Ah... The smell of fresh failure.
Today I forayed up onto the roof for the first time, to install Christmas lights. Having no outside outlets in our old place, we'd never put lights up outside the house before. This year I purchased a couple strings of solar-powered led lights. Amd I thought they'd be quite festive up on the roof. I went all out, and fashioned a rudimentary two-dimensional tree form out of some old moldings and lath, then headed up the roof with my toolbelt filled with wire, zip-ties, pliers, and (of course) duct tape.

Our roof is metal, and deceptively steeper than it appears, but I managed to get to the peak, then shuffled across to the (dissused) chimney. I noted that the North side of the roof was much more slippery than the South, it was not only still wet, even frosty in places, but slightly slimy with the fine green mold that tends to grow on anything that holds still too long on the island.

Anyway, I began by attaching the solar cell to the top of the chimney with some zip-ties, then stepped around to attch my tree. That's when I realized that now both feet were on the North side of the roof (saw this coming, didn't you). I'd like to say that the cliche'd slow slide off the roof while haplessly grasping anything that presented itself didn't happen - but it did. First I succeeded in stopping by grasping the tree, but my weight was too much for it's flimsy construction, and I fell over, slid off the roof, grabbed the patio umbrella I've been neglecting to put away, then levered myself over the porch rail and to the ground. Amazingly I survived with only a few bruises.

I've just been out to look at the remains of my handiwork. On my roof is now a lovely, twinkling white upside-down cross. Guess I'm gonna have to go up again and fix that somehow.

If I don't answer the QOTW next week, you'll know why.
(danalan Pretty good, for an amateur., Mon 7 Dec 2009, 1:50, 4 replies)

hey - while you're up there:
Have a go at fixing the TV ariel too, would you?
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Mon 7 Dec 2009, 4:32, closed)

Ariel is a washing liquid
Or possibly a mermaid.

Arial is a font.

Try "aerial". :-)
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Tue 8 Dec 2009, 15:38, closed)

you could fix it
or you could leave it as it is, thus convincing your neighbours that you're having a merry satanic christmas
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Mon 7 Dec 2009, 19:37, closed)

A few years ago
I went out on the roof to put the lights up 3 days before christmas. I got several of the clips on the eaves but it was bloody cold and my fingers stopeed working and the soles of my shoes got so hard they had no grip. So I went inside. The next day, I grabbed the dangling lights from the ground and pulled them down. Haven't bothered since.
(Richy_T hundreds if not thousands of dollars, Tue 8 Dec 2009, 4:57, closed)