About a year ago, when M was still working full time and our house was empty during the day, we purchased three Wyze security cameras. They’re very easy to install, but you have to have an outlet near them as a power source. That has been the sticking point with putting them up outside our house – which was the plan – so, those three cameras have been sitting, unused, in a box. Until Saturday.
I was suddenly galvanized into action (I don’t know where it came from) that we were going to install those cameras. I had worked out, in my mind, a way to run a cord through the eaves to the garage and I thought it would work.
Let’s just say – no.
What seemed so simple and destined to work, in my mind, was not quite so simple when we tried to execute it. And when we’re doing a home improvement project and I’m the one leading the charge, there is something very, very wrong with this picture.
To start with, we were going to install a camera outside our garage, looking down our driveway at the street. All we had to do was to drill a hole through the wall into the garage and run the cord through the hole and across the garage to the outlet. Even a caveman could do THAT.
Right?
Problem #1. Our drill bit wasn’t long enough to go through both the outside and the inside wall of the garage at the same time. Which meant we had to drill a hole in the outside wall, then go inside the garage and drill a hole in the inside wall and HOPE we were close to the 1st hole. Close, yes. Lined up perfectly? No. Not at all.
Which led to problem #2. How are you going to thread a cord through two holes that aren’t lined up? Answer: very carefully. The only way to do any of this work was with the garage door down, so one of us had to be up on a ladder inside the garage and the other was up on a ladder outside. I managed to get a straightened plastic zip tie through both holes and hold onto the end of it, so M could attach the cord to the zip tie and I could pull it back through.
Only he attached another zip tie to the zip tie I threaded through the hole and sent that out to me. I don’t know why he thought I needed another zip tie.
I thought it showed great restraint that I didn’t kill him when that second zip tie came through the hole in the wall.
Finally, we got the cord through, without any bloodshed, and we were able to get the camera up and working.
I’m actually quite proud of us, although it took us all afternoon to get that much done.
The other cameras . . . not so much. My grand plans about going through the eaves aren’t going to work the way I had thought they would and M was worn out and not at all interested in trying to make it work. Which, once again, makes me sad.
He’s always been so handy and so good at getting things done around the house. It seems that part of him is just about gone. Now, if anything is going to be done around the house, either I’m going to have to be the handy one (a scary and dangerous proposition) or I’m going to have to “pay the man” as they say and hire it out. And with less money coming in, I hate to do that. Or, I wait until one of my brothers or sons or his brothers comes into town and/or by the house and I hit them up with “I’ve got a little job for you” (one of my dad’s favorite lines.) But I hate that even more. Who wants to get hit with that every time they show their face? I know I hate it every time I see my dad!!
Ugh.
Guess your neighbors are going to have to behave a little better now! Loved zip tie attached to zip tie part—giggles!
I can laugh now. 🙂
Well–I guess he was trying.
🙂
Hey, the wanting to kill someone in the midst of a project is not that rare around my house.
I know what you mean! 🙂
That’s got to be hard to see your loved one start to change. My mom’s sister was in her early 50’s when she was diagnosed. It’s such a horrible disease!
So true!
Tulsi Gabbard 2020 “While serving in a base in the Sunni Triangle at the height of the war, Tulsi had the heart-wrenching daily responsibility of going through the list of every injury and casualty in the entire theatre of operations, looking to see if any soldiers in her unit were on the list, so she could ensure they received the care they needed and their families were notified.”