Careful… it’s loaded

Grandpa was sitting at the table, kicked back in the usual fashion, with the big glass of water in one hand killing the bowl of peanut M&M’s in the other. His goal was simple, really just to stay awake on this lazy Tuesday afternoon in the mid summer. We sat and talked throwing back the dry weather and other mindless banter. It wasn’t his style after all. He was a workingman, whose hands were old and worn from the paintbrushes and saws that he held his whole life; which is probably why this day his finger lay outstretched on the table. Sensing some release to the tension of the weather and the bore of eating m&m’s, I reached forward and pulled his outstretched finger. Quickly pulling away with a big grin in his face, and a sharp rebuke on his tongue, “Careful, that thing is loaded!”