MORE TALL LADDERS

Okay, I HEAR YA!!  No ladder climbing.  But what's a girl going to do when there's no one available who does this gutter work?  So far the only one I have found said they only REPLACE gutters, not clean them.  I begged ... he declined.  So I will order ... for the second time ... a gutter cleaning tool from Amazon.  I really don't have much faith in them actually working.  The last one didn't even make it out of the package, it was so cheap.  I'll let you know how that works out.

Here's the best news of the day, except for maybe it was sunny and gorgeous all day long!  I finally got up the nerve to turn my quilting machine ON.  It seems to be working, or at least all the lights came on.  I think the settings are a little different, but they are easy to change.  I even located all my paid-for patterns!  Woohoo!!!  Unfortunately, the tablet is smaller than the original one, so instead of repairing it, maybe they just programed a new one.

That's as far as I got since the electrician actually showed up EARLY.  Wow!!  That's a first!!  His name was Charley.  The first thing he said was YOU HAVE A VAN!  He's been looking for one to use visiting his family in ... guess where ... Phoenix and Tucson.  

I gave him the grand tour and told him what to look out for.  What a nice kid!  Okay, man, but he was young enough to be my kid.  From there, I showed him the lights, and he said WHOA ... those are some TALL ceilings!  Yes, yes they are!  We had a great discussion about LADDERS.  

And so he went to work on the lowest ones first ... only ten feet up.  Here's what he did.  He removed the old can light, disconnected it, hunted in the ceiling with his entire arm and came up with FOUR wires.  

Every single clip on the old ones broke from being rusted out.  He then wired a controller to the light itself, one that will let you pick the COLOR of light you want.  Apparently soft yellow light draws in less insects.  That remains to be seen.  Anyway, once programmed, he connected the wires and pushed it into the ceiling.  

Let there be light!!!  Here's the best part ... they are LED, so no more buying and/or changing out light bulbs.  

THESE however ... these are 12 foot high.  Neither of us had a 10 foot ladder that he could work with.  No problem he said ... he pulled a NANCY and stood on top of his eight foot ladder.  Luckily he didn't fall.  I took this picture in the late evening, so you can see the color a little better.  

Now my patio is lit up like an airport runway.  So much so that I have to put foil over the bedroom windows to keep the light out at night.  

He installed a total of 11 lights, to the tune of $500 with wait-for-it ... my senior discount.  No one ever said electricians were cheap.  By the way, he also noted that WHOEVER replaced that ONE light, did it totally wrong.  Ummm that would be me.  Oh well, at least the house didn't burn down.

By noon he was gone.  I told him I thought I was going to replace eight more INSIDE the house, but he would have to bring his 10 foot ladder, because they were all 12 feet high.  Imagine not having to switch out light bulbs every couple of years.  

Lunch was quick and easy.  PRE diet, I bought a package of pepperoni for a nice big fat greasy pizza.  I looked at it every time I opened the fridge.  This actually turned out pretty good.  I pre cooked the pepperoni in the microwave to reduce the fat (like it mattered or something), layered it and cheese on a too large flour tortilla and browned it up nicely.  It was quite tasty, but not exactly diet friendly.   I was so full and miserable after eating it that I skipped dinner altogether.

Then it was back to cleanup on the patio.  There was lots of dirt and crud from the light install, not to mention a year's worth of spider webs full of dead carcasses.  The blower doesn't work perfectly, but good enough.  I can even be TWO FISTED since I have two of them.

Here's a good example.  This kind of Venetian paster, or whatever it is, has the perfect rough sections to hold webs.  The blowers make quick work of it, though you have to be fast on your feet to miss the big chunks as they fall into your hair.  Wear your cowboy hat!!

That was it for the day.  I was actually in quite a bit of ACHE from going up and down that ladder.  It's always the SECOND day that hurts the most.  I tried stretching, walking, everything I could think of before finally taking some Tylenol.  Boy am I ever out of shape!!!  

Today I don the Armor of Bingo and try to paint on a smile.  I've no idea if anyone will show up to work.   Though I have asked for an indication, I get none.  In fact I haven't heard from one gal for over a month.  I'm thinking she may have run off over the hill screaming!!