Nine months later... fixed it (it was a lugnut)

I can't believe it took me nine months to fix it. Talk about lazy. Sure, sure, you're wondering what I'm talking about. Before I give you the answer so quickly, I have to tell the whole story. That requires me to start at the beginning.

It all started in December, 2007 (nine, almost 10 months ago)... You know what is in December, right? Christmas, of course. And since Abby and I have very tall ceilings, 20-plus feet tall, we can't let all that height go to waste. For the last three years we've searched out the tallest (and cheapest) Christmas Tree money can buy. This year was no exception. We hunted and searched through the mountains and snow for the perfect Terpeing-wald family Christmas Tree.



When we saw it, we knew right away that this was the one. It lit up like stage lights were shining on it. I'm pretty sure I heard a choir of angels singing in the background.

I guess our eyes got the better of us this year. After we cut it down, we realized that it was SEVERAL feet larger than our permit allowed. I quickly chopped it down to size. Not only that, but the two of us couldn't lift it high enough to reach the top of the jeep. It was too heavy. After struggling with what to do with it for 30 minutes, Abby lobbyed to chop down a new, smaller, lighter tree. But, as you can see by the picture, we were able to get it on top of the jeep. We owe the park rangers a big thank you. Two of them happened to drive up at the last minute and helped us lift it onto the jeep. Lucky for us in many regards...



We got the tree in the house and unraveled. The best way to transport a 23-foot tree with a zillion branches is to wrap it with a rope from the bottom up, turning it into a candy cane of sorts. Then it fits into the house nicely and stands up relatively easily. This year I had to stand on the top of our tallest ladder and lift the tree up with a rope. It was too tall and heavy to push up from the floor.

Here is the final product in all it's glory. I wrote a mini news story, attached this picture, and sent it to the media. The local tv stations played the picture and story. We were famous, for about 30 seconds. Go Terpening-wald family Christmas tree!

Here's where we get the wind for the sails of my story. Before we got the tree tied to the wall (for safety), lighted and decorated, I was lowering the really tall ladder (not seen in the pictures) and accidentally snagged it on the rope holding the tree in place. The tree started to fall... timeout. Abby was resting on the couch from the uber-long day we had. I'm thinking, "yes, I'm almost done." Un-timeout. The tree starts to fall; I look at the tree; I let go of the ladder that is still 16 feet in the air; I jump into the tree to catch and prevent it from falling; the ladder slams into the wall and eventually the ground. Needless to say, this all caught Abby by surprise. Lucky for me I caught the tree. Unlucky for me, the ladder left a hole and several dents in the wall.

The hole and dents were in the wall for most of 2008. Well, I'm glad to say, they're no longer there.

Here's the tree after I limbed it. This is the best way to take down a monster tree.

You can kind of see the hole in the wall to the left of the Christmas lights. Don't mistake the alarm sensor for the hole.

Do you see that? Right. The hole is no longer there. I patched it... nine months later.