Stairs

Today, while walking down a set of stairs, I almost slipped. This made me think.

Why are some stairs in houses made of wood? Varnished wood at that? Unless people wear shoes inside the house, but this was not the case. The stairs were

• Varnished wood, which is slippery as Antarctica in July, and
• Extremely similar in pattern, which screws up my depth perception, and
• Similarly lighted, as in, even lighting across each stair.

The combination of those makes for a treacherous trip down. However, I did make it down the stairs safely and relatively comfortably. Next time, though…