Ouch!

So I fell off a short ladder hanging the hooks to bring the hanging plants down a bit. But I think I'll be okay. Thank goodness I didn't hit anything hard. But it does look better than this morning. They'll get plenty of light and I'll be able to reach them to water. Funny thing, I looked down before I stepped and thought I was on the bottom step already. Afraid that wasn't the case. But having fallen down an entire staircase before, I'm beginning to get used to that awful feeling when you realize there is no step and you, like Wile E Coyote, are about to fall.

I started my morning drilling holes in my ceiling to hang plants. I have now demonstrated that you can knock over a blooming orchid multiple times and even have it fall down behind some boards and blocks, and the blooms and plant survive. Here's to having a little more room for the plants to spread out.  Somewhere in this apartment there are at least three iron 'barrel of monkeys' s-hooks that I've had for 25 years, but good luck finding those, so I got some nice iron hanger hooks with an open globe spiral in the middle.  Unfortunately, I took a tumble while hanging them.

I have not put a hook into the ceiling in the bedroom yet, but I do have one, and I purchased an extra iron hook for that.  But I think I'll wait a little before getting up there--I'm a little sore.

Here are this morning's results:

Before hanger hooks

And this is with the iron hangers:

With hanger hooks

I put the middle one lower for a better composition but also I can switch the bottom hook around, as those are shamrocks (Oxalis) and grow towards the sun, so they need to be turned daily to keep from being on just one side.

I don't have ice, but I do have ice packs--I think I'm going to put it on my left shoulder/neck/back, which took the brunt of the fall.  Then I'll get up and start working on eliminating the entertainment centre.  It's been a good day--I took some friends out to Texas Roadhouse for salmon meals and then we went to Howard Curry Shoes, Rite Aid, and K-Mart getting new shoes, corn pads, and flip-flops (respectively) for a friend who's on his feet an awful lot, has to wear dress shoes most of the weekend while doing a standing job, and whose feet has been giving him fits.

I've got about an hour and a half until I go back to get him and take him to a meeting.  So there's the entertainment centre full of books to deal with in the meantime, but first the icing and the lying down.

Have any scholars died from ladders at the Bodleian in 400 years?

Just wondering.

After 400 years, health and safety bans stepladders from historic Oxford library… but nobody can reach the books

Stepladders have been banned from part of Oxford University's historic Bodleian library - because of health and safety fears.

The ruling by officials means that students cannot use items on the higher shelves of the Duke Humfrey reading room.

However, the university is standing its ground and refusing to move the books from their 'original historic location' on the room's balcony.

As a result of the stalemate, students have to travel to libraries as far away as London to view other copies.

What's the main thing they teach you in library school? The point of a library is to provide access to information. What's the point of having pretty historical books without anyone being able to read them? Even a collector or book hoarder savours each book he or she owns and reads them on occasion. But in this case they have become mere decoration, no better than when shallow people buy old books they never read to make their house look more intellectual, which is a shame. Sure, the ladders aren't necessarily the best of solutions, but they've worked well for this long, haven't they?

Thanks to Steven of Library Stuff for this gem.