Scared of Heights

Today started out like every other day.  I hit snooze on my alarm and got out of bed exactly thirty minutes before I had to leave the house.  I got dressed and hurried out in the cold front that decided to blow in sometime last night.  A loud BOOM! coming from the chick coop sends Scratchy the not-so-kitten running for his life.  I ponder the sound and figure it will make an appearance when I arrive at the coop.  It did.  The metal roof had come loose from the sub-roof and was flapping in the crazy wind.  About the time the roof flaps, I look down and see a patient hen waiting for her turn in a nesting box squawk loudly and jump.  As I looked closely I realized the sound had scared an EGG right out of her body!!  She ran away squawking loudly announcing her egg laying.  I laughed, but made a mental note to fix the roof to avoid more random egg dropping.  As I continue in to the coop I realize the plastic sheeting has come down from the strong wind.  I have lots of work to do tonight when I return from school.

I feed the goats and pony without event and rush to the house to pick up the kids.  Neither of them grabs their jackets.  Oh well.  I drop them off at school and return home.  Dressed is black slacks, black heeled boots and a black turtleneck sweater with a full length coat, I grab a ladder and climb on the roof of the garage.  As I pull myself to a standing position on the roof I realize I am scared of heights and the wind in my jacket is not helping the situation.  I quickly realize that the roof on the coop will have to wait.  I return to the ground. I plug in the electric staple gun and reattach the plastic to the walls of the coop while a cockatiel lands on my head.  I return to school stopping first at the grocery store to get lunches for the kids.

I arrive at school in time for lunch with the kids and then pack my stuff up to go to the house to complete my work before the Christmas Presentation at school tonight.  I imagine it will be a retelling of the story of the birth of Christ, yet every year no matter knowing the story, I cry.  They always seems to put the songs in just the right order and everything comes together just right to make tears roll down my face.  I think the best and essential part of the Christmas Presentation is its remarkably short length.  You get the Christmas Story, tears and photos all in one and a half hours.  Perfect.

I get home and change in to work clothes.  I reposition the ladder and climb up again remembering, this time, I am afraid of heights.  I grab the hammer from my back pocket and lean over the roof to try and hammer some nails in to the coop that falls below the level of the garage roof.  I try to hammer the nails and realize I need a new plan as the nails weren't even making a dent.  I see a big rock and drag it to the roof.  I carefully position myself close enough to throw the rock to the correct spot without putting a hole in the roof.  I heave the rock and it lands perfectly on the flapping roof.  I return to the ladder and slide my foot back quickly, thinking I've now reached professional ladder climber status, and my foot hits the ladder sending it away from the roof!!  In my head I am telling myself very bad things, but out loud I say, "NO!!!!!!!!!!!"  I roll down the roof and throw my arm out closing my eyes and hoping to catch the ladder without continuing to roll and finding the ground ten feet or more below.  My hand makes contact.

I carefully touch my foot to the ladder and begin my descent.  On the ground I put the ladder away and pull the extension cord out of my pocket as I walk toward the pony/goats to plug in a warming light.  I slide my hand across the wrapper holding the cord together and my hand slips with my finger catching the staple and slicing a jagged line across my middle finger.  I laugh and wipe the blood on my jeans.  Luckily it was only a staple and I didn't just roll off the roof!  WAY WORSE SCENARIO!!

I get the warming light plugged in and the goat tries to eat.  I hope she doesn't try that later on in the day or it will burn her lips off.  I return to the house stopping at all the faucets to properly drip them in preparation for tonight's big temperature drop.  How I wish tomorrow was a Saturday.  Oh well, we will be up early and the whole routine will start again.  This time I hope it does not include a staple gun, a ladder, or a roof.

I am thankful I survived the ladder episode (Day 26).  Have a lovely night and hopefully you will have the opportunity to hear the Christmas Story again this holiday.