It Was a Simple Task

It is time to change the ceiling fan from winter rotation to summer rotation. It is a simple task—just flip the switch. That is what Gene was going to do. However, he needed something to stand on as the fan is beyond his reach.

His lift of choice for any job inside the Montana is never the small folding step stool but a dining table chair. These chairs are of solid wood construction with a thick cushion over the seat. The cushion is attached to a square of particle board which is hinged to a 4 inch deep box creating a fantastic storage compartment. There is no storage that is left empty in our Montana. Each chair is as full as it can be with a wide assortment of stuff.

He moved the chair beneath the fan and looked up to be sure of his positioning. He noticed there was some dust on the fan blades and thought he would just take care of that while he was up there. After getting a dusting cloth, he stepped up onto the seat of the chair and was startled by the clink and sudden shift in the chairs position. He had inadvertently placed one leg of the chair on the floor vent. Miraculously, the slat in the vent did not break as it had the last time he stepped up onto a chair that was resting on the vent.

All that stuff fell out of the chair seat.

Surprising how much stuff will fit in that small box.

Between the vent slats was the small coaster from the bottom of the chair leg. I guess, to verify that this truly came out of the bottom of the chair leg and to confirm that he would be able to easily fix it, he turned the chair upside down. This caused the hinged seat to fall free and the entire contents tumble onto the floor. The coaster was bent to such an extent Gene was unable to fix it with our meager collection of tools. The fan, however, has been dusted and switched to summer rotation mode.