Ladders and me!
by Irwin
(Lakeland)
While sitting here this morning alone with my thoughts, I am taken back to just yesterday while on a ladder scrubbing the back of Unit #62 (our venture into becoming a landlord).
It all started with a letter received from the office indicating that we need to clean the exterior of the house and specifically made mention of the shed and A/C pad. We were given until Feb 15 to get it done. Seeing that the letter I received on unit 252 (our home) a week earlier specifically said power wash and the letter on unit 62 did not, I took the letter to mean clean the shed and A/C pad only. With that thought in mind, we arrived at unit 62 with the Power washer (it is easier than scrubbing with a brush), sponge mop, and brand new hose around 2 pm. Should take about an hour I said to myself. Fat chance!
But, yes - there is that inevitable "but". One thing led to another and we ended up running back to the house on several occasions for electric, scissors, ties, the ladder, different sponge mops, etc. What I thought was going to be a simple job eventually became a big job requiring me to make many trips up and down a ladder using muscles that haven't been used in years all while saying to myself that I am getting too old for this stuff.
Why, at age 72, I would even consider tackling such a project when I know how exhausting the work can be, is beyond me? Perhaps I did it because I may have said to myself: “You are never too old to do physical labor!”
But one thing I did learn after climbing a ladder for three hours was this: “There does come a time when paying for work to be done makes sense, and at our age, what with climbing ladders being part of the scenario just described, yesterday's job should have been one of those times.
While we were considerably pleased with the job once it was over and done with, next time I think I will pass and pay the $65. We would have gotten more bang for our buck so to speak by paying to have the job done and not have been so sore this morning.
Now that both houses are cleaned we can move on to other minor jobs needing my attention. The nice thing about those upcoming jobs though is that they are simple in nature. Hopefully, my days of working off of a ladder are over. What about you?
Until next time.
