Some days....

.....it just doesn't pay to make plans.

Yesterday at work I devised a plan to take care of some pretty big winterizing projects that day. High on my list was putting up my storm windows on the French windows. They are a bit of a challenge and the gusty wind we were having over the past week was going to make it even more tricky as I could see myself floating away holding onto a window "sail." Nonetheless, I was excited to get that job done because it makes the house quiet, bright and sealed up against the changing weather. As I turned into the driveway at home, I realized something had happened to change things. A very large creeping wisteria vine had been blown down and was laying in front of my garage door. I had to add that to my list of things to do before tackling any of the others.

The wisteria is a "special" vine. It creates tendrils that can grow, I swear, a foot a day!  They wrap around everything and reach out for new things to grab onto. I've seen them head for the antenna on my car! In order to move that big mass of branches, I had to snip at the small branches and then try to drag pieces away often returning to make more snips until a clump was free. 

Then, I heard a familiar creaking sound above my kitchen window. A few weeks ago, I finally isolated it as belonging to the device that holds my dead telephone line against my house. It was tearing off the siding ! 

Let's add these up. I went from one big chore (windows) to three big chores. Ugh. 

The wisteria was hacked and hauled away with only minor wounds. The windows were a challenge in the heavy winds but they were washed and put up without incident. Then, I looked up at the telephone line as it continued to moan and strain under the stress of the heavy wind. After a brief assessment, I determined that the wire was probably not an electric wire and definitely not my cable wire. I was aware that I was making a decision based on a fool's determination but I figured I'd roll the dice. I grabbed my trusty old wooden ladder and a few other tools and snipped the wire. What I started to realize is that the reason it was pulling the siding off was because it was attached under extreme tension to something that I call a gizmo. When I nipped the attachment wires, the thing violently snapped back and landed in my yard with great force. All I could think of was that if I hadn't been leaning away from the gizmo, I would have gotten it in my face. 

Here is the wire with the gizmo at the bottom of the photo and piece of the wisteria laying on the path to my compost pile.

My tools. Always carry a cell phone when you are engaging in potentially dangerous projects.

I finished up my outdoor chores batting 3 out of 3. No incidents. I was lucky.