Surprises

Andy had no trouble going up to the attic Thursday morning, but when he tried it that afternoon the stairs were completely stuck. They wouldn’t budge. His first reaction was he would have to cut a hole in the ceiling!

But then he thought about the air vents, and he took off the cover of the one in the living room and made a 9 1/2″ by 19 1/2″ hole in the vent itself.
 
grate
 
hole-in-vent
 
vent

He managed to squeeze through and fix the problem. He didn’t take a picture of it, but the cable had jumped off the pulley and wrapped around the axle.
 
pulley
 
Apparently he had pushed the stairs up too fast and the released tension on the cable as well as the fact the pulley hadn’t been installed straight caused the problem. In the future he will try to keep a steady pressure on the cable and hopefully that will be enough.

They say people who are slightly overweight tend to live longer, but sometimes there’s an advantage to being scrawny! (His term, not mine.) 🙂

The other surprise was it rained yesterday–just a drizzle but rain at over 8800 feet in January?

Any surprises where you are?

Thanks to Mike, Rummuser, tammy, bikehikebabe, Evan and Kate for commenting on last week’s post.
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18 Responses to Surprises

  1. Dixie says:

    Stairway to heaven – oh no – been dating a man, and now I’m reasonably sure he’s a psychopath… or cycle-path? Things keep going over and over the same fence, so to speak. I may need to find myself a mountaintop! Advice welcome! :/

  2. Rummuser says:

    I am slightly over weight but I do not want to live longer than what I am scheduled to!

    No, no surprises in my patch of green. Rather boring.

  3. Cathy in NZ says:

    everyday there will be a surprise here…most of it from a good point of view; or if it’s not nearly always a better away around it in the end.

    the reshuffling of rooms/furnishings here seemed at times not going well, but then if I took a bit of time to ‘reshuffle mindset’ things seem to be way better.

    the reshuffle of the:
    – living room furnishings a case in point, somehow the space is better
    – new art room table ‘where sited’ looking good but still haven’t actually worked on it so not sure yet.
    -still more needs the reshuffle but getting there…

  4. tammy j says:

    my latest surprise is that i either don’t have as much stuff as i thought i did ~ or i have become genius at placing it wherever ~ because my tiny apartment actually feels quite spacious!
    seriously a surprise! a nice one.
    please disregard the poor grammar of that paragraph.
    no surprises there. LOL.

  5. Jean says:

    Dixie,
    Fascinating! But not enough information for me to answer.

    Rummuser,
    From what you’ve been writing it sounds as if you’re having a good time, even without any great adventures or surprises.

    Cathy,
    Yes, our first ideas don’t always work out, but that doesn’t mean we won’t come up with something that works even better.

    Tammy,
    Never worry about typos, grammar, spelling, etc. I mostly don’t even notice because I’m reading to understand what the other person is trying to say.

  6. Jean says:

    PS I’m glad you love your new apartment, tammy. And Cathy, it sounds as if your new arrangement is a plus for you. I know just organizing my study sometimes gives me a life.

  7. Cathy in NZ says:

    taking a break from working in my new art-making room…which is not entirely organised yet. I am thinking of having only basically what I’m working on it – so will bring in as needed from the other room (which had things put in it with living room reshuffle).

  8. I’m not so sure about the weight thing having to do with life expectancy. I’ve known of skinny people to pass early as well as those carrying more weight than is typically considered the ‘norm’. I’ll be fine when my time comes – it’s the cycle.

    Here in NE Australia, it’s bucketing down with severe flooding. Other than that, all good 🙂

  9. Cathy in NZ says:

    Martin: I am over the ditch in the upper half of the North Island of NZ – and we have absolutely no noticeable rain since December! Weather forecast was supposed to bring some rain today but it’s now mid-evening and still none…maybe it will find us tomorrow. Apparently, we were supposed to some from Aussie but the Queenslanders took it all! Glad that mostly you are all good…

  10. Jean says:

    Martin,
    I agree with you that what will happen will happen. I had one grandmother live to be 98 and she was definitely obese. The other grandparents were more normal weight and died a lot earlier.

    I’m on the low end of normal and purposely gained a few pounds this year. It was just a precaution and probably a sensible one. I now have a bad cold and am losing a bit of weight.

    I’m sorry about your flooding, but I’m with Cathy, we could use some of your rain! We’re still in a drought here.

  11. If only I could get that water pipeline built from Oz to Kiwiland, you guys would be all set 🙂
    But alas

  12. Jean says:

    Martin,
    Actually I live in the drought-plagued American Southwest, so you would need a long pipeline. 🙂

  13. Cathy in NZ says:

    Martin and Jean

    It rained most of last night…misty drizzle mostly today until late afternoon when more rain came. Okay it probably wasn’t much or heavy enough but really nice to see.

    Apparently 5.2mm has fallen…

    The only fly in ointment was my fault yet again about forgetting to get washing in – and it ain’t in yet, well rinsed!!

  14. Oops sorry Jean – I’ll get my pipe-building team to work on a major restructure of the pipeline 🙂
    Classic
    Hope you guys get some rain soon if you’re in a drought. We’ve been there before. The rains eventually fell and fall they did, in a big way too.

  15. Jean says:

    Cathy,
    That’s neat about your rain. Much better to have it gentle than in a gully-washing downpour. As you have probably noticed, big downpours up in the burned-over mountains means we have to pay for more roadwork.

    Anyway, better to have the rain than dry laundry, assuming the rains don’t last too long. My mother-in-law used to have a drying rack down in the basement and Kaitlin inherited it when MIL died. Kaitlin gets a lot more precipitation that you do, I think, so she has more need of it.

  16. Jean says:

    Martin,
    Yes, I remember reading about the drought, and then the flooding. Mother Nature isn’t always nice to us mere mortals.

  17. Cathy in NZ says:

    Jean:

    I do have rack and hooks on the small back porch…and I did have the some things out there, essential small items. I use that are extensively in the Winter time. But I wasn’t expecting to forget to get it in, yesterday afternoon 🙂

  18. Jean says:

    Cathy,
    It’s completely understandable to forget it when the rain doesn’t come that often. Just think of all the mental energy you would waste if every time you washed you had to ask, “Is it going to rain today?” If it starts raining more then you’ll start thinking of it.

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