IRON MAN

I saw the movie 'Iron Man' a few nights ago. I was so inspired by the flick that I built my own Iron Man suit out of carboard and spray painted it gold and red (actually the store was out of red so I had to use pink). I was 'flying' around the front yard when the sprinklers came on. As I struggled to find my way off the lawn while looking through the narrow eyelets of my 'helmet' I realized that the cardboard was melting off my body. Both coats of paint could not keep the water from peeling away the once rigid and now soggy cardboard. I could hear cars stopping in the street and the neighbors opening their front doors as I groped the ground to find the concrete sidewalk or driveway. Over the hiss of the sprinklers I heard the sound of neighbors encouraging me to 'Go left!' or 'Keep going straight!', I had enough sense to consider that some may be guiding me to dry ground while others could be leading me to remain on the lawn and become saturated further to prolong their amusement. Then, the hiss stopped. I no longer felt or heard the pelting of simulated rain on me. I remained still for a moment and quietly let the remaining water pour off my body, still unable to see through my helmet which had become a wet paper mask stuck to my face. I could sense that my once mighty cardboard Iron Man suit was nothing more than a few patches of wet paper now, most of it had flopped off in my frantic attempt to remain dry. I heard once distance voices get closer as neighbors slowly migrated to our house to get a closer look. As I was getting ready to peel away the wet cardboard from my head I heard the familiar voice of my wife declare, "Eric, next time you do something like this please remember to wear something underneath the cardboard!"

The neighborhood came to refer to this as the day I lost my sanity. I refer to it as 'Prototype I'.

Iron Man was great movie. Go see it.