Son John $ came to pick up his birthday gift, an Omni-slope Sighting Clinometer that we ordered and had shipped here. $ neatly cut the tape with the knife he always wears. He opened the box and said, “Oh, no! They took all the fun out of it!”
I couldn’t see what he was looking at, but I assumed he was disappointed with the gifted gizmo. He could send it back if he didn’t like it. Turning toward me, he held out the bubble wrap.
“Look,” he said, “all the bubbles are connected, and you can’t pop them!’
Sure enough, I squeezed one large bubble, and the air expanded into the next compartment. I tried two hands, using two thumbs and four fingers. Even with twisting my face, there was no explosion. The nerve of those packers to ruin our fun!
Would you like to know what a sighting clinometer is used for? You look through it to find how steep the terrain is. I asked if he were planning to build a road. No, he will use it when he needs to know the steepness of a mountain trail. Before he takes customers on a hike, he needs to be able to describe what they will encounter on the trail. $ looked at the mountain in our backyard, and I presume he understood the reading. He was very pleased with the clinometer and put it back in its leather holder. The bubble wrap was left behind. I wonder if scissors would make them pop.
Mehrling Muse 
Bubble wrap was the bane of my life for years as both Julia and Yvonne loved popping it. You couldn’t save it to re-use when all the bubbles had gone. This new stuff sounds great and no, it sounds like scissors will just deflate the whole run of it.Ah, blissful.
xxx Huge Hugs xxx
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You found the upside, David. Good for you!
xxx Bubble Hugs xxx
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That is really quite sad. My sons always loved the bubble wrap (I must confess I do too!).
I have never heard of a clinometer, it sounds like a gizmo my oldest child would love.
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I never paid much attention to popping the bubbles, but our grandsons were addicted to it. I suppose our son is in that category, too. Several years ago we were unwrapping Christmas gifts in a family gathering, and one gift came with a huge sheet of bubble wrap. Everyone gravitated to it like a magnet and stood there popping and chatting.
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Our youngest likes to “wring” them like a dishrag. It sounds like firecrackers going off.
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Is wringing allowed in the rule book? The rules must allow for abberations.
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I have not seen the rule book on package popping etiquette.
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ACK….Even our bubble wrap must be changed?
Is there nothing sacred anymore???
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Evidently nothing is sacred! At least we can still suck the honey from honeysuckle. I made sure to pass on that pleasure to our grandsons, because my children forgot about it.
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I haven’t seen bubble wrap in a long time. We get things packed with one large air bag or a series of very large ones. There’s no pop to them at all.
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Yes, most of our things now have air bags. However, ours do pop with a loud explosion. Neighbor Logan (6) spied a set of them in our house and jumped on them with both feet. Pow! Pow! I must say, his satisfaction matched the size of the air bags.
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“Pop-less” bubble wrap? Now where’s the fun in that? I think a sternly worded letter to the company concerned is very much in order.
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I have a theory that young neighbor Logan could pop the pop-less bubble wrap by jumping on it. He would need to land at both ends of the connected bubbles. I should video his experiment and send it to the offending company if he is unsuccessful. Of course, the stern letter you recommended would still be necessary.
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I’ll bet if anybody could do it, it’s Logan! He seems a very resourceful boy.
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Definitely sounds like defective bubble wrap! 🙂
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Defective by design, I’d say.
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Well, heck. Bubble wrap is always a wonder that I truly adore. The insulation I used to wrap the heating ducts under the house were made from a special bubble wrap, it took everything I had not to pop it!
What a wonderful birthday gift, I’ve always wanted one!
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I could imagine your being under the house, wrapping the ducts with the same intensity you attacked the jungle. All the while, you’d be muttering, “Do not pop. Do not pop.”
I am so impressed that you know about clinometers. I hadn’t a clue. Why would you want to know about an incline?
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I’ve spent many a day in the back country hiking and hunting (the wilds of Wyoming with the rugged terrain). I tried for years to calculate with pen and paper the slope and incline of mountain paths using math well beyond my limits. I failed miserably, never to know the incline of a trail I am on.
The bubble wrap insulation had a hefty price tag attached which helped to overcome the temptation. I derived slight satisfaction from cutting it and hearing the ever so slight “pop”.
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I admire you for trying to make those difficult calculations. $’s gadget would make it fun. That was a cutting comment about bubble wrap.
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That made me laugh!
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Anne,
I love the way you find stories in the most mundane of things. I wouldn’t.
Your story reminded me of my younger daughter and her fascination with bubble wrap. From the time she was a toddler, she was obsessed with popping bubble wrap. For a tightly wound up mom, the constant pops at the most unexpected of times, were irritating. I remember giving her a piece of my mind on a few occasions at least. Over the years, I have mellowed down and come to appreciate bubble wraps for what they are- temporary pleasure givers in a word which is often topsy-turvy.
Thanks for the good laugh with which to start the day. I think you managed to give your son the perfect gift. In this time and age, it is difficult to find a perfect gift, because most people you know have everything they could possibly need ( we think).
Susie
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Bubble-popping is an addiction. As to the gift, we had it easy. $ put the order on the computer screen, and I paid for it. It’s much easier to buy him a gift now than when he was a child.
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I wish it was that easy for me- I never know what gift to get my husband or my children as I think they have everything in the world and what they want materially is probably well beyond my budget. I couldn’t ever afford to gift my husband a Mercedes Benz car that he so wants, for example.
Susie
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I tell my children what the parameters are, and they choose accordingly. It would be fun to have enough money to give people their heart’s desires, wouldn’t it? That probably wouldn’t be good for them, though.
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Bummer! 😉
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Ha, I love bubble wrap and save way more of it than I’ll ever end up using!
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If merchants switch to alternative air wrappings, you could probably sell your supply on eBay.
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