Filter In The Sky

Holy crap did I forget that I am scared of heights until yesterday when dad asked me if he could borrow my extension ladder to change the filters in his furnace. I have no problem with the height of roller coasters, being in airplanes or what ever, but have me climb into or onto something that I am not tethered onto or similar and my heart goes 100 and my knees feel weak for some reason.

The Climb

Anyway, rather than have dad at over 70 years old climb up my Little Giant ladder I figured it would be the right thing to do and so I offered to change the filters for him. Well now I know why he did not hesitate in the least to say - ok sure you can do it, that would be great and really appreciated.

Once over at his house it all made perfect sense. I think the builders goal was to find the highest peak in the house and cut the hole to put the air intake for the furnace and of course the filter. It was all the way up, about 10 steps on the ladder which means about 10 feet up to the bottom of my shoes.

I should of course mention that the area we needed to do all of this is the entryway and it is not a very big area and has a massive chandelier type light fixture dead center in the way. Let me tell you, it is not so much fun to have to get around that carefully with a big extension ladder while at the same time not hitting the walls, scraping the floor work of the entryway or banging into the nice wood entryway table.

So to the filter change - up the ladder I go and get up about 6 or 7 steps and realize that the ladder is much more vertical than it should be, but there is really no room for me to try to adjust it's angle a little more to make the climb more comfortable and safe so dad tells me, nah you are fine, just keep on going - umm, yea says the person on the ground!

But of course I did, I kept on going up and up the ladder when I now realized that the friggin' ladder was upside down! It does not matter "entirely" but in this case it does because there is not anything rubber or grippy on the wall - the area I am climbing toward - no wonder it felt like it was sliding a little as I was climbing up - because it WAS! Once again dad assured me with "nah, you are fine just keep on going". What else could I do but climb - so I did.

Finally reaching the top, well the top of where I had to go I now had to stretch out on my tipsy-toes to reach over to the metal grate covering the filter and unscrew 2 thumb screws. As I would lean I could feel the lower part of the ladder shift a little because it was at such a steep angle and on the not so grippy entryway floor. The first thumbscrew came off, but I could not reach the second - well crap I need to go up yet ANOTHER flippin' step - dammit!

So up I went and reached out yet again on my tipsy-toes to unscrew that thumbscrew. Next was twisting a little sideways and opening the grate, taking out the old filter and putting in the new and reversing all of the other stuff.

The Filter Swap

While up on the ladder dad actually had his foot in the back of the bottom rails of it to help keep it from sliding anymore than it already was, but now we had a problem - he needed to get me the filter once I had the old one out - ugh. Ok I am up here lets just do this I thought to myself. The sooner I get it done the sooner I can climb down.

I balanced sort-of sideways on the rung of the ladder, reached over and opened up the grate revealing the dirty filter. Using my fingertips I jiggled it out and grabbed it and carefully and casually handed it down to dad. Ok whew, half way there and getting use to the height - not really, but enough to not be as nervous. Well that was until dad said "ok hold still let me go grab the filter". Umm, what? You are going to let go of the bottom of the ladder? The part that has been slipping even with you holding it? He responded with the usual "yea, don't worry about it you will be fine just stay still". Oh don't worry about that I was frozen solid.

He returned in seconds that felt like minutes and handed the new filter up to me. I grabbed it and did my little twist to then lean out to replace the filter nearing the end of this experience. Opened the grate, put the filter in and....wait, it does not fit? "Umm dad, this filter does not fit"? It doesn't he replied, nope I said - its about 4" too long. Ahh crap he responds, I grabbed the one for the downstairs grate (the one we need to do next). Hold on - lemme go grab you the correct one "don't move". Yea wonderful, I did not want to do the "don't move" thing the first time much less try it again. What choice did I have really? So I waited and did not move.

Dad returned to me again, held the ladder and braced it with his feet so I would not slip then handed up another filter, this time I hoped it would be the correct size because I did not want to have to go up this ladder again another day if he had to buy one. I did my sideways move, tipsy-toed up a little and leaned out to open the grate with the tips of my fingers then slid and jiggled the filter into place. VICTORY! Reached into my pocket and pulled out one of the thumbscrews, reached out and screwed it onto the bracket thinking the entire time "don't drop the friggin' thing". I am happy to say that I did not drop it. I was then able to go down one more rung - yes DOWN!! Woot!! And then do the reach out move again and put the bottom thumbscrew into the bracket again thinking "don't friggin' drop it" and thankfully once again I did not.

Down the ladder I went and boy was I happy to do so although I knew I still would have to try and get the thing folded up and then head downstairs to take care of the other filter that dad said "was not as bad to get to as this one" - hmm.

Once I was able to get the ladder into position and folded up it was time to tackle the downstairs filter and I wondered what would come of that job. Asked dad which way he wanted me to take the ladder downstairs when he told me - cant use that one, have to use my wooden 3 step one. OMG, him and his wooden ladders are an emergency room visit waiting to happen. Why did I not bring my nice Werner aluminum 3-step ladder I don't know!

Downstairs I went and up and on top of the jiggly like jello ladder I balanced reaching far above my head to take out another set of thumbscrews. Thumbscrews out, grate opened and filter handed off to..wait, where is dad? Look down the hall and notice light under the bathroom door. Dad is taking a bathroom break - I guess I better just hang tight until he gets back because as I have learned this far "ahh nothing to worry about, I am doing fine".

I hear a flush, then water running to wash his hands and the door opens. Dad says "that was fast" and walks over to take the old filter, hand me the new one (which fit first try thankfully) and the grate was closed. Thumbscrew's back on and off the ladder I went, successfully changing the second filter and done with the project for another 6 months or so - thankfully!

No ER, Whew

So all in all it was a successful visit and I am glad that I was able to help him out to be perfectly honest. I know how he is and he would have ran right up the ladder and just handled the job without thinking - something he should not be doing and should not have to do now that he is in his 70's.

My fear of heights is no better I will admit, but knowing that the job is done and everyone came out ok is a great reward for a job well done. Maybe in 6 months when I get the phone call again to see if he can borrow the ladder I will remember this and the heights wont bother me as much? I seriously doubt it and until then I am going to chalk this up as done - and forget about it for now!

No More

Real fast before I forget. The 50th episode of Doctor Who was awesome. Parts of it were a little hard to keep up with and I almost feel as though I could get even more understanding out of it by watching it again today - "Who Knows" (yea pun intended, you will get it if you watch the episode as well as the title of this paragraph - N E R D alert). So I don't plan to add any spoilers or things I did or did not like about it, you will just have to watch it for yourself, enjoy!

Good 'Nuff

With that; that being the highlight of my weekend I think that will do it for another entry. Hopefully your weekend has treated you well and you are ready to get into the holiday next week after a couple days of work. I know I am! We will be off for 6 days, only needing to use 2 days of our DTO so it will be a really nice break from all the usual day-to-day. Hopefully we can get some stuff done rather than lazily hang out around the house resting as we have been this weekend.

I heard that a lot of people in retail are going to have to work on Thanksgiving as well. A few stores are doing an early Black Friday sale starting at 6:00 PM on turkey-day. I personally think that is total bullshxt and is unnecessary. I mean Christmas is already being advertised by the time Halloween is upon us so what is next people?

Sheesh, let the seasons and holidays comes as they need to and quit making it about the almighty dollar. Not to get into the fact they are yanking people from their families to go to work on Thanksgiving day - assholes! I know some peeps are ok with it since they get time and a half for working. If people volunteer then that is ok, keep a light staff on-hand. Otherwise let people enjoy the day with family and friends. Not everyone lives day to day to only work.

Photo: Cute shot of the fuzzy kid watching Cicely leave for work earlier in the week. Similar to another shot from several days ago.