Ms. Do-It-Herself Strikes Again

It's just not in my nature to think that I need a "man around the house" for things like rearranging furniture, hanging pictures, changing light bulbs in the ceiling fixtures, etc.  But after today, I guess that I should reconsider.

First hurdle for me?  Climbing up on a ladder.  I can do it but I hate it.  I just don't trust my footing or the knees that wobble while I work.  But, today I invested in a sturdy one that I felt would make me feel more secure.  And, after purchasing it and the necessary light bulbs for the various lights that have been blown for weeks now I headed home with a renewed "can do attitude."

It took a few tries before I had the ladder situated "just so" but I finally changed the light above the washer and dryer.  Once that was done, I moved the ladder to the middle of the kitchen floor where I would be able to change the bulbs in the ceiling light near the sink.  Once up on the ladder, intent on undoing the old bulbs, I was taken completely off guard when I heard the sound of shattered glass... 

Oh dear!  The globe over the bulbs I'd changed in the laundry area must not have been as secure as I thought.  Now I had a shattered globe to clean up.  Drat! 

But, not to be deterred from the job at hand, I proceeded to finish the job on the kitchen lights and made doubly sure that the globe was, indeed, secure before moving on to the next chore:  cleaning up the glass fragments and shards. That was about as much fun as climbing up on the blasted ladder in the first place. 

Satisfied that I'd gotten up all of the broken glass, I moved on to the third and final ceiling light fixture - the one in the hallway.  Now, this one has three of those small "flame" shaped bulbs.  One by one, each of the three went out over the past week or so.  There was no ignoring it - this light needed new bulbs.  The first two came out quite easily and I proceeded to place new ones in the sockets.  But, alas, it wasn't meant to be an easy task afterall.  While unscrewing bulb number three, there was a loud "pop" and then everything went black in the kitchen, bath and hallway..... The bulb detached from the base.  The bulb in my hand, the base in the fixture and a blown fuse had placed my newly placed bulbs into pitch black! 

So much for restoring lights in my ceiling fixtures!  Ms. Do-It-Herself  has done more than her fair share for one day...  Tomorrow, it's back to the hardware store for a new globe for the laundry room, more bulbs to replace the ones that blew when the circuit breaker was tripped and... ??? some hints on how to get the base of the old bulb out of the remaining socket. 

This is why I'm a nurse and not an electrician!  And, this is why I should stick to writing, reading and knitting on my days off!!