Whenever I hear one of those news stories about a stupid mistake gone bad I wonder if I might have the capacity to make the same mistake and consequently suffer the same ridicule. Today I was reminded of this little idea of mine and by the luck of grace, I am still here.

With the help of other’s hands, I have a couple mobiles to hang from the ceiling for the entertainment of babes and adults alike. While the crafting world is full of ideas for beautiful decorations, I have yet to come across good instructions for properly hanging these works of art. And I must admit that often, these projects get the better of me and take a considerably larger amount of time to complete than to conceive. So it’s been nearly a year and they are finally going up. Or so I thought…

Because it turns out that it’s quite complicated to hang a mobile, even when I’ve already spent a couple hours planning out just how to and made sure to have all the materials at the ready. The space in which they are to be hung is wired for ceiling lights but we never installed them because the wall sconces provide adequate illumination. So I thought that the screws holding the lighting hardware in place offered a convenient solution to my problem of how to go about attaching these beauties to the ceiling. I was well on my way to getting the job done when my sister (who was lending me a hand), said that I’d need to seal off the wires. What? This seemed to be the time to give my very smart and able bodied husband a call.

He arrived concerned that I’d decided to become an electrician. I explained that I had no such intention and that was precisely why I’d called him in the first place. Come to find out that I’d been doing all sorts of dangerous things. Things that violated codes and could have ignited fires under just the right set of unfortunate circumstances. He repeated the lecture many times, I assured him that I understood the error of my ways… in hindsight, of course.

Which is precisely the thing that makes me think that someday I may indeed the be subject of a news story. So, I’m newly committed to always asking for help and for constantly seeking more information. The fight against ignorance will surely keep me busy for a lifetime.