Filling up a display of cleaning vinegar at work, I noticed one bottle had a broken top. It’s one of those pump-action trigger sprayers, and the trigger was missing. So I decided to write it off and take it to the lunch room, because it’s what we use to clean the popcorn machine, and the one already in there was nearing empty.
As I walked to the lunchroom, I decided it would be best if the working top was on a full bottle. My concern was that, if it was on the nearly empty bottle, someone might finish it and throw it away without realizing the replacement bottle doesn’t have a working sprayer. Then we’d have to write off another bottle, and it would take a while to use it all up. But if the working sprayer was on the full bottle, I could keep an eye on it and top it up with the little bit of extra vinegar when there was room.
Pleased with my clever plan, when I got the the lunchroom, I grabbed the vinegar that was already there, took both bottles over to the sink, removed the spray tops, and … ever so carefully poured the vinegar from the full bottle into the nearly empty one.
Instead of, y’know, just swapping the spray tops.
Not my finest moment.
The View From the Handbasket 