quite a day

 Over the weekend I did finish the first of the "Clumsy Cat" (that's Opal's name for the colorway) socks and started the second:

This morning, I got up, did my 30 minute workout (I seem to do better during the day, as far as how my knee feels, if I start off with exercise - which is what makes me wonder if most of this is actually arthritis). Went in to work, did one sample's worth of stuff. Came home at lunch, and as I was finishing my lunch, it began to rain *extremely* heavily (we got some of the outer edges of Beryl, all we got was heavy rain). 

I decided not to go back - I didn't have a good umbrella and some of the streets around campus do flood in downpours.

And then...the lights flickered a few times, and then went out. At first I panicked a bit - did the redbud come down (it got damaged when the trunk of the elm came down back in May) and somehow hit the powerline? But I texted my across the street neighbor (and walked into my sewing room to look at the redbud). Neighbor texted back - yeah, our power is out too. And the redbud was fine. 

So I submitted an outage report to the power company.

And then I decided: well, no point in going back to campus (when they got the outage posted on the map, it did look like campus was affected). I set up a battery-operated camp lantern and then decided to open the blinds all the way in the living room, and then, well, why not wind off some yarn? That doesn't take electricity....

I got the first skein going when one of the blinds made a "snap" and fell down - the thin threads that hold the slats together broke (they seem to rot, periodically.. I don't know. the blinds in my mother's house are over 25 years old and are still fine; the ones I get don't make it five years.. I wonder if the blinds I get are more cheaply made).

So I groaned and hoped that Lowe's still had that kind. Decided to try taking the old one off - it looked bad and even if the power didn't come back on early enough for me to get a new one, it's not like the blind is blocking people from looking in anyway as it was.

It was a pain. It's hard removing those blinds.

Remember: my knee still hurts somewhat, and I did about 2 miles on the cross country ski exerciser, plus walking over at school, and now I'm going up and down on a stepladder. I finally used a screwdriver to pop the other side.

I took the blind with me, but that wound up not helping - I was so focused on the correct width of blind that I didn't notice I was getting the "faux wood slat" kind, and the slats were wider, AND even if I was okay with it not matching (I would not have been), the hardware was very different.

So I went back. Waited in line approximately forever at Customer Service (to be fair: the person ahead of me was apparently a builder with a major problem that something was delivered damaged and other things not delivered at all). Got my refund, went to look for the right kind of blind (after having closely looked at the ones at home, and even photographed a slat next to my thumb for scale). I found them, the hardware *looked* right. They didn't have a 31" one (which was what I needed, and would have been 30.5" on the inside). I debated getting one cut, or getting the 29" (so: 28.5") one instead.

Decided I wasn't getting one cut: no one was around, and they say they're not refundable if they're not right. Okay, fine.

So I bought the 29" blind

Got it home, opened it.

The #*$&@#(# hardware was *different* from the blinds. The blind LOOKED like it would work with the old hardware (see picture above), but it did not, the little latches were different enough. 

And there was no point in returning it! It was either this, or hang a sheet up over the window before I could hire someone, AND buy four new blinds, and have them installed. 

So I decided to swap out the hardware myself. I remembered that the LAST time I had to change hardware (the last time I bought a new set of blinds) the wood frames were really hard (they are like oak or something) and I had to drill pilot holes.

Well, I got the old hardware off with a hand screwdriver, that was fine. 

Then I couldn't find my drill.

I got back down off the stepladder, sat on the bottom step, defeated. Then I thought: call Dana, she probably has a drill, you could even drive there and get it (And yes, it crossed my mind she might offer to do it FOR me, she's handy). But she wasn't home/was away from her cell phone (often when she's doing stuff with her grandkids, she turns it off). 

So I cussed a little

and then I had a cry, picked myself up, dusted myself off, and kept going.

So, with some difficulty (I kept getting weird muscle cramps - I don't know if it was using muscles I'd not used in a long time, or I was tense and tired, or what.. I hope something's not medically wrong but that's top of mind because next week is my routine bloodwork, and the week after that, my annual checkup) I managed to get the pilot holes drilled, and got the hardware installed. 

It was a FIGHT. The whole thing was a fight. Even once I got the hardware on  it was very hard to get the top of the blind to click in, and I almost gave up.

So I had to have another small cry, and decide if I wanted to just go "this is how I live now":

 

I had to use the screwdriver again to press on one of the tabs so it would snap in, and I'm not convinced it's in there perfectly (I suspect if we get another tiny earthquake at some point, it may fall down)

And it's DIFFERENT from the others. There was no cord to pull to raise or lower the blinds: you are supposed to, and I quote, "carefully pull or push WITH BOTH HANDS on the bottom rail" in order to raise or lower the blind. 

Yeah, we'll see how that works. 

But I'm irritated that Levolor changed their hardware, apparently capriciously. They've done this before a couple times: literally every time I've had to replace a blind I've had to redo the hardware and that's annoying. (I suspect it's an attempt to make people replace ALL the blinds in the room when they have to replace one). 

it was 6:30 pm when I FINALLY finished. I started this process just around 3:30 pm

so: it was 2 trips out to Lowe's, one refund, hunting for first a screwdiver and then the drill, many trips up and down the stepladder, a lot of shoulder/back cramps, a stitch in my side, getting dizzy from having my arms over my head too long, I FINALLY got it to click in:

 THEN I decided I wanted to wet-swiffer behind the futon I had pulled out (I hadn't done that in a LONG time) and re-hang the curtains and push the futon sofa back and THEN wash my hair and eat.

Anyway. I hope no more blinds break for a while. 

And yeah, maybe some time I save up some money and ask around for "what are the BEST blinds that don't have filaments that snap" and see if I can just hire someone room by room to replace them. (I admit I kind of liked the look of the faux wood ones; those might have been nice in my bedroom. But it would be four blinds, in two different sizes, and the hardware for each to install)'

But yes, it does things that things are worse made now, and more prone to wear out, and more requiring of being frequently replaced at a cost, and that annoys me, both in terms of the cost and effort, AND the extra waste produced - not just throwing away the old one but all the packaging with the new ones.