Stuck

My son called to ask if I knew anything about Venetian blinds. It seems he had gotten both sets of blinds stuck at the top, rendering his efficiency apartment a fishbowl and making it difficult to sleep at night.

I happened to look in his old room at home and BINGO! the blinds were also stuck at the top. I guess this is actually not a new problem.

So I went to work on the blinds at home, using the Philips screwdriver on my Swiss army knife. It was reassuring to feel the locking mechanism release, freeing up the pull cords. I wasn’t exactly sure what I had done, but I knew enough at that point to attempt to fix the monster blinds in his apartment.

So with step stool in hand, I paid him a visit. At first I doubted that I would be successful because nothing was budging. My husband tried and threw up his hands. But he had managed to shine a light on the stuck locking mechanism.

I started probing again with a screwdriver and little by little the blind came down, slowly sucking up the pull cord. I did the same with the second one. But the ancient locking mechanisms were tight and undependable.

It seemed like a perfect WD-40 job. So we left the blinds in the down position and he promised not to take them to that extreme again. Meanwhile I got a cute little tube of WD-40 at Home Depot, along with a few other things he needed.

My father, who understood how just about everything worked, would have been proud of me for solving the Venetian blind problem. I think a few drops of oil will allow the locks to grip and release at least for the remaining 10 months of his lease. Then they will be someone else’s problem.