Tag: safety

Hooked!

2024 marks our tenth year renting the same Florida house, wherein hangs our Florida boat, graciously placed in our care by the landlord for a modest sum, and which has since consumed many thousands of dollars in upkeep.

And in all this time I’ve neglected to attend a niggling detail, that of a common iron hook upon which the boat was hanging, shedding rust flakes on fiberglass, leaving stains, and giving the successor captain more work to do.

I’d say I didn’t clean up after replacing the hardware so I could take a more evidentiary photograph, but the truth is that rehanging the boat was a struggle and I was tired. In fact, the business of finding a heavy duty SS latch hook was itself a struggle, which is part of the reason why it took ten years to get the job done.

But the main reason is that we’re getting older, and maintenance has become such a dreaded chore that, this time, when I replaced the hook, I wanted it to be the last time.

Is age creeping up on you? What are you doing to deal with it. Tell us in the comments.

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Near Disaster

After twenty-three years operating our elevator without mishap, our dog Ernie broke away from my grasp, poking his muzzle through the scissor gate at the worst possible moment. I hit the stop button. The car was three feet down from the middle floor landing. Ernie’s head and neck were squeezed between the gate and a concrete wall.

He cried, lost his water, strained to pull himself out. The gate was more robust than it needed to be. It took four tries to jerk it out of the track.

Ernie came away from the ordeal with a scuff on his neck. I pulled muscles in my back, neck, and hips during a last-ditch, adrenaline-fueled assault on the apparatus.

We were traumatized. Ernie trembled all night, going back and forth between us in the bed. I had to take him out at 3:30 this morning, something I haven’t had to do for two months.

Our friend and elevator mechanic Mike Zeller will install an accordion-style barrier. Until then, Ernie rides in my lap. Both my hands will be around his chest.

It’s Sunday. Linda’s at church, thanking God for a narrow escape.

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