I remember having a conversation with my dad a few years before he passed on. He had just purchased a new garden tractor. I was having trouble understanding the purchase, as he already owned a fine little tractor. “Dad, why would you buy that?” I asked. “Greg, it was a really good deal,” he replied. Dad could be like that sometimes – he was an extremely generous man, but if he bought something for himself, it had to be a really good deal.
I was reminded of that conversation this afternoon, when I purchased a new ceiling fan at the home center. I had gone there to pick up something for another job entirely. I was walking through the store without a cart – I knew what I wanted and I knew where to find it. (yes, I know where most everything is – I’m there a lot). Then I saw it – a ceiling fan that would be perfect in our spare room. Let’s face it, nobody is buying ceiling fans when it’s snowing, and even fewer folks would buy one without instructions, a warranty or even all of the parts necessary for installation. 
Nobody but me… Oh, and it was just $22 and change. It was already in a cart!! It had an impossibly long 24″ mounting rod, but I could shorten that. (buying a shorter one was possible, but how much fun is that?) I do this a lot – I’m into rehabilitating things. Have you seen my house?? Anyway, the home center didn’t have the hydraulic cement that I went there to get, but I bought the fan anyway, disconnecting the huge down rod so I could fit it into the car trunk.
A trip to the home center’s competitor followed, where they had the cement I needed in a convenient size, so I purchased that and returned home – with two tasks lined up for the afternoon, instead of one.
Last week, we had over 12 inches of snow melted overnight by a hard, cold rain. The soggy conditions caused a leak in my basement wall near the water pipe. I had removed the old cement and wanted to pack new cement around the water pipe in order to stop the dripping. It was only a problem during a really hard, long rain (like last week). That job is now done. Next, I moved to installing the new fan.
I had an old fan to remove first. It was a low-budget white-painted fan – not attractive at all. I removed that fan – it will be relocated to our other house (the one for sale) to take the place of a nice Hunter fan that will be transferred here to our new bedroom. It took me a while to modify the down rod (I had to do it twice), but in an hour or so, the job was done. With the twice-shortened down rod, I am no longer in danger of hitting my head on the fan as I walk under it.
Dad would have been proud…
Oh, Happy New Year, everyone.
Greg
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