Dramatis persona*

helenhead Helen Chick

I've always wanted a bumper sticker that said "I'm a female, LDS/Mormon, Scout leading, geocaching, piano-playing, bicycling, mathematics educator with a PhD in maths ... and I VOTE"!

I think this makes me a minority group of cardinality 1!

* Since there's only one of me and "personae" is plural (I think), I've gone with dramatis persona.
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Six impossible things*

ChangingLightGlobesWell, it’s only one impossible thing at the moment, but the day is yet young.

Whatever you do, however, don’t tell my mother or the EH&S inspector! (Which reminds me: my Melbourne office survived Friday’s inspection apart from a dangling power cord violation. Phew. That doesn’t mean that it couldn’t afford to be a whole lot tidier, but since we are supposed to be changing buildings next year, I figure I’ll postpone the big clean up until then.)

The light in my stairwell at home failed while I was away, and so I thought I’d better fix it while I was in transit. Unfortunately this particular light is directly above the stairs (i.e., not above some nice level bit of floor) and a very long way up. What idiot designed this place? Last night I tried some options with my folding ladder in an attempt to reach it, but the folds didn’t go in the right directions.

Eventually I rigged up a solution which (a) had the ladder’s feet level, (b) would allow someone to reach the light fitting, and (c) was almost convincingly stable. This involved two tins of paint and some pieces of tile and board … and a pair of socks on the top end of the ladder to stop the ladder damaging the paintwork of the side wall.

In a rare fit of wisdom, however, I decided that I should not attempt the next manouevre on my own, and so I rang my friend Lynda who kindly offered to come around this morning and help.

She took one look and reacted exactly how I expected she would!

PaintTinsAfter convincing her that it was, in fact, relatively secure, she acted as anchor and together we effected the changing of the globe at Chickingham Palace.

So, it’s now “one impossible thing down, five to go”.

The next impossible thing is to get three months’ worth of winter gear into a suitcase and weighing less than 20kg. And then there are 16 things on my To Do list.

I think three impossible things will suffice for the day.

* * * * * *

* Today, as I googled for the exact “six impossible things quote”,  I learned that the Douglas Adams/Restaurant at the End of the Universe quote “If you’ve done six impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliway’s — the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?” (which I know well) must have been inspired by Lewis Carroll’s quote “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” I’m sure I’ve heard the Carroll quote before (even read it perhaps), but I’d never made the connection. Some days the old neurons just plod along in random directions without getting too fired up or running into each other!

1 comment to Six impossible things*

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