Good Enough!

Our church is having a progressive dinner tonight. Hubby Tony and I volunteered to host a group of six.  That meant, on top of planning and cooking the meal (salad, pork roast, brown rice, roasted butternut squash, and broccoli) I had to do the cleaning chores that only get done when company's coming. I started with the easy stuff...dusting, cleaning the floor under the dining room furniture, and moving all the clutter out of the kitchen. Once that was done I was forced to think about the hard tasks. At the top of that list was dusting and cleaning the light in the front foyer.

Our foyer is two stories tall, and the light fixture is proportionate to the area's size. The behemoth is about 42" long. It's attached to the ceiling with an (approximately) 90" long chain, and the bottom of the fixture is another 90" from the floor. The fixture's polished brass and beveled glass panels hold ten candle-shaped light bulbs.

To dust the outside I attach a t-shirt to a broom, then walk up to the second floor, stand on the overlook, and lean over the rail. I have to be careful not to push too hard against the fixture or it will start swinging, and I don't know just how much of that it would take before crashing down. As challenging as the outside of the light is, the inside is even harder! Even standing on my eight-foot ladder I can't reach more than the bottom half.

 Yesterday afternoon I gave the fixture a good dust, then attempted to clean it. I thought I did a pretty good job until I turned it on; the glass panels I'd 'cleaned' were so streaky they almost looked worse than the ones I hadn't done. I figured it was time to come up with a Plan B. Plan B turned out to be Son Donald, who is about a foot taller than I am. This afternoon he was able to get most of the dirt off so the fixture is presentable. It's not perfect, but it's good enough.

Five years ago today: Exotic