I escaped from work early this afternoon so I could get my gutters cleaned out. My neighbor had ice build up under his gutters last year which caused quite a bit of damage and I am determined to not have that happened to me. So we only had a few patients today and the attending was more than willing to let me go.

If you’ll remember, my ladder was stolen, so when my dad came out here, we bought me a replacement ladder. A slightly smaller, more manageable ladder. Today was the first time I had used it. Or used a ladder without somebody more muscular than wimpy little me.

Cleaning the gutters was an adventure, to say the least. I almost dropped the ladder on me, almost hit my head, almost fell off at one point when my feet slipped. I have a scrap on my chin and I’m pretty sure that there will be bruises on my arms and that they will be aching by the morning.

All of that effort and one of my gutters is cleaned out. It starts getting dark around 4:30 (it’s 4:57 right now and pretty much pitch black outside) and by that time, the wind had picked up and I was cold and miserable by the time I dragged the ladder around to the front and discovered that the front gutters are about 3 inches taller and would require changing the length of the ladder again (which was where injuries 1 and 2 almost happened) or me growing another few inches, which likely wasn’t going to happen in the few minutes before night.

So I’ve given up for tonight. I am now renewing my plans to wheedle some brawny (or tall and scrawny, I don’t care) young man into doing it for me. In plaid. With a toolbox nicknamed Ernie.