Another Saturday project

Sometimes I amaze myself. About this time last year, I took it upon myself to build a sandbox for my 2-year-old. It took most of one Saturday, but I did it and I was pretty proud of myself. Yesterday I did it again. The antenna on our roof blew down in a windstorm several days ago. The hardware it was mounted to just completely broke.

We don't have cable or satellite (old-fashioned cheapskates that we are, yes), so this was a crisis. What will we do if we can't watch cartoons?! Jeff wasn't available to fix it, so I knew if it was going to be taken care of, I'd have to do it. My first plan of attack was to try to find a new mounting kit. Ace, Radio Shack, Home Depot, Wal-mart. Nothing. I could buy a whole new antenna with mounting hardware for $70, but why spend the money when the old antenna works just fine? I was getting frustrated by this point, but unwilling to give up. So I climbed back up on the roof to look at the old set-up and headed back to Ace (the helpful hardware place!) to try to find some pieces to make my own mount. $24 of aluminum, nuts and bolts later, I had what I needed. I started measuring and cutting and drilling. It was slow-going and aggravating until Jeff helped me figure out that I needed to reverse the drill. Arrgh! Eight hours later, this is what it looked like:



And this is what my hands looked like:

I can't get it off. I guess aluminum and Gorilla Glue are not a good combination for lovely, feminine looking hands. Any suggestions? Oh well, I'm not vain, and the cartoons work now, so I can stay sane. :-) And so I amaze myself again. The mount is probably no stronger than the original, and it won't last forever, but at least it's not broken. Except another storm is blowing in right now. I think I'll cry if it breaks again.