The Hook

For those of you who don’t know about Bob Dowling’s theory of “the hook,” I have a story to tell you, but first I must explain “the hook.” The Hook is that annoying propensity for items or body parts to get hooked inadvertently at the most inopportune moments. For example, when you’re walking through a doorway and your belt loop hooks on the doorknob causing the door to slam into your head while nearly ripping the door off the hinges… and this usually happens when you’re rushing out the door to catch a bus. In most cases you wouldn’t be able to recreate the hook, and worse even yet is that unhooking is nearly impossible and often times does damage to property and/or person.

Today, I had a perfect example of the hook. Remember that boat, with the motor and the oars? Well in an effort to avoid having to shove off from shore I brought it alongside the dock where I had Anna and Ella step in from the dock. I was to then “effortlessly” step onto the boat, shove off, start the motor and putter away into bliss. However, the hook foiled this plan. As I stepped onto the boat with my right leg the oar somehow slid up my shorts and became firmly hooked within my shorts… just as this happened the boat started drifting away from the dock increasing the distance between my legs. All I needed to do was push my right leg forward so that my left leg could follow, but the hooked oar in my shorts had my leg cemented to the boat floor… and as I furiously cried “hook, hook, hook” the drifting boat dragged the rest of my body into the lake, releasing the hook and allowing for a complete submersion. Totally unharmed, but completely wet I slowly rose to the surface to find a laughing wife and a daughter looking at me like I was a jackass. The hook strikes again!




Our trusted steed...

And the culprit