After five years in this house...

... I've finally figured out a non-scary way to change the light bulb in the ceiling fan over my bed. Longtime readers may remember that this bed is significantly taller than the previous frame. Tall enough that sometimes, when my hip is being wonky, getting into bed at night requires an act of Congress or a miracle on the order of the loaves and the fishes. For the past couple of days the light bulb has been making sputtery noises and generally irritating the fire out of me. This morning I decided to do something about that.

I tiptoed out into the living room and grabbed the folded-up two-step stepstool and set it up at the side of my bed, then stepped up once, twice, put my hand on the pillar of the headboard, stepped onto the mattress, steadied myself, turned slowly, and tried tightening the light bulb. No improvement. So I took it out, went to the linen closet, and quietly pulled out box after box of light bulbs until I remembered that either Fourthborn or Middlest had informed me some time ago that we were nearly out of 60W bulbs. I was replacing one of those ugly coiled "forever" bulbs with a slim profile but could not find a 60W bulb narrow enough to squeeze into the opening in the diffuser globe. And we thankfully have no more of the ugly coiled bulbs.

So I went to the store, took the mostly-dead bulb with me so I'd choose a bulb with the right size screw end, and bought two packages that are ceiling fan friendly. Put one in, put the old bulb into the bag for recycling next weekend at the toxic junk drop-off, and called it done.

At which point I was hungry again, so I made a batch of pigs in blankets for us, and then I spent way too much time looking at doll stuff online (but not buying any). We saw the new "Beauty and the Beast" today, and I am so irritated with the conservative community for blowing up over a supposed "gay moment". Y'all know that I'm conservative, very conservative, but not so conservative that my brain has rusted shut. I thoroughly understand church doctrine regarding gender and behavior, et al, and I also remember clearly that the Savior spent a good chunk of His time telling us to be nice.

There were a couple of sly moments that were genuinely funny (in my opinion), but nobody kissed who shouldn't have. The music was gorgeous. The costuming was gorgeous. I had no idea that so many of my favorite actors could sing. That was a lovely surprise. I had no quarrel with the casting. The library was every bit as wonderful in this version as in the original movie. And while I think Dan Stevens is easy on the eyes, I still prefer the Beast.

I will be buying this movie when it comes out on video.

Having replaced the light bulb and discovered that the problem is more than likely with the fan proper, because the bulb lights up with the globe off and shuts down when I try to cover it, my room is going to be significantly brighter until I replace the fan or call in professional help for it.

I'm now going to do the quilting that I thought I was going to do all day, but other fun stuff happened instead.