And today I did......

[epicyclo]

The good news, the sad news, more sad news, even more sad news, some heroic improv, more sad news, and then the good news.

The good bit:
I was intending riding the Corrieyairack starting from Kingussie and then up the South Loch Ness Trail and back to Dingwall. I was packed and ready to go.

The sad bit:

Wife casually "I've locked your shed and it won't open"
Me incredulously "How?"
Wife still casual "I snibbed it from the inside and then pulled it shut from the outside"
Me stunned "That's not possible unless you used a lot of force"
Wife indignantly "Well it was hard to shut"

The shed door usually pulls over easily and snicks shut. Now my wife is not stupid or dumb, but unfortunately she comes from a family who are all very strong and brawn is favoured over finesse. It's why we're still married - I'm scared to misbehave.

More sad stuff:

Well that was the ride stuffed. My gear was in the shed, and I missed my lift. No problem, I'd get the tools out after breakfast, and have the door off in no time.

Even more sad stuff - it's getting pathetic now

So had breakfast, went out to shed to see what tools were needed, back into house to get tools. No tools.
Ring wife "Where's the household tool set?"
Wife "I put them in the shed. They were cluttering up the place."
Me - speechless bit.... "Aaaaaargh!"

OK, I could go and buy a set of tools, but my wallet was in my Camelback which was in the ..... yes, shed.

Heroic improvisation bit:

Search of house for tools. Nothing, not even a screwdriver. Then I remembered my lock knife. It used to go everywhere with me, but now was at the back of a crammed drawer where it's lived ever since the govt banned them after discovering they were prone to leap into their owners hands and make them go into a frenzied slashing and killing spree.

Out to the shed. Door impregnable with knife. Side window looked promising. Figured if I could chip out the putty I could remove the pane and get in that way. Putty too hard.

More improv - found a chunk of 2"x2", whittled it down at one end as a handle, shortened it with even more whittling, and using it as a mallet managed to chip out all the putty. But at the expense of the knife - the end broke off when I used too much leverage.

More sad stuff:

The glass of the window was now totally exposed, but still a bit tight in the frame. No problem, a gentle bit of leverage and it started coming out, but stuck. Then a bit more gentle leverage, and out it came. Unfortunately in about six pieces. I was well and truly at the "F*&&^%&* it!" stage, so I didn't care.

The good news!

Not only did I get in, but even better, it was raining!

Frabjous joy! Dancing round the garden springing in the air and clicking my heels - who wants to go over the Corrieyairack when it's pissing rain? - not me.

So all in all a better day than I thought I was getting.

 

[old_coyote_pedaller]

Re:

Aah, the "tidy things away because they're a clutter" is a more than familiar scenario in our house. My wife does it all the time. At least your wife could tell you where she'd put the tidied up stuff, mine never can. The tidying up is done in such an illogical manner, just put it away somewhere, anywhere so it can't be seen. She then can't remember and usually denies all knowledge of the tidied away stuff. I then spend endless minutes, hours, sometimes it stretches into days :facepalm: , looking in cupboards, opening drawers, searching sheds, the Moon, till I find it. It's, whatever it is, never where you'd logically associate with the tidied item. Feckin mental.

 

[The History Man]

Re: Re:

Aah, the "tidy things away because they're a clutter" is a more than familiar scenario in our house. My wife does it all the time. At least your wife could tell you where she'd put the tidied up stuff, mine never can. The tidying up is done in such an illogical manner, just put it away somewhere, anywhere so it can't be seen. She then can't remember and usually denies all knowledge of the tidied away stuff. I then spend endless minutes, hours, sometimes it stretches into days :facepalm: , looking in cupboards, opening drawers, searching sheds, the Moon, till I find it. It's, whatever it is, never where you'd logically associate with the tidied item. Feckin mental.

Amen to that!

And never the same place twice.

 

[epicyclo]

The worst of it was that the household toolkit is pretty comprehensive, and covers most household type jobs. The idea was to stop wives skoking through the shed looking for a hammer to knock in a screw and inadvertently discovering the N+1 bike.

 

[RobMac]

Re:

Was at my MMA class last night and tonight and nothing snapped, twanged or broke so I'm happy

 

[velomaniac]

Re:

As regards stuff being tidied away, its me who does the tidying, although this is so seldom performed that the term 'tidy' must on occasion be looked up in the Encyclopaedia Britanica provided I can find it. I lose everything within 10 seconds of it leaving my hand or line of sight. I use a multitool to tighten a bolt, i put it down then spend up to half an hour looking for it just minutes after putting it down. Consequently my bike builds take weeks not hours. :facepalm:
As if being able to lose an elephant in a phonebox is not bad enough I choose as my life partner a woman with exactly the same problem except she chooses to throw things out she deems useless such as clutter often containing stuff that both of us need such as her car keys. We once found her car keys in a black rubbish bag just before we sent it to the tip :shock:
Never lend me anything you need back urgently or for that matter value :roll:

 

[epicyclo]

Today was a continuation of yesterday. All the shelves that were dismantled and stuff that was discombooberated were dechaosed.

In the meantime I took the opportunity to make a better job of concealing my N+1 BMW project.

Velo, the concept of untidiness is actually purely a semantic issue.

Once you learn the correct terminology, there is no longer a tidiness problem, it turns out everything is neatly stored on the floor shelf.

I hope you find this term useful.

 

[velomaniac]

Re:

Nah, I keep everything on the floor. A floor shelf is still a shelf and stuff can fall off it onto the floor. The ultimate floor is the earth itself thats the ultimate catch all

 

[old_coyote_pedaller]

Re:

I also prefer to keep my crap in plain sight as once it's "tidied away" into boxes I don't know where it is, and on the floor is handy. It's no use labeling the boxes with their contents, my wife does not see the logic in returning items/tools/things to where she got them. For instance, DVDs, CDs, audio cassettes end up in the wrong cases all the time. What she does is take DVD/CD/cassette out of player, puts the new one in player and then.....aaaarrrgh...... puts the one she has just taken out of player into the now empty case of new one she wants to play. Utterly nonsensical, beyond my comprehension that she thinks there's no problem with that. :facepalm:

 

[LikeClockwork]

Re:

Oooh hark at you lot....you need to move in with me.

My OCD means everything spares wise is in labelled boxes/ice cream tubs, tools are hung up (big stuff) or in the right tool box (smaller stuff) Tools like headset press, knocking-things-out tool, drifts, and a bloody big wooden mallet live in their own dedicated box...marked as such....

God, I'm good. And single.

Kaz