Glorious Fool

We had intended to go to Inverness today but decided it would be prudent not to. We knew we could get the ferry over but the road to Inverness may have caused issues. Plus we weren't sure if the ferry back on Thursday would have been running. 3M wanted to get an outfit for her nephews wedding although I had suggested she wore the same thing as she did for funerals. I mean, they're not much different, are they? As Zsa Zsa Gabor once said:

A man in love is incomplete until he has married.
Then he's finished.

Well, it's all moot now. We'll just have to go shopping when we get down there.

As the day started sunny and little wind I was determined to get up on the roof and fix the flippy-flappy vent. As mentioned in a previous blip it was in the most awkward position at the front of the house so I thought I'd check other parts of the front roof before attempting the vent from the back roof. Lots of tiles had lifted and broken their rivets so I replaced them. Which surprised me that I managed that. So far so good, things are going well. Now for the vent.

One thing I may not have mentioned is that I'm terrified of using ladders. Don't know why but it takes a lot for me to climb up one. This time I had the added bonus of using a roof ladder.

First I had to unclip the guttering. Did one side, then the other and went to do the middle when the bracket came out, rawl plugs as well. Right, I'll sort that later. Climbed up the ladder, 3M helped by passing the roof ladder to me and I managed to manoeuvre it into position. At this point the sun was still shining, the wind was non-existent and not one starling had managed to c**p on my head. What could go wrong? Clambered up the roof ladder feeling amazed at how white knuckles go when you're really holding to something and reached the top.

Leaning over the roof I found I couldn't quite reach the problem area. Maybe if I straddled the roof? Ow, ow, ow. Moving off the ladder I had to stretch my leg up and over the roof. I've never done the splits in my life and I don't think I'm at a good age to attempt it for the first time. Plus it was cold. I managed to get one leg over but in doing so I slipped a little and came down heavily on the ridge, one leg either side. At least I managed to treat 3M to a note-perfect rendition of “I'm Walking In The Air”. Once I got my normal voice back I reached down to the vent. Still couldn't reach it. All I could do was slip down to the small loft window and balance there, as shown by todays blip. Which was fine. I managed to reach and fix the vent. And two other tiles that needed fixing. And there was another tile. The last thing to do and I'd be finished. I'd done so many tiles by now that this would be a doddle. I broke it. That's OK, I've got spare tiles, sun's shining, no wind, I'll just go down and get it. Which I did with no problem. And that's when the hail and wind started.

Oddly enough, despite the conditions I managed to fix the broken tile without drama. And get back down safely. And fix the guttering. And put things away.

And, yes, new overalls.

Maybe 3M will let me get back to the bird feeder tomorrow.

Pic taken by 3M.