Sunday, November 7, 2010

Annoyance and irritation - busybodies

I have a neighbour, Mrs Stickybeak. She walks her dog every day, up and then back down the street. Her husband died of cancer a while back. She says she misses him terribly. Her husband lived in the garage, he wasn't allowed in the house.

Mrs S is known by neighbours who have had anything to do with her as being a bit of a gossip and a busybody. She's also an expert at Chinese Whispers. Someone will tell her something and by the time she's relaying her gossip to someone else the story is totally different. I don't have much to do with her as she's liable to blab anything I say to other people and contort it to heaven only knows what story!!

Thisafternoon, I'm up a ladder cleaning out the front gutter... it's that or somehow get the mower up there... I'm concentrating on standing on the ladder, hosing along the gutter where I've just managed to take most of the leaves out with some tongs, and then push all the remaining leaves and soil along with a stick, having climbed the ladder more than a dozen times in between moving toward the middle downpipe and then back to the carport side to hose the dirt and detritus away. I hate doing this job. It kills my feet, it hurts my legs, it is hurting my shoulders. I have a fear of heights (I used to go caving, but heights weren't a problem there as it was dark, and I was a teen or in my 20s!).

So, there I am, up the ladder, and I hear someone shouting. Thinking it's children playing in the street I ignore the shouting. There it goes again, the shouting, and it's my name.... I turn around, hose on (my hearing isn't what it used to be), and I hear amongst other words which were unintelligible to me "... you're game...".

SNAP!

I replied with "I'm not here because I want to be, it has to be done... and it doesn't help when people are shouting at me."

She muttered something about having to get someone to clean out her gutters, apologised, then I think she went away... I had turned around and continued hosing out the gutter.

Reminds me of the neighbore* who stood and watched the ex and I build a fence, and after we'd finished it, he then told us we'd done it wrong.

I've only cleaned out half the front gutter, which is about 1/4 of all the guttering I have. The rest of the front will be the project during the week, and then maybe even the back gutter!

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22 comments:

Merilyn said...

You lucky girl, you have a "Mrs Mangels" for a neighbour.

SezaGeoff said...

Bunning's have a gutter cleaning tool that is a flexible plastic "U" shaped trowel that can fit into the gutters past the end of the roof. It seems to make the job easier as you can just shovel it out. Look for it in the gutter guards area.

Minicapt said...

"If it bothers you, stand up-wind. I won't have a shower until after I'm done. Besides, your perfume stinks."

Cheers

Anonymous said...

If she is like that kae, the husband might have stayed in the garage voluntarily?

I love flying and had flown Jets in the air force, I have no trouble with heights, but by God you'd never get me in a cave with my claustro!

The funny thing is it happened suddenly in my forties when one day I was fixing the air con ducts under the house and I had the feeling of suffocating and other strange sensations, got out quick as possible, which is very very slow, when you have to dodge stumps and the headroom is only 18 inches.

Finished the job anyway because Pam was ill and the weather was turning hot, but never again do I go into confined places.

I still say, there must be a tool you can use from the ground to clean gutters?

Good luck with it anyway, take care!

LouMac

Anonymous said...

OT
I'm watching Q&A never did before, and I think Bill Shorten has matured, got smarter or had good coaches, he will replace Jooolia soon.

LouMac

Anonymous said...

Love flying, don't consider airliners to be flying - that's hitching a ride on a rocket with wings. Dad's Ercoupe or his buddy's Citabria was FLYING!

Not real good with heights, but I am claustrophobic. Won't cave, but got no problem getting on my roof. Ladders are inherently unstable, that's the part that spooks me, not the height.

kae said...

Merilyn
I never watched Neighbours, but I know who you mean!!

SezaGeoff
Thanks! I'll have to look for it, I still have $30 worth of Bunnings vouchers left from last Christmas, must use them soon, huh? My gutter has brackets about every 2ft 6in. Pain in the bum! Er, feet!
I also wear gardening gloves, the leather palmed ones, so I don't cut my hands to pieces. And use bbq tongs to grab the leaves and crap. And push stuff along the gutter with a handle off a mop (it's about a metre or so long).

Mini
Huh? Nah, couldn't say that, she wouldn't get it. I thought my reply was sharp enough!

LouMac
From what I hear he was tossed out of the house and not allowed back in again, but I get your point... it wouldn't surprise me.

Q&A I've taped. I might watch it if you think it's worthwhile! I often hear stuff on ABC AM and other topical programs which I'd like to blog about, but I'm just too tired lately to do it.

kc
I'm fine with flying, I'm even fine with abseiling (after I get over the lip), I just can't look down from hights, I get a fearful sensation, vertigo? Climbing the ladder concerns me as I'm worried I'll slip through the rungs or fall. It's really stupid.

kae said...

Oh LouMac
I think I've always been a bit weird about heights. Didn't worry me that much in the dark in caves... but I did have a fall in a cave once. Slipped a few metres, sat on my backside and managed not to fall through the hole in the floor that we had to climbdown into which led into the middle of a chamber. I would have landed on another caver, but we would have been hurt I'd reckon. It was the kind of hole that you needed to get a boost into to climb up a rope (or get a hand up from someone who'd already climbed out of it), and the last one out had to have strong arms to pull themselves up the rope as there were no handholds...
That freaked me out. Maybe that's what made me scared of heights. It did affect my caving after that. I wasn't as sure of my footholds when I had to climb something that I had to guess where the footholds were...
Yes. I think that's when I became weird about heights. I think I was in my late teens, so I was full grown by then.

kae said...

LouMac
Dang.
Didn't say what I started to say.
I love flying and have no fear of the heights involved in that, no vertigo. I love the feeling of power during take-off.

But put me on a cliff and to look over (like the Burragorang Valley, Blue Mountains, Katoomba), and I have to crawl on my hands and knees if I want to look over the edge, which I'll pass on, anyway!

Oh, the Skyway at Katoomba used to freak me out, still would if it was there, and the Scenic Railway, until I was older, and the suspension bridge at Warragamba Dam (I think that's where it is), used to freak me out, the swaying!

Mehaul said...

That's enough of that outrageous behaviour Kae. I'm sending representatives of the Politburo around to your place immediately to confirm if you have a WH&S licence for that ladder of yours. I bet you haven't. What kind of example are you setting for all those little kiddies who want to climb ladders without a licence. tut tut.

wayne Job Broadford Victoria said...

Dear Kae,
If I lived a tad closer I would willing to do those menial men jobs for the price of a coffee. The days of chivalry have not totally passed some of the male gender. Tilting at windmills was never my forte but damsels in need always answered. Use extreme care doing the home maintenance it can bite you on the backside.

kae said...

Hi Wayne
Thanks for your kind offer, you'd get refreshments through the work and a dinner, perhaps a roast?
Being bitten on the backside is the least of my worries - it's the torn tendons, muscles and ligaments and the broken bones I worry about!

wayne Job Broadford Victoria said...

Thank you Kae,
That is almost a bribe, in recent years I have changed the modis operandi of my business and rarely travel north. However I have always had a wander lust that has been wanting for some time. For many years until recently I always rode my motor cycle to Broome for the new year party, quite a hoot. My last trip was to the Daintree some years ago. I am due for a ride what tools do I need for a roast dinner.

kae said...

I have most tools needed or have access to them. I also have a BFS*, the envy of any man!

I need new washers on several taps and also need to buy a new shower rose for the main bathroom - the stupid retarded flow job in there is useless, visitors complained about trying to jump under the drops!

*BFS = big freaking shed

wayne Job Broadford Victoria said...

Ok Kae,
Some time January, you have my email I hope your neighbours don,t dob in loud motorcycles!!

kae said...

Crikey, where's your email?
Thinks.

Hmmm.

Better email me again so I do have your email address... can't find it!

email address is on my profile page

kae said...

Oh, Mehaul, I missed your comment...

Do your worst!

Wasn't me,
Didn't do it,
No-one saw me,
Can't prove it!

wayne Job Broadford Victoria said...

Sorry Kae
Just sent you an email.

Merilyn said...

Mehaul, Kae's innocent I tell you innocent!!!! [Hee hee].

kae said...

Gravitas, Merilyn, you need to use more gravitas when you say that.

The [hee hee] just doesn't cut it!

Merilyn said...

o'k I'll try to be more dignified next time! [Ha]

kae said...

Merilyn, Merilyn, Merilyn....

(shakes head sadly)