So – here’s your riddle for the day :
What costs $10 – takes over two hours and several inventive curse words and stripped out screws to install????
window blinds for our bedroom.
How lame am I? We have lived in this house for nearly thirty years – we put blinds up in the girls’ rooms (that would be the Ladybug and Lessa) so that they would sleep at night – even during the infamous midnight sun for which Alaska is known.
But in OUR room? We have made do with a pair of (not nearly dark enough) drapes and a blanket tacked over the window. We got used to it – just closed our eyes and went to sleep.
Yesterday, however, I got into a bit of a cleaning mood – swept up (years worth of) dust from the headboard, took down the drapes to wash – then took down the blanket so I could wash the window.
Got a burr under my saddle so to speak and when hubby moose came home (after a 5 day working stint) and said he wanted to pick up a grandkiddo, go get some dinner, and do the weekly shopping . . . well, I just added window blinds to the list (after measuring, of course).
The local box store (no not THAT one – we don’t have wally’s here in our area – closest is anchortown) did not have the right size – so we decided to go to Mother Fury’s favorite store – Home Depot (or as the sign read for nearly three weeks when the store was first going up Ho Depot – hey, we live in Alaska – we make our own fun!)
ahem – where was I – oh, yes – we went to the HD store – and found two full aisles of window treatment – mostly all in the correct size, even!
We picked through and talked about wood – bamboo – hey, VINYL! – because the vinyl was only $10! We don’t need top of the line or anything – just something to help keep the sun out of our tender little moosie eyes in the late evening and early morning.
Brought them home – hubby moose decides he is going to install them (although I had quite capably installed the much more expensive blinds in the girls’ rooms lo these 20+ years ago), so I wisely stepped aside as he gathered up the tools he felt he needed and the step stool and such.
As you can imagine, the instructions for $10 blinds are not all that great (example: install so that the blind goes passed . . . ARGH! my English speaking mind grappled and decided that of course the word should have been PAST) oy!
But we got the general idea – and hubby moose set to work – cursing and wishing that his left handed buddy could be here (he lives in Ohio) because the right side bracket would be much easier to install if only he had been left handed himself.
Several inventive curse words later, he decides that it is looking just right and just in time as the blankety blank screws were beginning to have their little phillips heads stripped out. I looked up and gently (I swear!) asked him how he was going to get the blind into the bracket – he looked and swore some more because, of course, he had installed it sideways and there was no way . . . .
Three more tools came out trying to get the screws out – because by now the heads were totally stripped – the final tool? Yup – the leatherman! When all else fails, ask an Alaskan for her leatherman. (yes, I said her . . . what? you don’t own a leatherman? silly wimmin!)
Huffety Puffety goes hubby moose as he goes back into his cave (aka the garage) to find “better” screws not those measley . . . mumble . . . curse . . . blankety blank cheap screws (that had come with the aforementioned $10 blinds!)
Back he came and got the bracket installed in the proper position – then the second bracket – and we decided to skip the center bracket because it WAS NOT BIG ENOUGH to hold the blind and, after all, it’s a narrow window and we won’t be yanking on the blinds that often anyway . . . and he left quickly to replace all of the tools and to cool himself down to a more Alaskan shade of purply hubbymoose.
:s
Do they work? Well, they work as well as blinds can work – but we are having cloudy days right now – when the sun goes down and shines in, I’ll let you know. Heh.
Good thing we learned all those years ago to just close our eyes and let the sleep come in as it will. 8)
Hope you all have a great week – hubby moose is home for a few days and then he goes back for another 4 day stint away from home. He’ll only be just across the river (THE River, of course – Kenai River) from home, but he will be in charge of several teenagers and unable to leave them alone so I will have another several days to myself (insert quietly shouted YAY here – heh) thinking up new moosiedo lists.
:moose: