For this week’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, Jim Adams has asked us to write a post using the prompt word home.
I’ve always been handy around the house, able to do things from simple things like painting, hanging wallpaper, installing light fixtures and fans, and hanging window treatments, to other, more challenging tasks involving plumbing and electrical work.
When it comes to something like changing batteries in smoke detectors or even replacing old devices with new ones, I would take projects like that on in a New York minute. Ningún problema!
But now I’m old. And I’m somewhat handicapped due to my fractured hip, which has still not yet healed properly. And that depresses me.
Yesterday I wrote here about needing to upgrade all of our smoke detectors to combination smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. I want these new devices to be connected and controllable via WiFi to our smartphones. I told my wife that I was going to decide on the brand, order five of them, and install them myself.
That’s when Mrs. Fandango gave me a bit of reality check. We have nine-foot ceilings throughout our house except in the master bedroom, where the vaulted ceiling reaches 15 feet where the smoke detector is mounted. She said that not only would I need to climb up on ladders to reach the smoke alarms, but I’d have to disconnect them from the hardwired connections, remove the plate connected to the ceiling, install the new plate for the new devices, rewire the hardwired connection, install the device, and successfully climb down from the ladder. And do that five times.
“You’re too old,” she said, “and you shouldn’t be climbing up on ladders. If you want new smoke alarms and CO detectors, you need to hire someone to install them. Period.”
She’s right. How depressing is that?
This, That, and the Other 
Aww Fandango, I’m sorry, reality sucks sometimes! Xoxo
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Yes it does.
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I hope your new detectors turn out to be everything that you expect them to be.
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I hope so too!
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My reality check came when I went to see my Mum and Dad and there was a bloke working on the roof. I asked Dad why he wasn’t doing it. He just said I’m 74.
That’s when I realised that you won’t be able to do everything you want forever
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Yep. It happens to the best of us, I’m afraid.
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It shouldn’t be depressing! She cares about you so she’s reminding you to care about yourself too.
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I would have hired someone to do that 50 years ago! I hate ladders … and I especially hate FALLING OFF LADDERS.
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If I hadn’t fallen off a ladder 15 months ago and broken my hip (and arm), I guarantee I’d be replacing those smoke detectors on my own.
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