the way to the back of the shelves. Fortunately the only thing that was ruined was the plastic container of frosting in the door. A fragment had punched through the lid. We could see the big piece but weren't sure of any others lurking. Having no desire to test out the dangers of glass shards in sugary goodness (don't take homemade candy from strangers, kids), we tossed it.
Cleaning out the refrigerator was definitely on the to-do list, even though it was not our intention for that day. But who knows how long it would have taken us to get to it otherwise?*I'm mourning a bit for our cookie jar, which was a wedding present, but let me reassure you that my first concern was for Jonathan and his head. With the exception of a few minor nicks, there were no injuries and we were amazed by the multitude of circumstances that were in place that prevented it from being more serious. He was even wearing shoes and eye protection! There was so much glass in his hair and clothes, however, that we decided that the only way to get it all out was to take a shower.
