Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Heads or Tails #30 (part of a house)

The master builder, Barb, who has built Heads of Tails into a weekly monument of meme technology -- and, no, I don't know what that means either -- has decided to subcontract the construction of this week's model home to Jen. Jen blogs at Tidbits of the Tippets.

Say that ten times fast. G'wan -- I dare ya.

Anyway, this week, our mission, should we decide to accept it, is to focus on a particular part of, or place in, a house. I'm assuming that Barb is assuming that each participant would focus on a part of our own homes. So I won't talk about any of the houses I'm casing just in case I decide to turn from a secret life of blogging to a secret life of crime....


I could stand up in the basement of our old house. I'm not particularly tall -- at my peak, I was a couple of inches beyond six feet. That was before the cares and burdens of the world began to erode me -- but I'd still never make it as a jockey, even if I lost 100 lbs.

The point is, though I may have once been taller than a Munchkin, I was not used to having to walk hunched over.

I was not, that is, until we moved to our present home. There is a large duct, coming from the basement furnace, that crosses the path that I must follow to reach the basement refrigerator.

That's where the extra loaves of bread or gallons of milk are stored during the week, or where soup stock is left until required.

This duct of which I am speaking -- note the transition here, I am no longer speaking of the refrigerator -- is mostly round, as ducts of this age and purpose tend to be.

But there is one place -- directly in the center of that aisle leading to the basement refrigerator (here the purpose in introducing the refrigerator into this essay is revealed) -- where the round shape has been flattened.

By my forehead.

I really hate that duct.

9 comments:

Rambler said...

that sounds like it can hurt over there, walking through that duct

Jen said...

Holy Cow, you are hilarious!!! I loved this take on this week's theme! I'm sorry you ran your head into that duct though. I loved your dare to say it fast 10 times, so funny! Thanks so much for stopping by. I love this blog!!

Jean-Luc Picard said...

Very funny. A good tour!

Barb said...

This explains why you are so funny.. whacking your head all those times. ;)

Shelby said...

I think Skittles got it right.. you've whacked your head too often! :)

oh- and thanks for the 3 leaf/4 leaf clover comment.. ya know, I had really no idea about the significance. I'm not Catholic, and I'm not Irish.. so I kinda have an excuse.. but no more.

Shan said...

OMG--I just about fell out of my chair at the end.

We used to have a small crawl space under our old house...and my husband hit his head all the time. Once he beat the beam with a2X4. It didn't hurt the beam, but he felt better!

Misty DawnS said...

Have I ever mentioned that I think you are absolutely hilarious and I love your sense of humor? I think I may have mentioned that before, but, oh well, I'm saying it again... must be because of hitting my head too many times on the steel beam (rather than duct) that runs right above the bottom of the stairs to the basement of my childhood home. Yeah - if you went 'bouncing' or 'hopping' down the basement steps, you ended up either knocked out cold (depending on how fast you were going) or with a major headache and goose-egg on your head.

Anonymous said...

The poor duct, had it a personality other than smashed, probably would wish you had chosen to bend your knees a bit more at the crossing - or perhaps a slight limbo step beneath it in the future. Hope your head was/is quite resilient.

Andree said...

My house is over 100 yrs old. The ducts are newer, rectangular prisms. But they are low. I am 5'3" and have to bend over the basement, too! But it's scary down there, so I don't have to bend over because I won't go down.