Just Call Me Matilda

If you are familiar with the book, Matilda, by Roald Dahl, you should remember that her ability to move things with her mind left her physically exhausted.

Why, you ask, do I bring this up? For Christmas, my DH received a super-duper Weather Station which does every thing except run Doppler radar. It comes with two external sensing units - one for rainfall and one for wind. The sensing unit for rainfall was easy and safe to position and mount and so has been up for months now.

The anemometer (wind sensor) is a different story. On our property the best location (so that our neighbors wouldn't complain about it, and for proximity to the rain sensor) to mount it was on the rear of our house, at the peak of the roof. The back of our house has 3 stories plus a peaked attic with a steep roof line.

Can you see where this is going? DH made an aborted effort a couple months back to climb from one level of the roof to the next and make his way to the ridge and end of the roof that way. Halfway into that he decided the pitch was too steep and backed off from those plans. I was relieved because the thought of him sliding off the roof and landing on the ground so many feet below didn't exactly give me the warm fuzzies, but it still left the Weather Station missing data.

This past Friday he says to me that he has arranged to rent a 40' extension ladder on Saturday to mount the anemometer. I swallow and say "OK, how can I help?" (because I'm a supportive wife who still doesn't want to see him fall to the ground, but understands that it has been bugging him that the station isn't complete).

We pick up the ladder Saturday morning with no problems - except that DH only has me around to help him get the ladder off the Tahoe, around the house and extended. At 5'2"(ish) and an appropriate weight for my height (what, you thought I was going to tell you how much I weigh?) I am like an ant trying to support a lollipop stick while it waves in the breeze.

With the angle needed to properly support the ladder, it didn't quite reach the peak of the roof, or even to the edge of the roof, like my DH expected (simple geometry, really). The length made it sag and sway to an uncomfortable extent for both DH climbing and me watching. By passing a rope he uses for Ski Patrol lift evacuation training through our bedroom windows DH was able to tie the ladder to the house. That made me feel marginally better that the ladder wasn't going to fall down with him on it. See images of the falling skateboarder, Jake Brown, from the X-Games 13 and Chevy Chase falling off the ladder in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation for what possible scenarios were going through my mind.

Due to the aforementioned angle and height of the back of the house in relation to the length of the ladder he ended up attaching the anemometer to the roof line with his arms raised above his head. Scary! Needless to say, I was watching from the ground with the house phone clutched tightly in my hand so that if the unthinkable did happen I wouldn't waste any time dialing 911. And I was using every muscle in my body, and all the brain power I possessed to glue him to the ladder from my position on the ground.

In the end, all went well. The anemometer is now happily (as happily as an inanimate object can) sending information about the wind speeds and direction to the display unit inside the house, the ladder made it back onto the Tahoe and to the rental place in a timely manner, and neither one of us was harmed in doing so.

We spent the evening in a state of collapse. DH from working in direct sun in very humid 100+ degree weather, and me from doing the strenuous work of keeping him up on that ladder without touching him. If something happens to remove the anemometer from the roof we're in agreement that renting a mechanical lift is a very good idea.