Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"The opposite of faith is despair, and neither of these responses are opposed to rationality or are necessarily irrational." -- Jerry Monaco ( monacojerry), "Working Class Traditions and Faith: Solidarity or Despair", 2008-01-24 (thanks to force-of-will for linking there)

[To my readers who observe it (on the Western calendar), may you have a blessed and peaceful Lent.]

"The opposite of faith is despair, and neither of these responses are opposed to rationality or are necessarily irrational." -- Jerry Monaco ( monacojerry), "Working Class Traditions and Faith: Solidarity or Despair", 2008-01-24 (thanks to force-of-will for linking there)

[To my readers who observe it (on the Western calendar), may you have a blessed and peaceful Lent.]

Whoops.

That ladder (which I did receive permission to borrow) is not, as I thought I remembered, an extension ladder. It's a single-piece straight ladder, and unwieldy as f***. I can't lift it into position myself from underneath. (Fortunately, in two tries, I managed to avoid putting it through my or my neighbour's window or dropping it on my head. Caught my shoulder instead.)

Next experiment: see whether I have a long enough piece of rope and am able to haul it up from the third-floor window without catapulting myself out the window. (Hey, if that happens and my cell phone and I both survive the fall, I'll blog the event straightaway. But I don't intend to lean far enough out to make falling likely.)

I did find a box of nails in the basement, and a lighter hammer than the one I was looking for, but unless I can get the ladder up, I'm still stuck. The rain has not started yet (well the pavement is wet so I guess we got a sprinkle when I wasn't looking -- no heavy rain and no thunderstorm yet) ... but the sky is dingy and the (disturbingly warm) breeze is quite moist. Wheeee.

Whoops.

That ladder (which I did receive permission to borrow) is not, as I thought I remembered, an extension ladder. It's a single-piece straight ladder, and unwieldy as f***. I can't lift it into position myself from underneath. (Fortunately, in two tries, I managed to avoid putting it through my or my neighbour's window or dropping it on my head. Caught my shoulder instead.)

Next experiment: see whether I have a long enough piece of rope and am able to haul it up from the third-floor window without catapulting myself out the window. (Hey, if that happens and my cell phone and I both survive the fall, I'll blog the event straightaway. But I don't intend to lean far enough out to make falling likely.)

I did find a box of nails in the basement, and a lighter hammer than the one I was looking for, but unless I can get the ladder up, I'm still stuck. The rain has not started yet (well the pavement is wet so I guess we got a sprinkle when I wasn't looking -- no heavy rain and no thunderstorm yet) ... but the sky is dingy and the (disturbingly warm) breeze is quite moist. Wheeee.

'Nuther quick update while I catch my breath: ladder keeps swinging over to get caught on water spigot when I try to haul it up with rope.

And for the record, grape vines are difficult to cut with a saw. On account of their being so springy. Even when they have a diameter exceeding five centimeters. (Grapes are trying to eat my house.)

'Nuther quick update while I catch my breath: ladder keeps swinging over to get caught on water spigot when I try to haul it up with rope.

And for the record, grape vines are difficult to cut with a saw. On account of their being so springy. Even when they have a diameter exceeding five centimeters. (Grapes are trying to eat my house.)

Blergh. Managed to get past spigot by running downstairs again and propping ladder on spigot then running back up to top floor to heave on the rope again.

Now it won't go past shutter dog, and shutter dog is out of reach from ground.

Arms getting tired. Will check radar and hope predicted storm is sliding past north or south of my block.

Blergh. Managed to get past spigot by running downstairs again and propping ladder on spigot then running back up to top floor to heave on the rope again.

Now it won't go past shutter dog, and shutter dog is out of reach from ground.

Arms getting tired. Will check radar and hope predicted storm is sliding past north or south of my block.

<whimper> The top end of the ladder is a couple feet below the sill of the third-floor window. The bottom end of the ladder is dangling a few feet above the steps to the basement door. The rope holding it up is tied off to the piano (I guess it's a good thing I haven't gotten the piano moved downstairs yet after all). My arms are trembling. Muscles in my palms are trembling (I'm using the backspace key a whole lot here). I have to stop. I did not lean out the window far enough to risk being defenestrated, but I did lean out far enough to be using muscles in the wrong part of my back for the amount of weight I was trying to draw straight up to me.

I got far enough to grab rungs and more or less "climb down the ladder" while wedged in place, to lift it past me a rung at a time. When the top end hit the rain gutter above me, I was running out of strength to do anything fancy. I tried tipping it over on its side onto the second-floor roof, but lacked the leverage to do that gradually while inching it up, and the length still below that roofline was longer than the gap between the houses so I couldn't flop it over and then slide it sideways to get the center of mass onto the roof.

Looking at the radar loop it looks like I've still got a bit of time. But I think my clever plan to be able to tackle this solo is turning out to be not so clever after all. The angles are wrong.

And I still need to find the strength to hike back out to the pharmacy before 17:00, if yesterday's computer glitch has been fixed. I just melted a lot of my spoons trying to lift that ladder straight up. :-(

If there were an attachment point I trusted to be strong enough on the lip of the third-floor roof, where I could mount a pulley (or even just an eye, maybe), that might be enough of a change to the geometry to make this work. Or possibly if I could anchor myself securely to the second-floor roof with my head and arms over the edge, I could -- after resting up! -- get the ladder up rung by rung and tip it back over my body, but that's questionable. (And without a ratchet arrangement to keep it from falling back down, I would not be able to pause in the middle when my arms got tired. Leaning out the window, I stepped on the rope to keep it from sliding back out when I had to let go with my hands. Not that that helped after the rung the rope was tied to was higher than the windowsill.)

On the plus side, I think I finally managed to sever the vines that keep growing into the computer room through the gap between the sashes of the window there. And I won't forget to ice my wrist today. (Ow. Hand-over-hand rope work not good.)

Ugh. Need to get prescriptions. Want to just fall over until muscles stop trembling.

Oh look, sunshine. Where'd that come from?

<whimper> The top end of the ladder is a couple feet below the sill of the third-floor window. The bottom end of the ladder is dangling a few feet above the steps to the basement door. The rope holding it up is tied off to the piano (I guess it's a good thing I haven't gotten the piano moved downstairs yet after all). My arms are trembling. Muscles in my palms are trembling (I'm using the backspace key a whole lot here). I have to stop. I did not lean out the window far enough to risk being defenestrated, but I did lean out far enough to be using muscles in the wrong part of my back for the amount of weight I was trying to draw straight up to me.

I got far enough to grab rungs and more or less "climb down the ladder" while wedged in place, to lift it past me a rung at a time. When the top end hit the rain gutter above me, I was running out of strength to do anything fancy. I tried tipping it over on its side onto the second-floor roof, but lacked the leverage to do that gradually while inching it up, and the length still below that roofline was longer than the gap between the houses so I couldn't flop it over and then slide it sideways to get the center of mass onto the roof.

Looking at the radar loop it looks like I've still got a bit of time. But I think my clever plan to be able to tackle this solo is turning out to be not so clever after all. The angles are wrong.

And I still need to find the strength to hike back out to the pharmacy before 17:00, if yesterday's computer glitch has been fixed. I just melted a lot of my spoons trying to lift that ladder straight up. :-(

If there were an attachment point I trusted to be strong enough on the lip of the third-floor roof, where I could mount a pulley (or even just an eye, maybe), that might be enough of a change to the geometry to make this work. Or possibly if I could anchor myself securely to the second-floor roof with my head and arms over the edge, I could -- after resting up! -- get the ladder up rung by rung and tip it back over my body, but that's questionable. (And without a ratchet arrangement to keep it from falling back down, I would not be able to pause in the middle when my arms got tired. Leaning out the window, I stepped on the rope to keep it from sliding back out when I had to let go with my hands. Not that that helped after the rung the rope was tied to was higher than the windowsill.)

On the plus side, I think I finally managed to sever the vines that keep growing into the computer room through the gap between the sashes of the window there. And I won't forget to ice my wrist today. (Ow. Hand-over-hand rope work not good.)

Ugh. Need to get prescriptions. Want to just fall over until muscles stop trembling.

Oh look, sunshine. Where'd that come from?

I rested a bit beyond long enough for my muscles to stop trembling, and went back to have another look at the ladder situation. I think I see another trick to try, but the wind has picked up enough to be an obstacle in its own right. So I lowered the ladder to the ground to keep it from banging around and breaking windows if we do get the predicted thunderstorm, and left the rope attached so I can try again tomorrow.

I'm not looking forward to dealing with water coming in all over the place again. We had another brief light rain that wasn't hard enough for me to notice anything dripping, but thunderstorm rates of rainfall are going to drive more water into places on the first and second floors that haven't finished drying out from Friday yet.

I think I'm just too tired to walk to the pharmacy today. (I'd have to make up my mind in the next few minutes -- it's a 15-20 minute walk and they close at 17:00.) I think I have one more dose of Propanalol left ... I hope I do, or I'm not likely to feel up to walking that far tomorrow either (it's what keeps the migraines down to a merely annoying frequency instead of the nearly constant migraine symptoms[*] I had for several months before I started taking it -- I take it twice a day but I skipped it this morning so as to be able to take it tonight). I do have Ultram left. My other meds I can deal with missing a dose or two (though I guess this wouldn't be the time to pig out on carbohydrates). So. Tomorrow. Pharmacy early, then try again to get the neighbour's ladder on top of my house. Tonight, I just have to hope the rain doesn't last long (or doesn't come).

[*] Not the blinding headache the whole time, though I had far too many of those too -- mostly weird effects in my peripheral vision, dizziness, time sense screwed up, colours looking wrong, feeling unsafe to drive a lot of the time. It sucked. (It was what was finally bad enough to get me to find the free clinic (which was later subsumed by the state's poor-folk health plan that started up a about two years ago).) All much less frequent on the Propanalol.

I rested a bit beyond long enough for my muscles to stop trembling, and went back to have another look at the ladder situation. I think I see another trick to try, but the wind has picked up enough to be an obstacle in its own right. So I lowered the ladder to the ground to keep it from banging around and breaking windows if we do get the predicted thunderstorm, and left the rope attached so I can try again tomorrow.

I'm not looking forward to dealing with water coming in all over the place again. We had another brief light rain that wasn't hard enough for me to notice anything dripping, but thunderstorm rates of rainfall are going to drive more water into places on the first and second floors that haven't finished drying out from Friday yet.

I think I'm just too tired to walk to the pharmacy today. (I'd have to make up my mind in the next few minutes -- it's a 15-20 minute walk and they close at 17:00.) I think I have one more dose of Propanalol left ... I hope I do, or I'm not likely to feel up to walking that far tomorrow either (it's what keeps the migraines down to a merely annoying frequency instead of the nearly constant migraine symptoms[*] I had for several months before I started taking it -- I take it twice a day but I skipped it this morning so as to be able to take it tonight). I do have Ultram left. My other meds I can deal with missing a dose or two (though I guess this wouldn't be the time to pig out on carbohydrates). So. Tomorrow. Pharmacy early, then try again to get the neighbour's ladder on top of my house. Tonight, I just have to hope the rain doesn't last long (or doesn't come).

[*] Not the blinding headache the whole time, though I had far too many of those too -- mostly weird effects in my peripheral vision, dizziness, time sense screwed up, colours looking wrong, feeling unsafe to drive a lot of the time. It sucked. (It was what was finally bad enough to get me to find the free clinic (which was later subsumed by the state's poor-folk health plan that started up a about two years ago).) All much less frequent on the Propanalol.

Something dark just fell past my window and landed with a *phthphat* noise in front of my house. I went downstairs for a look.

It's a large part of a sheet of roofing asphalt-paper, with a row of nails sticking out of it. I'm not sure which house it came off of, and given the wind direction it seems it ought to have blown thisaway from the house at the end of the block, but there's a coat of silver roofing tar on one side -- like the silver stuff on my roof, and it looks to have about the same amount of weathering as what I can see on the second-floor roof -- and it did fall pretty close to vertical as it passed the window.

Now I really wish I'd managed to get that ladder up so I'd know what my third-floor roof currently looks like, whether there are loose edges or torn off bits, etc.

Something dark just fell past my window and landed with a *phthphat* noise in front of my house. I went downstairs for a look.

It's a large part of a sheet of roofing asphalt-paper, with a row of nails sticking out of it. I'm not sure which house it came off of, and given the wind direction it seems it ought to have blown thisaway from the house at the end of the block, but there's a coat of silver roofing tar on one side -- like the silver stuff on my roof, and it looks to have about the same amount of weathering as what I can see on the second-floor roof -- and it did fall pretty close to vertical as it passed the window.

Now I really wish I'd managed to get that ladder up so I'd know what my third-floor roof currently looks like, whether there are loose edges or torn off bits, etc.