8 September 2015

Stuff

The old house - now up for rent
Several days ago I shared some thoughts and feelings about climbing ladders. I was contemplating the completion of a painting job at my son's old house. Several bloggers remarked on my dilemma and nearly all discouraged me from climbing higher. For example, this is what Anna wrote:-

I managed a private psychiatric unit and we opened a head injury unit a little later... our patients in the HU were all male, the young usually with the effects of road traffic accidents, but it seemed that every adult male had fallen off trees, garage roofs, ladders etc. If you'd seen the ruined lives I saw then, you'd see the sense of hiring scaffolding, however expensive.... Don't risk it!!

That comment was the straw that broke the camel's back - if you will excuse the analogy! Instead of suppressing my nervousness, I decided to phone Dan who has a small property maintenance company in Sheffield. He said he would finish the job off for me for £60 which seemed like a lot for an hour and a half's work but I nevertheless agreed.

He came along with his assistant Jake and two sturdy sets of ladders with stabilisers on the legs. I provided the paint and the brushes and spread dustsheets at the bottom to catch any drips. The job was done in the estimated time and Dan also re-sealed the joint in the wooden guttering. He is a good man. Whenever I have employed him in the past he has been courteous and efficient. Unlike many tradesmen he keeps his promises.
View from the old house. To the right is the corner pub and
behind it The Copthorne Hotel and Sheffield United's football ground.
Now I have finished working on the old house and so yesterday I took the plunge and signed up with a lettings agency to get the wheels in motion to secure reliable tenants. This prospect fills me with some anxiety but hopefully when we have people in and the dust has settled I will feel a hell of a lot better about it,

Many thanks to Anna and to other bloggers who discouraged me from climbing higher with a paint pot and brush. Having the jitters at the top of a ladder is not a good idea as those fellows in her head injuries unit discovered to their cost.

A few years ago a middle aged married man was a lonesome regular in our local pub. He was an electrician. I remember vividly his thoughts on women and marriage. He said, "The sex is all right, it's all the other stuff I don't like" ...All the other stuff? You mean like talking, going on holiday, eating meals together, raising children, gardening, watching TV shows, helping each other, living life? 

Anyway, whilst up his ladder doing an electrical job he slipped and tumbled to the ground. His spine was broken and he ended up in a wheelchair, paralysed from the waist down. The last time I saw him he was being pushed by his long-suffering wife into  the local Toby Carvery from his adapted disabled vehicle. And when he greeted me there was a look of abject desperation on his face. All he has now is "the other stuff". Is that justice?
The back wall - now painted white right to the top

15 comments:

  1. Congratulations on having had the job done professionally, and at - what seems to me - a very reasonable price.
    One of RJ's neighbours lost her husband like that: he fell off a ladder while picking cherries... It's really not worth it, risking life and limb just to safe a few tenners.
    Not sure about the justice bit at the end of your post... While I am 100 % sure that ALL our actions (and many of our words) have consequences, I don't believe in a system of punishment and reward that would account for what happened to the man who did not like "the other stuff".

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    1. I didn't mean to suggest that the hand of fate doles out suitable punishments for wrongdoing. It just appears tragically ironic that the electrician has ended up that way - utterly dependent upon his wife's care and support despite what he said in the pub a few years back. I think it was a well-rehearsed and oft-repeated remark.

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    2. I agree, it is somehow very suitable.

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  2. I can't think of a poem about ladders. This will have to do.

    Lord Finchley tried to mend the Electric Light
    Himself. It struck him dead: And serve him right!
    It is the business of the wealthy man
    To give employment to the artisan.

    Hilaire Belloc

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    1. Lord Finchley was probably up a ladder. Silly owd codger! (Errr...that last remark is meant for the late Lord Finchley and not for you!)

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  3. Thank goodness you were sensible.and turned it over to a professional !

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    1. Well for once I ,listened to bloggers' advice Helen - including you.

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  4. A couple of pats on your back, Yorkie. I'm so pleased, and relieved that good sense, commonsense prevailed in the end! You're a good man, Charlie Brown! :)

    To make up for the outlay all you have to do is sell one of your photos...you'd recoup your outlay in a blink of an eye...and in the meantime discover a lucrative little side-line for yourself.

    On that line of thought...do you sell your photos? If not, you should, in my opinion.

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    Replies
    1. Accidentally, I have made a little money from my photos Lee but there doesn't seem to be a photo marketplace.

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  5. I say smart thinking Yorkie. Worth the money to get it done and a non injured pudding sounds like a win win situation. This reminds me of the amount of injuries seen at Emergencies for men with injured feet where they have digging up the eve garden and ended up with digging fork injuries. A seasonal phenomenon apparently ...

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  6. Umm not digging up the eve garden but the vegetable garden . Auto correct really can change the whole topic of a sentence . Personally I have never dug up an eve garden ....

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    1. I think that Adam dug up an Eve garden Leishy and then he buried her! Serves her right for talking with serpents!

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  7. Assuming 30 mins travelling time and a 2:1 split with his assistant I reckon Dan earned £20/hour out of which he has to pay all overheads (including his van and Nat Ins etc etc). Not a lot really.

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    1. As a bonus you are still in one piece.

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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