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By Fireman Chris, September 29, 2006 4:51 PM

Its really bad when your the fire department and one of your own vehicles catches on fire.

My day started off at about 6:30 with a minor call at the home of a former firefighter. Without going into any details, this wasn’t an emergency, just a professional courtesy service call.

At the call, however, we discovered our Battalion Chief wasn’t there. He called in on the radio to inform us he had a mechanical problem with the command truck and that it wouldn’t start. So, after we finished the call, we headed over to his house to see what the issue was.

The command truck, like with many fire departments, is a Chevy Suburban. This particular one has been having mechanical problems for awhile now, and we actually have a new one on order (since you can’t just buy one with lights, sirens, radios, etc. off the lot).

One of our members who was on the call in his personal vehicle is a “car guy” so he headed over to the chief’s house first and we followed on the fire engine. When we got there, he was fiddling around under the hood, and then went to try to turn it over. We stood there and watched, heard a strange popping noise and saw a puff of smoke come up from the engine. Simultaneously, we all leaned in and said “Its on fire.” Sure enough, a small flame was visible near the exhaust manifold. I ran to the engine and came back with an extinguisher, but by that time, the flame had disappeared with no damage. Further examination showed it to be a shorting electrical line and the fire had been the insulation burning.

No serious damage, but the truck’s been towed to our maintenance yard, and I’m guessing its been on its last call. At least with that particular Battalion Chief, who said he doesn’t ever want to see it again. After all, its tough to respond to a fire when your vehicle is burning too.

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By Fireman Chris, September 28, 2006 8:19 PM

Its official. I hate my job.

Oh, I’ve known that for awhile, but today just confirmed it. And I’m talking about my real, paying job, not the fire department.

If you’re not interested in a rant that has nothing to do with spanking, you might want to go peruse the archives.

I’ve never really warmed up to this job, even though next week I’ll be “celebrating” my third anniversary there. I originally took it out of a combination of being enticed by a professional friend (who’s now my boss) and wanting to change from my previous job (that required at least two weeks a month of air travel) before the princess was born. The work itself never really excited me and is really quite tedious, especially after three years. Still, the pay and benefits (including the fringe benefits, like working from home) are good and I’ve been willing to put up with it for that.

In addition to the work itself, there’s a number of things I’ve never liked about the company itself and the people who work there. Sparkle alluded to this in her most recent entry when she wrote “we both think the family-owned corporation he works for can be at best described as narcissistic and hypocritical“. The fact of the matter is, the company is very inwardly focused and is honestly more interested in what’s good for it than what’s good for our clients and/or society at large. Now, that’s maybe not uncommon for any company, but it seems to be a particularly glaring issue here. For example, I’m still catching flak in private from some of our management for the two weeks I spent responding to Hurricane Katrina last year, even though they publicly praised me for it and milked what good PR they could get from it. Needless to say, that annoys the crap out of me.

My boss has also recently been taking issue with a number of minor issues relating to my job performance. Admittedly, this is based on my own biased opinion, and he has been justified in a couple of them, but he seems to have almost been looking for things to take exception to. Which, of course, hasn’t exactly pleased me since in our company, performance reviews are done at the time of your annual service anniversary, and as I mentioned, mine is next week. So, it was no surprise when my review got scheduled for today prior to our staff meeting.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad review, but the issues I mentioned above were brought up, and it was clearly not a “glowing report”. I’m honest enough to admit that a couple of the items were worthy of note, but a lot of it just seemed to be there in order to have something to criticize me for. I’ve never been a big fan of the performance review process, and the way our company uses them exemplifies all the negative aspects of that particular process.

And, to top it all off…

My company almost had my truck towed from one of “our” parking spots in the garage. Apparently, the employee of the year considers this spot to be his, and he complained to the receptionist when he saw my truck there. I should note that this was my first trip to our new office, and nobody said a word about where I should or shouldn’t park. I saw a spot with a sign reading “Reserved for _________, Inc.” and naturally assumed it was OK to park there, being an employee of said company. Apparently Mr. Employee of the Year disagreed. Of course, one of the admin folks poked her head into our meeting and asked if any of us drove a WHITE pickup…which is funny, since mine’s blue. She even said that mine was fine where it was parked, since she recognized my truck (and the fire department stickers and license plates on it). Then we left the meeting and heard the receptionist giving my plate number to the towing company.

Had my truck actually been towed as the culmination of this day, I’d probably have said something I’d later regret (though not too much), and been faced with a much more urgent job search.

At least this was my last performance review, because I sure as heck don’t plan on being there for my fourth service anniversary.

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By Fireman Chris, September 25, 2006 9:18 AM

Last night, while I was using it on Sparkle’s backside, it suddenly dawned on me that I never wrote my promised review of the heart-shaped lacewood paddle we bought from Satinwood Paddles at the Shadow Lane party.

Satinwood Paddles is a company that I wasn’t familiar with until we attended the party. As I’ve mentioned before, we haven’t bought many implements over the past few years and most of the contents of our toybag are older than our marriage.

Satinwood had the table next to The London Tanners at the vendor fair, and since that’s where we started due to our friendship with Ian, we moved to Satinwood’s table next.

It was easy to see as we first approached that Satinwood is more of a “boutique” implement manufacturer. Each and every toy had its own character, and no two were exactly alike. A lot of this had to do with the woods used. These aren’t mass-produced plywood toys. Each one is made out of unique and beautiful woods such as cocobolo, purpleheart, jarrah and others. They do make some plywood toys too, but even those are much nicer than what you normally see. They also had a few leather floggers with nice wooden handles and some canes which Sparkle promptly steered me away from. They even had some fun little wooden nipple clamps (we didn’t buy any…yet).

Sparkle and I perused the table and stepped aside to discuss what we were looking for. She pointed out that one thing we didn’t have was a heart-shaped paddle, so we started looking at those, talking with the owner and his assistant about the merits and drawbacks of different types of wood: density, durability, etc.

One paddle that kept drawing my eye was a solitary heart-shaped paddle made of lacewood. I’d never seen lacewood up close before and I was quite taken by the grain pattern. This picture doesn’t quite do it justice, but I think you can see what I’m talking about.

The paddle was a bit larger than what Sparkle had in mind, but when I picked it up, it was surprisingly light for its size. Lacewood is not nearly as dense as some other woods. At the same time, however, it didn’t feel too light or in danger of breaking. Its a fairly thick paddle, probably three-quarters of an inch throughout. The owner did point out that its not intended for very heavy play, but that it would take a lot to break it, and we prefer to play longer rather than harder.

Since we’ve been home, we’ve played with this paddle several times. The first was a brief session the week following the party, and then Sparkle chose it for the first of her weekly “reassurance spankings” as a way to test it out more thoroughly. Last night, we used it during a fairly lengthy “stress relief” scene.

As I mentioned above, its a fairly large paddle. Its a hair over six and a half inches at its widest spot, and 12 inches in overall length. The handle is a very comfortable size for me, though someone with a smaller hand might have trouble hanging onto it. Because of its size, it very neatly covers most of one of Sparkle’s bottom cheeks with a smack, so it can be used to give a very thorough paddling. She seems to like it because its not too heavy, so it stings, but its not too wicked. While I was paddling her with it last night, she was actually raising her bottom to accept and welcome it, which is always a good indication of her enjoyment of an implement.

Unfortunately for the rest of you, this appears to be a one-off paddle. In looking through their website, they don’t have any other paddles quite this same size/shape and nothing else in lacewood. I’d still recommend any of their other toys though, and who knows, another lacewood paddle may show up sometime again. Yet another reason to visit a Shadow Lane party.

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By Fireman Chris, September 24, 2006 12:06 PM

Sparkle and I celebrated our sixth anniversary yesterday.

She’s already put up a very thorough entry on our celebrations, so I won’t recount them here and will just suggest you go read what she wrote if you want the lurid details.

Instead, I just want to say how wonderful these six years have been and how very much I love her. She truly is my partner in life and my best friend.

Happy Anniversary, sweetie.

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By Fireman Chris, September 21, 2006 7:33 PM

This post is a combination of a little bragging and a spanking anecdote.

The other night, at our department meeting, I was promoted to the rank of Engineer. For those that are unfamiliar with the fire service, engineers are responsible for operating fire engines: both driving them to/from the scene and also operating the pump to provide water for firefighting. An engine company typically consists of a Lieutenant or Captain in charge of the company, an Engineer and one or two (or sometimes more) Firefighters. In my department, Engineer is a separate rank between that of Firefighter and Captain (we don’t have Lieutenants). As a result, Engineers tend to serve as quasi-officers assisting the Captains and Chiefs with the command of the department. I had my first taste of that at my technical rescue class on Saturday where I was put in charge of a rather complicated evolution: lifting a 4,500 pound cube of concrete off of a platform, placing it onto rollers, moving it out about 6 feet and lowering it to the ground. Let’s just say that I need to work on my command abilities a bit.

In any event, I somewhat suspected this promotion was coming. We’ve been desperately short of Engineers for awhile now (we’re at about half the preferred staffing for that position). I recently got my Class B Commercial Driver License (required in California to drive fire engines) and my Captain had called me last week to ask me about my comfort level with the various Engineer duties. Right before the meeting, he pulled me aside and told me I was getting moved up, so when the time came during the meeting to go up and get my new badge pinned on, it wasn’t a surprise.

After the meeting, my friend K, who I’ve mentioned before and suspect of being a spanko, came up to me and said “So where are we going to celebrate?” I told her that I was on duty, and jokingly suggested that she find someone to cover for me. A couple of minutes later, she happily told me that not only did she find me coverage, but that it was none less than one of our Battalion Chiefs.

K was definitely in a kinky mood that night. Before the meeting, a few of us had been talking about the rope rescue training we’d done the prior weekend, which had included one evolution with me as a “patient” being carried up the side of a hill in a Stokes Litter. The “rescue team” for this included our two trainees, so I was jokingly telling how long it took them to get me strapped down properly. At the words “strapped down”, K’s eyes widened and she said “Oooh, I like being strapped down.”

After the meeting and the celebration discussion, I was looking at something on a shelf when K came up behind me and gave me a hard smack on the butt. Now, K has smacked my butt, as well as the butts of several other firefighters, many times in the past, but never quite this hard. This was a full on spank. She continued walking by, so I didn’t say anything, but decided then that she’d get smacked a few times before the night was over. Its become my “policy” over the past few months that whenever she smacks me, she gets at least two in return. This seems to be a policy that she doesn’t mind in the least.

I went home to change out of uniform and tell Sparkle the good news, then headed back out to the bar/restaurant where we were celebrating. The celebration wasn’t just for me…one of our Trainees also got moved up to Probationary Firefighter, one of my good friends who’d resigned came back on as a Reserve, and a new Trainee was brought on, so there was quite a bit to celebrate. We had about 12 people there sitting out front on the patio, so I bided my time on giving K her smacks.

K and I tend to be the last to leave when we’re hanging out like this, so as the night went on, the table gradually got less crowded. By around 1:00 in the morning, it was just the two of us and one of her friends who happened to go to the same college she and I did (K and I did go to college together, but didn’t know each other at the time).

K ended up going inside for a minute, and when she came back, she had another round of drinks. We really didn’t drink much, just a couple beers apiece. She stood next to me and bent over to set them down. That was two good an opportunity to pass up, so once the beers were stable on the table, I said “You’re the best.” and gave her a solid smack on the butt. She just grinned and came back around to sit.

A few minutes later, our pagers went off for a fire alarm. Since we were drinking and not responding, we sat there and watched a few of the other firefighters respond past. About 15 minutes later, we watched them all driving back home, including our new probie and his dad, who’s also on the department. K ended up calling them on the cell phone and joking about him no longer being a virgin (as far as calls go). Something must have been said about his “other virginity” because K laughed and said “I have some condoms in my truck if he wants to fix that.” I leaned over to her and said “Hey, don’t corrupt my probie.” and gave the side of her tush a couple good pinches. She gleefully shrieked “Owww.” but then we were onto other discussion. Sometime in the next few minutes, I ended up telling her how naughty she was and she smiled and said “I know, I am.”

Somewhere around 2:00, we decided to head home. As we said our goodbyes, I gave her a hug and one more good smack for the road, and she seemed perfectly happy as she drove off.

One of these days, she needs a proper spanking. And I think she agrees.

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By Fireman Chris, September 20, 2006 5:33 PM

Haven’t had much time for blogging lately, but I’ve been collecting little anecdotes that I wanted to write about. None of them are really long enough for their own entries, so here’s a selection of them at random.

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I took the princess to the mall this afternoon. Sparkle and I are celebrating our anniversary this weekend, so I needed to pick up a card, and Sparkle had already had a long day with her.

The princess, at not even 3 years of age, is already a dyed-in-the-wool mall rat. She adores the mall and practices her own unique brand of window shopping (which consists of staring in the windows and happily leaving handprints on the windows).

We were walking along towards the end of our outing today, and she stops in a doorway and says “Daddy, we go in!” quite insistently. I glance over, not really paying attention to what the store was and said, “No princess, lets keep walking.” She was having none of that and said, “Daddy, we go look dresses.” Again, I refused, and she then gave me her best cajoling “Pleeeease?” which she’s been practicing lately, and then turns and darts inside. I follow, and now realize that the store is none other than Victoria’s Secret. I catch up with the princess by a rack of bras and panties and explain that these are “mommy clothes”, not “princess clothes” and lead her out.

The saleslady at the door couldn’t keep a straight face.

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I’ve been taking an technical rescue course through the fire department the past few weekends. The first class covered various knot tying and rope terminology and this past Saturday was the rope rescue portion, where we actually practiced rappelling and setting up rope systems.

I’m beginning to think all firefighters are kinky, because you wouldn’t believe the references to bondage that came out of this class. A few excerpts:

A firefighter who was strapped into a rescue litter – “Its been a long time since I’ve been tied up like this.”

One firefighter to another while putting on a climbing harness – “Its a lot different than the leather one, huh?”

While practicing tying different knots – “I’ll have to remember this one for later.” (said suggestively)

Kinky firefighters…can you believe it? Oh, wait, if you’re reading this blog, then yes, I’m sure you can.

On a side note, this was my first time rappelling, and I absolutely loved it. I’ve fought a fear of heights my whole life, and I was really nervous at the beginning of the day, but once I was hanging off that rope, there was some sort of change inside me. I actually want to do it again now.

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More kinkiness from the firehouse.

The other evening, after a call, I was chatting with a couple of the other members, including my Captain and one of our female firefighters. The Captain said something, and the female firefighter playfully smacked him on the arm, causing him to drop his keys. I hadn’t seen him holding them, so I said “Boy, you hit him, and keys come out.” He laughs and says “That’s just the first time; next time, money comes out,” to which she replies with a wink “That depends on where I hit him,” and pantomimes smacking his butt.

I’m seeing a pattern here.

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Spell checking this entry, I’m amused by two things:

1) Blogger’s spell check program does not recognize the words “blog(s)”, “blogger” or “blogging”.

2) The spell check wants to replace “blogging” with “flogging”.

Hmmm, archaic and kinky.

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I think that’s it for now.

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By Fireman Chris, September 11, 2006 8:43 AM

Let us never forget.

For a complete list of those killed, visit CNN’s September 11: A Memorial.

World Trade Center – New York, NY

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By Fireman Chris, September 6, 2006 2:43 PM

Last Friday, as with many days, I was at the firehouse. I’d actually been out with one of my Captains to the DMV to take my road test for my Class B license to be able to drive the fire engines. When we got back, I went over to give a copy of my new license to one of the Chief’s for his records.

As I was walking past the police station, which adjoins the fire station, I saw a couple walking in. I stopped and did a double-take, because I was fairly certain I recognized this couple from the Shadow Lane party. I know the female half of this couple through the happytails discussion forum and briefly met her in Las Vegas, although I didn’t meet him.

I actually didn’t get a good look at her face and was fairly certain I recognized him, but not 100%. Also, I was with another fire department member at the time, so I didn’t stop and say anything. I did finally e-mail her yesterday, however, and she confirmed that not only were they walking into said police station Friday afternoon, but that he actually lives here in the same town as Sparkle and I, no more than a few blocks away. We’re both chuckling over this now.

Talk about small worlds.

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By Fireman Chris, September 4, 2006 1:45 PM

Now that a week has passed since the Shadow Lane party and Sparkle has gotten her bottom warmed a few times with each of the new toys we bought, its time for me to review said new toys. I’ll start off with the two fine implements we purchased from The London Tanners.

First off, we spent a fair amount of time over the party weekend getting to know Ian, the gentleman better known as The London Tanner. He was one of the first people I was introduced to at the party, though at first I didn’t make the connection since I was introduced to him by name. During the course of the weekend, we got to chat with him quite a bit and shared a couple of meals with him.

Ian is definitely an artisan. Making spanking implements (I hesitate to call them toys even though that’s the term I usually use) isn’t something he just decided to do because of his interest in the kink. Leatherwork is his calling, and he’s even written a book on the subject that’s been translated into several languages and used as a textbook for the field.

Needless to say, Ian’s work is very, very good. I’d heard his name mentioned many times in the past, but Shadow Lane was the first time we’d seen any of his implements first hand. Truth be told, neither Sparkle nor I have purchased any “good” implements for some time. We’re both somewhat picky about implements, and have been frustrated a few times in the past buying things sight unseen (and pictures on a website don’t count).

In any event, after getting to know Ian on Friday and hearing the rave reviews of his products by others, we were very interested in visiting his table at Saturday’s vendor fair and seeing them for ourselves.

Folks, I easily could have laid every dollar in my wallet on his table and taken everything I could get for that amount. As it was though, we forced ourselves to only pick two items, and as it turned out, we picked two of his newest items.

Sparkle is quite fond of leather paddles, so that’s the first thing we looked for. Although the majority of his items are straps and variations thereof, Ian does offer a couple of different types of paddles. We were intrigued by his newest one, the Nanny Paddle.

Essentially, the Nanny Paddle (which Ian also refers to as the Sassy Paddle) is patterned after a large hairbrush. Ian shared that he had scoured several thrift and antique stores until he found a brush that was the size and shape he liked, and then used that as a pattern for this paddle. The picture below shows the Nanny Paddle alongside Sparkle’s walnut hairbrush, which is a fairly typically-sized brush.

The Nanny Paddle is constructed of double thickness leather, with a leather stiffener (Ian doesn’t use any metal or plastic in the bodies of his implements) in the handle, and stitched around the edge. Its a very comfortable size to hold for either a man or a woman, and is just the right size to slip in a hip or jacket pocket and keep with you. In fact, I did keep it in my pants pocket for the rest of the afternoon in case the opportunity to use it arose, which, of course, it did.

I’ve used this paddle on Sparkle a couple of times in the week since the party, and I very much like it. Since it is constructed solely of leather, its more flexible than some of the other leather paddles I’ve used. This means that its well suited to spankings that employ a lot of wrist motion. Its is stiff enough, however, that it can also be effectively used with a fixed wrist and more of a full arm motion. Due to its small size, it can be applied everywhere across the buttocks and thighs, including the ever important “sit spot”.

The second item we purchased was his new longer-version of the Corporal Punishment Ruler Paddle. The original version, which is available under the Boudoir Section of his website, is 14 inches long. The long version, which we bought, is a hair over 17 inches long, with the handle accounting for 6 inches of that overall length. As with the original, it is 2 inches wide across the “working end”.

I was immediately attracted to this implement. One of the very first times I ever gave a spanking, my partner’s toy bag included a strap very similar to this one from the now-defunct Magick & Fetish Shop in Los Angeles. I’ve looked for a similar strap for some time, but have never been able to find anything that quite matched my memory of this implement…until visiting Ian’s table, that is. It may not be exactly the same, but it does embody the important features I was looking for (length, width, thickness and overall design).

Again, Sparkle has felt this implement a couple as times as well, both for fun and for the punishment she received for her sunburn. I’m still learning how to use this implement effectively (due to my relative inexperience with straps in general), but after a bit of experimentation, it appears that a full arm stroke is best to prevent the tip from “biting” the far side of Sparkle’s bottom. It is definitely best used when your target is lying down or bent over something appropriate, like the end of the bed.

Sparkle has written her own review of these implements (as well as a third she felt in the hands of another playmate) on her blog, which obviously is from the receiving end.

Ian offers four stock colors for his implements: London Tan, Dark Havana Brown, Rich Burgundy Red and Solid Black. We originally wanted to get the Nanny Paddle in the burgundy, but he did not have one in that color, so we chose the tan instead, which is also the color used for the handle of our CP Ruler Paddle with black for the main strap. Ian shared with us the following picture which shows the Nanny Paddle in the burgundy, tan and black.

If you’re interested in reading more about the leathers that Ian uses (as well as a bit more about he himself), visit the About the London Tanners page on his website.

It should be noted that neither of these items are currently available through Ian’s website, but both will be added within the next month or so. I’d definitely bookmark his page and keep an eye out for them. Every single one of the Nanny Paddles he brought to Shadow Lane was sold and I predict that its going to become one of his more popular items.

In closing, I’d just like to add that aside from being an excellent craftsman, Ian is also a great guy, and Sparkle and I now count him as one of our true friends in the scene. Since he’s in Florida, we won’t get to see him as often as we’d like, but we definitely look forward to seeing him again at Shadow Lane next year.

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By Fireman Chris, September 1, 2006 4:41 PM

As Sparkle recently admitted on her blog in her review of our new toys from The London Tanners, she got a punishment spanking last night.

Sparkle spent yesterday at the beach with two girlfriends (both spankos…you may be able to guess which ones) and the baby. Sparkle, always the good mommy, was very careful to ensure that our princess had plenty of sunscreen on, plus a hat, to protect against the California sun. Unfortunately, she wasn’t quite so careful with herself, nor were our two friends.

In short, she came home with a blazing sunburn on her shoulders and upper back, plus a 3 inch strip across her lower back. Sparkle gave me permission to post this picture under the condition that it was cropped to not include her bottom.

The slightly-strange pattern is due to the swimsuit she usually wears, an “tankini” from Lands’ End. Running around and playing with the baby resulted in the top exposing her lower back, with the results shown.

I had been chatting with another spanko friend earlier in the day, and had jokingly said that if Sparkle came home sunburnt, her bottom would end up the same color. Thus, when she actually did come home burnt, I wasn’t too pleased, especially when it came out that the reason for the burn was due to her having forgotten to put sunscreen on her back, especially since she was with two friends who could have comfortably done so for her.

Now, before anyone accuses me of being a “meanie” (glances a couple of miles west of here), Sparkle and one of the other burnt beach bunnies did rub aloe burn relief gel (the really good kind you can only get in Hawaii) on each others backs here at the house. After Sparkle had showered, I also rubbed moisturizer on her back as well as a second dose of the aloe.

Then she went over my lap for a firm hand spanking and then over the end of the bed for the strapping she described on her blog.

Sparkle and I have been discussing the punishment a bit today. As you know, Sparkle consents to my spanking her for punishment, and that part of our relationship came from her desires more than mine. Its a role I’ve struggled with, but am getting more comfortable in. An important factor is that while she does let me decide when she needs to be punished, she has to feel that its a justified punishment.

There was some discussion on her part (as well as our friend) that it wasn’t fair of me to spank her for something that I hadn’t specifically told her to do or not do. In other words, since I didn’t warn her that she’d better not get sunburnt or else she’d get spanked, it wasn’t right for me to spank her for it.

I can understand that logic, and in some cases would even agree with it, but in this particular case, I don’t agree.

One of our most basic rules is that Sparkle needs to take care of herself and be safe. Most mornings when she leaves the house, I say “I love you, have a good day, be safe.” That encompasses a lot of different activities. Yes, accidents happen, and I wouldn’t spank her for, say, cutting her finger with a knife while chopping vegetables or tripping and spraining her ankle. I wouldn’t even spank her for going out and getting a bit of a sunburn from just being outside too long.

Getting sunburnt at the beach, however, especially when one has sunscreen available and has carefully applied it to the baby and has less carefully applied it to one’s self, isn’t the same thing. Its carelessness that resulted in an injury, albeit a relatively minor one in the scheme of things.

That’s why I spanked her. She didn’t take good enough care of herself, and she subjected herself to pain and suffering (and I’m not talking about the spanking). She’s still very sore today, having a hard time sitting at her desk and going through her routine activities.

That’s why I spanked her.