Adventures of the day
Nov. 2nd, 2005 03:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vettecatUp too late so I'm going to try and keep this short, but I wanted to post an update.
This afternoon I put away the summer and took out the winter. (Invitation stock, that is.) All went smoothly until my mother and I took the summer boxes down the back hall to the storage room, to put away in the space vacated by the winter boxes. The door to the storage room wouldn't open. It opens inward, and something was wedging it closed. Not good. We put down the boxes and stared at the door, trying to figure out how to open it. The thought flashed through my mind: "What would MacGyver do?" (I really need a "WWMD?" T-shirt...)
First I went back down the hall and got our grabber (or whatever you call a pole with a trigger on one end and a pincher on the other, that lets you reach things high up). I was able to get my arm in the door, and tried to grab the obstacle with the grabber and lift it out of the way. But it was dificult to do that when I didn't know what I was trying to grab. I went and got my folding mirror from my pocketbook, and was able to angle it to see what was blocking the door: A large bag of foam core, which had fallen from its usual spot leaning on the wall behind the door, and was wedged between the door and a bookcase. OK, at least we knew what we were dealing with.
I couldn't get enough leverage with the grabber, so I asked my mom to get a broom. I tried putting the end of the broom handle under the obstacle to lift it up, but couldn't get the right angle. (There's a tall stack of boxes right next to the door.) In the meantime my mother went and got a shovel. This seemed like it might have a better chance of success, since we would be able to get under a larger section of foam core, but again we didn't have room to angle it.
My mother prodded and jiggled the door and managed to get it open another few inches. Not enough room for either of us to get in, but the owner of the store next door (a good friend) is very slender... I called and told her we had a problem, and could she spare a few minutes to help? She came running right over (as I said, she's a good friend). In the meantime, while I was making the call, etc., my mother had the idea of grabbing a corner of the bag with the grabber, instead of the whole thing, and trying to lift it that way. This worked well enough that she was able to shift it that extra few inches... and by the time I came back with our neighbor, she had the door mostly open. Yay!
After explanations, our neighbor excused herself to go back next door (turns out she had been in the middle of something), and we moved the bag of foam core to the other side of the storage room. We'll have to come up with a better place to keep it long-term, but for the moment, we were just glad to be able to get into the room. Whew!
Tonight my mom and I went to the wedding of the girl who worked in our store last summer.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sdavido was invited as well, but after discussion we decided it wouldn't make sense for him to go; it was separate seating, and he wouldn't know many people, so he probably would feel isolated. (This turned out to be the right decision - especially since he's still in the midterm grading crunch.)
It was a lovely wedding on the whole. I'm getting too sleepy to go into specifics (got home around 12:30 and then had stuff to do), but if people express interest, I'll try to think of some interesting tidbits later. G'night, all! (Or is it good morning?)
This afternoon I put away the summer and took out the winter. (Invitation stock, that is.) All went smoothly until my mother and I took the summer boxes down the back hall to the storage room, to put away in the space vacated by the winter boxes. The door to the storage room wouldn't open. It opens inward, and something was wedging it closed. Not good. We put down the boxes and stared at the door, trying to figure out how to open it. The thought flashed through my mind: "What would MacGyver do?" (I really need a "WWMD?" T-shirt...)
First I went back down the hall and got our grabber (or whatever you call a pole with a trigger on one end and a pincher on the other, that lets you reach things high up). I was able to get my arm in the door, and tried to grab the obstacle with the grabber and lift it out of the way. But it was dificult to do that when I didn't know what I was trying to grab. I went and got my folding mirror from my pocketbook, and was able to angle it to see what was blocking the door: A large bag of foam core, which had fallen from its usual spot leaning on the wall behind the door, and was wedged between the door and a bookcase. OK, at least we knew what we were dealing with.
I couldn't get enough leverage with the grabber, so I asked my mom to get a broom. I tried putting the end of the broom handle under the obstacle to lift it up, but couldn't get the right angle. (There's a tall stack of boxes right next to the door.) In the meantime my mother went and got a shovel. This seemed like it might have a better chance of success, since we would be able to get under a larger section of foam core, but again we didn't have room to angle it.
My mother prodded and jiggled the door and managed to get it open another few inches. Not enough room for either of us to get in, but the owner of the store next door (a good friend) is very slender... I called and told her we had a problem, and could she spare a few minutes to help? She came running right over (as I said, she's a good friend). In the meantime, while I was making the call, etc., my mother had the idea of grabbing a corner of the bag with the grabber, instead of the whole thing, and trying to lift it that way. This worked well enough that she was able to shift it that extra few inches... and by the time I came back with our neighbor, she had the door mostly open. Yay!
After explanations, our neighbor excused herself to go back next door (turns out she had been in the middle of something), and we moved the bag of foam core to the other side of the storage room. We'll have to come up with a better place to keep it long-term, but for the moment, we were just glad to be able to get into the room. Whew!
Tonight my mom and I went to the wedding of the girl who worked in our store last summer.
sdavido was invited as well, but after discussion we decided it wouldn't make sense for him to go; it was separate seating, and he wouldn't know many people, so he probably would feel isolated. (This turned out to be the right decision - especially since he's still in the midterm grading crunch.)It was a lovely wedding on the whole. I'm getting too sleepy to go into specifics (got home around 12:30 and then had stuff to do), but if people express interest, I'll try to think of some interesting tidbits later. G'night, all! (Or is it good morning?)
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