(source)That title sounds awfully deep and somewhat religiously inspired. You know like that old song, "this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine." Anyway, I'm as shallow as a kiddie pool and this post is not deep whatsoever; in fact, it's a post about lamps.
Several months ago (March or April?) Caroline benignly, yet carelessly, tossed a blanket over to her friend. Either Caroline has bad aim or her friend can't catch, but whatever the case, the blanket knocked over our lamp downstairs in our basement. Sparks flew and CFL bulb remains were strewn about our living area. If you're unfamiliar with the eco-friendly CFL bulbs, they're good for energy consumption, but basically require a HAZMAT team when one of the bulbs breaks. They contain a small amount of mercury, which has poisonous affects. The protocol for cleaning up a broken CFL bulb is quite labor intensive and kind of a pain, if you ask me.
So, at 8:30 pm one evening, after I heard a loud crash and saw sparks flying, I kicked the kids out of the basement, opened a window and swept up the mercury tainted bulb remains. Only, as I read later, sweeping up the bulb fragments is not suggested because then mercury remains on the broom bristles.
Bye bye broom.
The research I pulled up on the Internet did a fine job of sufficiently spooking me out. I pretty much did the whole clean up process the wrong way, which left me fretting late into the night about mercury cross contamination and whether or not any mercury dust got on the carpet or was stuck in the soles of my flip flops. Oh, and even worse, I worried about mercury poisoning and croaking in the my sleep.
I pretty much worried all night long. Not that this piece of news should surprise anyone.
The good news is that I did not die of mercury poisoning. And now I'm well versed in broken CFL clean up protocol.
Sheesh, you do one thing to be "green" and to save a little on your energy bills and end up with a giant headache.
Anyway....we've been without a lamp downstairs since the fateful lamp breaking event. I'm not sure why I refrained from purchasing one for so long, but somehow it escaped my to-do list for much too long. The basement is a dungeon, with only one window that leads to a tree filled back patio; not much natural light gets through that window. We've needed the lamp for quite a while and today I finally bought one.
I should have taken a picture, but the lamp is on the basement level and I'm two floors up and feeling kind of lazy. It's not that exciting of a lamp, anyway. Just use your imagination: it has a bronzed brownish lamp base with an off white, squarish linen lampshade.
Are my descriptive capabilities excellent or what?
Trust me, it's just a lamp. Nothing exciting.
BUT, we have light downstairs and that is all that matters. We will longer rely on the little lamp that sits on top of our computer desk to illuminate our dungeon.
Maybe now I'll stop squinting so much.
Nah, I'm afraid my squinting is solely age related. Boo.
Several months ago (March or April?) Caroline benignly, yet carelessly, tossed a blanket over to her friend. Either Caroline has bad aim or her friend can't catch, but whatever the case, the blanket knocked over our lamp downstairs in our basement. Sparks flew and CFL bulb remains were strewn about our living area. If you're unfamiliar with the eco-friendly CFL bulbs, they're good for energy consumption, but basically require a HAZMAT team when one of the bulbs breaks. They contain a small amount of mercury, which has poisonous affects. The protocol for cleaning up a broken CFL bulb is quite labor intensive and kind of a pain, if you ask me.
So, at 8:30 pm one evening, after I heard a loud crash and saw sparks flying, I kicked the kids out of the basement, opened a window and swept up the mercury tainted bulb remains. Only, as I read later, sweeping up the bulb fragments is not suggested because then mercury remains on the broom bristles.
Bye bye broom.
The research I pulled up on the Internet did a fine job of sufficiently spooking me out. I pretty much did the whole clean up process the wrong way, which left me fretting late into the night about mercury cross contamination and whether or not any mercury dust got on the carpet or was stuck in the soles of my flip flops. Oh, and even worse, I worried about mercury poisoning and croaking in the my sleep.
I pretty much worried all night long. Not that this piece of news should surprise anyone.
The good news is that I did not die of mercury poisoning. And now I'm well versed in broken CFL clean up protocol.
Sheesh, you do one thing to be "green" and to save a little on your energy bills and end up with a giant headache.
Anyway....we've been without a lamp downstairs since the fateful lamp breaking event. I'm not sure why I refrained from purchasing one for so long, but somehow it escaped my to-do list for much too long. The basement is a dungeon, with only one window that leads to a tree filled back patio; not much natural light gets through that window. We've needed the lamp for quite a while and today I finally bought one.
I should have taken a picture, but the lamp is on the basement level and I'm two floors up and feeling kind of lazy. It's not that exciting of a lamp, anyway. Just use your imagination: it has a bronzed brownish lamp base with an off white, squarish linen lampshade.
Are my descriptive capabilities excellent or what?
Trust me, it's just a lamp. Nothing exciting.
BUT, we have light downstairs and that is all that matters. We will longer rely on the little lamp that sits on top of our computer desk to illuminate our dungeon.
Maybe now I'll stop squinting so much.
Nah, I'm afraid my squinting is solely age related. Boo.
1 comment:
Isn't it ironic that these eco-friendly bulbs can poison you if they break? I mean, that isn't very healthy, is it?
I'm glad you have a lamp though, as I don't want you squinting!
Post a Comment