While waiting for my car to be serviced today, I read "Day of the Moron" a 50's era short story by H. Beam Piper. Though not intentional, the story expands upon a line from a Robert A. Heinlein novel… "Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can't help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime: the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity."
I bring this up because today I had to mail Amber a replacement seat harness for the one discussed a couple of posts ago. The harness was of such a simple design that I assumed that nobody could possibly fuck it up. Like a seat belt, all her aide had to do was wrap it around her and snap two buckles together. Actually, it was even easier than a seat belt because you didn't even have to adjust it afterward. Deep down though, I knew that someone would find a way to completely fuck it up and that happened within days. One of her aides defied the single instruction "DO NOT ADJUST IT!" and it all went down hill from there. She said that it was never the same afterward.
A couple days ago she called to tell me that one of the buckles fell off. This can't happen. The buckle is in a closed loop and the only way it could ever possibly fall off is if someone completely disassembled it by completely removing the tensioners which even the stupidest person on the planet would never think to do.
On the replacement harness I made it impossible to remove the tensioners. I also included full installation and adjustment instructions with color photographs and diagrams, plus a self-addressed stamped return envelope so I can get the old one back. All that worries me now is that someone wil eventually take a pair of scissors or a knife to it in some dumbfuck way of adjusting it.
I will be suggesting to Amber that if anyone attempts to adjust (or cut) the harness after it is correctly set, she is to run them down, back up, and then run them over again.