This past week I was delighted to see that the workmen were nearing completion of the renovation of our house's facade. After the midweek public holiday, the guys returned Thursday morning and started taking down the scaffolding. I could finally open my living room shutters again and enjoy natural light. Furthermore, I was curious to see how they disassemble the scaffolding; it's a little like watching people play with life-sized legos.
One shutter came up without any problem, but I struggled with the second window. As I turned the handle, nothing happened except for a little noise that sounded like something was catching on the mechanism that raises the shutter. I tried multiple times, then decided to try and get the attention of the guy clambering around on the planks of the scaffolding. He was loading each piece onto a pulley-deal and lowering it to the street below.
I figured that all I needed was a little boost from outside the window, where someone could sort of help raise the shutter, allow the mechanism to catch, then allow me to use the crank to continue raising the shutter. Of course, I had to get on a conference call for a few minutes (ah, the joys of home office) and when I returned to stick my head out the window, I discovered that the speedy workman had already finished dismantling the scaffolding on my floor. Dang.
For the next several hours, I was feeling a bit frustrated and contemplated what it would be like to simply keep one shutter open in the living room. Not only would there be less light coming into the room, it would also give the impression of a face with only one eye open. This, of course, is only if you look at windows in such a way. Since I do look at windows in such a way...well, there you go.
During a break from work, I went off to the grocery store to pick up a few things, and upon my return, admired the fresh paint job on the front of the house. The workmen did a really nice job, and what was a bit aggravating is the fact that my closed shutter really stood out. So, I went back upstairs intent on opening the shutter. I tried for another five minutes without any luck, and finally decided to try turning the handle in the opposite direction. Thirty seconds later, light started peeking in the cracks of the shutter and then continued to flood in as the shutter opened!
Yes, I am a complete dolt.
For those readers who aren't so familiar with European style rolling shutters, allow me to briefly explain how they work. Indeed, it is a very simple concept. For the manual shutters, which is what most people have, there is a little metal rod that hangs down from the top of the window where the shutter is housed when it is completely rolled up. The rod sort of hangs there like the little pulley-thing does for the drapes. Or, if you are more familiar with Venetian blinds, it's that string that you pull on. Only, with this rod, the last little bit is a handle, and you turn it to raise (or lower) the shade.
I subscribe to the righty-tighty lefty-loosey school of thought, and I always say "righty-tighty lefty-loosey" under my breath when using a screwdriver or while performing any similar activity. (note - I actually enjoy saying it almost more than the actual task I am doing) In the case of my shutters, I switched my statement to "righty-raise lefty-lower." The problem is, only one of my shutters actually functions with this logic, hence the ease with which I got the first shutter open earlier in the afternoon. The second shutter, however, operated in reverse.
The fact that it took me so long to figure this out is due partly to the frequency for which I raise and lower my shutters; the last time I did this was about 7 years ago. Since I live on the first floor, I see no need to make this a daily task. The only people who could see into my living are the people who live in the building across the street, and most of the time, their shutters are closed anyway. Not only that, the few times that I danced naked in the apartment was done with the lights out, so there was nothing for anyone to see.
The other reason that it took awhile for me to figure out how to work one of the shutters is that, when fully closed (or open, for that matter), one has to turn the handle for almost thirty seconds before anything really happens. With all my previous attempts to open the shutters earlier in the day, I had not turned the handle long enough. Subconsciously, I think this is where the righty-tighty process is not completely suitable for shutter opening purposes. Normally when you operate a screwdriver or wrench, you recognize almost immediately if you are going the wrong way.
At any rate, I still consider myself a dolt, but at least my living room shutters are open.
That evening at the pub, I elected to skip the story about my shutters, but I did ask a few friends what they thought of the completed renovation. I was telling Mono about my surprise that the new house color was blue instead of the sort of pinkish-peach color that the house was previously. A few years ago, the rear of our house was re-done and painted in the same pinkish-peach color; I assumed that they would do the front in the same way.
I actually really like the new blue color, but Mono, who also said the house looked good, said that the color was gray. I conceded that there was a bit of gray in the blue, but held firm that it was a blue house. He argued that it was a gray house, with a hint of blue. When someone else walked up to where we were standing, I asked them what color they thought my house was. That person said blue. Two minutes later, someone else walked up, and they said gray.
I decided to change the conversation topic, and also made mental note to never ask whether people call an item a belly bag or a fanny pack....
As the workweek came to a close, I enjoyed my Friday spending as much time in the living room as possible. As always, most of my breaks from work involve playing a few pieces on the piano. I had noticed during the past month that the absence of natural light really highlighted just how poor the lighting is in my living room. The overhead light is inadequate, as is the lamp next to my sofa. To compensate, I had ordered a small desk lamp through amazon, hoping that I could use it for a piano light.
I had placed my order on Monday for several items (including the lamp), and on Friday most of the packages arrived. Unfortunately, they were all delivered and signed for by my upstairs neighbor. The irony here, was that I, too, had accepted and signed for several packages. For him.
This meant that we had to trade packages several times Friday evening and again on Saturday. We both sort of laughed each time we did our exchange, and we both agreed that the delivery driver was a dolt.
A couple of final points for today. I have recently started learning a few new piano pieces. One is particularly challenging, but I refuse to give up trying, and am not about to refer to myself as a dolt. I know I can learn this piece, despite it's complexity. I was actually encouraged (and relieved) when I did a little research on the music score. Initially, I got the impression that there a few too many notes on the staves, almost to the point where it looked like the piece was written for four hands. This is not how music notation really works, but for the better part of the week, I was trying to figure out my fingering, the whole time I was wondering how (where) the additional needed hand or two would come into play.
My research brought me to a website where I discovered that the composer had actually recorded multiple tracks on the piece. Someone had then transcribed the music recording into notation, which resulted in the clutter of notes on the sheet music. I had sort of suspected this, but was really glad to see the composer's confirmation. My technical abilities on piano are not nearly as poor as I had briefly thought.
Fired up by this, I actually took a break from the piano and did some quick research on colors. I discovered that the color blue-gray is also known as livid. However, the color gray-blue is known as cool gray.
With that, I have changed my mind. My house is cool gray.
see you out there
bryan
