Necessity is the Parent of Invention

(the title being politically correct)


Last Saturday I went to the local marketplace as a special trip for Lloyd. He wanted to buy something particular with his money. Believe it or not my almost 16 year old wanted to buy a waterfall. I started to wonder if he had been converted to some other religion and wanted to have a waterfall to be one with nature or something supposedly deep and meaningful.


Thankfully he hasn't abandoned his Christianity but he had a practical purpose for his waterfall. He told me that he finds it hard to sleep at night because there is no noise in his bedroom. I offered a sometimes snoring 5 year old to be his room mate but Lloyd declined the offer.


We browsed the gift shops. In one of them the shop assistant was determined to sell Lloyd an expensive waterfall and showed him every single variety he had. Lloyd saw the price tags and decided to search elsewhere.


Eventually he found one that had been marked down to a price Lloyd was happy with and he came home carrying his treasure. It was an ex-display model so there were no instructions. It seemed though that all he had to do was fill it up and it started falling nicely.


But there was a problem.....it was almost completely silent. It seemed to be designed to keep the noise to the level of a lone termite chewing on a scrap of wood in the wall of the room furtherest from Lloyd's.


Not to be deterred from his quest for a good night's sleep Lloyd went searching for the perfect Lego piece. Nifty stuff that Lego. We've used it to solve many a problem. A wagon wheel solved the problem perfectly:


Lloyd now hears the trickle of water as it goes through the wagon wheel and has a restful night's sleep. I've got the perfect job for him. A ranger at Niagara Falls. But they'd better not expect him to do any dusting in the shop.