I don't dust...

When I was a kid the running joke was always, "Don't dust. You'll break it." 

It worked for things in the house or vehicles. The car would break down after it had been cleaned, "Oh, well, you washed the dust away that was holding it together."

We have this rough wooden beam in our living room. It snags dust cloths, fuzzies from the dusters, you name it- the rough wood snags it. Since I'm short, dusting the beam is not usually something I endeavor to do often. 

I'm short. 

There are so many other things closer to my eye level to dust, or clean, or play with. 

Sitting just right on the couch, though, gives me the perfect vantage point to see the dust and webs collecting in places I can't reach. I guess after ten years of living in a place, they're bound to collect. 

Go figure.

So we endeavor to clean "The Beam". And while we've got the ladder, we might as well clean the dust bunnies from the ceiling fan. 

We have no love for the fixtures the builders put in this house when it was built. They are crap. 
That's just the way of it. They are lousy, cheap pieces of hardware. We've had to replace many. 

Why did we think cleaning this ceiling fan would endear it to us??
We didn't.
We just wanted the dust gone.

We cleaned it. 
Put everything away. Started dinner when BAM whap whap whap.

The ceiling fan drops off of it's drop bar and dangles by its cords.
The Professor is bummed. My Brother, Uncle Kickbutt, and his wife come to our rescue. Uncle KB is strong enough to hold the ceiling fan up so the Professor can reattach it. My brother is also 5'9". A good seven inches on me. 

All is well. 

Until the next night. 

See the cords? The down bar is fine. Go figure.

 We turn off the fan and we all make faces. The electrician I call manages to come out that same day. (I think because it was raining.) He wasn't impressed that we had the lights on. my thought was, "Hey it's not sparking."

He was NOT a very friendly repairman. 

He was barely tolerable of the children. 

He was barely tolerable of me.

I was glad he left. Surly he might have been, he was quick with the installation.

Shiny

We have a new ceiling fan. It's not as bright as the other one, but it's not nearly as ugly.

More importantly??

It's not dangling by its cords.