…We managed to retrieve all the boxes and empty the attic without a major catastrophe yesterday and I was thanking my lucky stars that …history didn't repeat itself. Let me fill you in on the details.
Many years ago in a
When Butterfly was just a wee thing, we bought our first house, and though it was old and small, we thought it was a palace. It was what they called a story and a half. It had three small rooms on the main floor and three smaller bedrooms plus a bathroom upstairs. The walls in the bedrooms slanted along the roof lines, which gave us the same amount of floor space as the rooms below, but because of the sloping walls and low ceilings, the upstairs was only considered half a story. I thought the rooms were quite charming and cozy and really liked the look and feel of the slanted ceilings upstairs. I still have fond memories of that little house and look back on our years there as magical ones.
I had one girlfriend who came to visit and she said she always felt like she was in a doll house when she sat at my kitchen table, because everything seemed to be on such a small scale. The window sills were close to the floor, so that made us seem bigger and taller, and the half walls and sloping ceilings upstairs also gave us that same impression.
The house had one major problem, no closet space. We only had one small built in clothes closet and one tiny linen closet with half shelves in it. There was a small opening to the attic in the hallway upstairs right above the linen closet, but you had to get a ladder and wiggle and squirm through the small opening to access it, so I never even poked my head up there, but AC did. Because of lack of closet space we thought we would try to store stuff up there. Big mistake! Big, Big mistake!
AC got the ladder out one day and ventured into the spidery darkness. Butterfly and I watched him wiggle through the opening and then we went to put clothes away in her bedroom. We could hear AC moving around above us, but we didn't pay him much mind. We did look up though when we heard the sounds above us getting louder and louder as AC moved around and got closer and closer to where we were standing just below him. Before we knew it, we heard a very loud creaking and cracking sound and in the blink of an eye, disaster struck. Crash! Butterfly and I stood there with mouths agape and eyes wide as we peered through the plaster-dust cloud billowing around us. When the debris cleared a bit it was quite a shock to see what looked like daddy's legs hanging through the ceiling just above our heads. We were covered in plaster dust, bits and pieces of lath and what seemed like hundreds of years' worth of black sooty grime. Indeed they were daddy's legs flailing frantically out of the hole in the ceiling and as I was trying to compute what to do next I heard Butterfly's deep throaty laugh as she said. "Daddy's funny isn't he mommy?"
It seemed like an eternity to AC, but it only took me a couple of seconds to spring into action and run into the hall to get the ladder and rush back into the bedroom with it and put it under AC's feet. He was hanging on for dear life up in the rafters and couldn't get any purchase to climb back up into the attic. He was stuck but good because he couldn't get up or down.
Once he got something under his feet, he was able to get back up on the studs and exit the Black Hole through the opening in the hall. Butterfly and I waited at the bottom of the ladder for him and when he was safely on the ground we stood and looked at each other and started to laugh. We all looked like chimney sweeps with black sooty faces and white eyes peering out. AC was scratched and bruised, but no major harm was done. Butterfly and I had plaster in our hair and grime all over us, but we were fine too. No big pieces of the ceiling fell on either of us.
After we determined that everyone was ok and not seriously hurt, we set to the task of cleaning up the mess and then ourselves. We laughed and laughed and laughed as we did so though. It was just too funny. That night we sat down after supper to watch our favourite TV program at the time. I think it was called Emergency. It was a show about paramedics from the fire department rescuing people in strange situations. That night the main rescue was of a man who fell through a ceiling and got trapped there. The fire department had to come and rescue him. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing, and the whole show set us to laughing again and I still laugh about it now as I write this.
I wasn't laughing the other day though when AC ventured into the Black Hole in this house to balance on the studs and retrieve the kazillion boxes that had accumulated in the dark corners there. He was right above the living room area, and in my mind's eye, I could see his legs dangling through the ceiling in that other house. To put it mildly, I was a tad apprehensive about yet another foray into the dreaded Black Hole and a sudden unexpected exit on the other side of the universe. We only had two weeks to go until moving day; please God, don't let him fall through the ceiling!
All's well that ends well, and this adventure into that dark scary place did just that - ended well. Thank goodness.
Our new house has an attic space that can only be reached via a ladder in the upstairs hall, but don't worry, I have learned my lesson and I can assure you that we won't go anywhere near it. If you are wise, you will heed my advice and not venture into the Black Hole attic crawl space in your home either. I have heard that some people are sucked in and never return.
Actually we can learn a good life lesson from this. Never push anything back into those dark inaccessible corners of your world. They can cause you nothing but trouble later on. Keep things out in the open and let the light shine on them. Don't clutter up your inner space with old useless baggage and dusty old boxes of issues. If it is garbage get rid of it, if it is something good, share it or give it away. Keep your "corners" clutter free and enjoy the wonder of that state of being.
Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void.
Simone Weil
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Phillpots
Leave the Black Holes alone and uncluttered and go out and discover all the other magical things awaiting you in the universe. May the Force be with you.
6 comments:
Oh Cuppa
That was absolutely hilarious!
I thought falling through the ceiling was the kind of things that only happened in cartoons or in the movies.
Thanks for sharing this story. It’s a great tale to tell, especially when everyone was ok.
I know our home inspector checked our attic, but those dark scary spaces are too scary for me to venture into…especially now after reading your story!
You made me think of the attic we had in the house in Minnesota. It was huge and easily accessible – for about the first half of the attic. We stored everything up there, but it was all balanced on the beams.
You may have given me my next story – sorry about that!
That story was a hoot! I was trying to picture all of you with your sooty faces...
Like Karla, I am glad that everyone came out not much worse for wear!
Great story-telling, as usual, and even better advice. Thanks!
Sound advice, indeed.
We don't have ANYTHING in our attic - B made sure of that when he had 12 inches in insulation blown in. Nothing. I like it that way :)
wow, excellant times three!
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