Tragedy falls
It is with great pain and angst that I must tell you all that a certain tragedy has befallen the wall this evening.
After getting the wall hung (the top of it about 7' high) at the art gallery, I breathed a rather large sigh of relief. I helped with several other tasks, like hanging other pieces and moving some remaining boxes and materials from the old space to the new one.
At about 10pm, as I was on the computer picking some music to play, I heard a noise... a tear perhaps? a crash? I'm not entirely sure. I looked over in enough time to see the wall falling down onto the bookshelf below it, tilt forward, fall top-first onto the coffee table next to the bookcase, and finally land on the floor.
I immediately assumed the worst--that the wall was in several pieces and a complete loss. As I got over to it (covering 40 feet in the span of about 3 seconds), I noticed in my horror that all of the processor was still churning and the LEDs still seemed to be working. At least now I know that the boards can withstand a modest physical shock.
After surveying the aftermath of destruction, these are the casualties:
- Disconnected mounting pieces of wood on the back of the wall. This is what failed. On the back, for mounting the wood, I used liquid nailz and glued together 2 1/2"-thick pieces of wood, and used 4 of these as mount points for hanging. Only 2 of these were used, and only 1 of them failed. We only used 3/4" screws, which never penetrated past the first piece of wood into the second. I don't know if the integrity of the other joint would have been comprimised at some point, either, if I would have used 1" screws.
- Shattered top acrylic piece. It was completely destroyed, shattered almost all the way through vertically. Some or most of the velcro may be salvagable, however.
- Top, middle pixel exterior wall collapsed. It's not entirely destroyed, but the marker board is "mushy" and severely cracked on the outside. Some tape, superglue, and paint should be able to fix it up well enough for Friday.
- Broken top shelf on the bookcase. This is what took the initial blow and I think the main thing that saved the wall from being absolutely destroyed.
- Shattered acrylic on the coffee table. This was a hand-made coffee table of my friend's, and the acrylic on the top of it, where the middle of the wall (the section that collapsed), landed from the bookcase. There was also a piece of moulding that was damaged, but I think a little paint will fix that up.
- Scratches in the bottom piece of acrylic. These are relatively minor and won't be repaired at all.
- Destroyed self-esteem, nerves, and well-being. I have quite a bit of work to do to remake the top piece of acrylic, with upwards of 12' of velcro to cut (and then into 3 1/4" strips after that). Hopefully, I can get some help with that on Thursday evening. For now, I just need to sleep on it and calm my nerves. I'm still a bit shaken up by it, now 2 hours later.
I was actually somewhat surprised that the wall continued to function after the physical impact. Static electricity wreaks havoc on it, and even taking off the acrylic ("unzipping" the velcro) has caused the processor to freeze from time to time.
... I am the center of calm... I am the center of calm... I am the center of calm...
Labels: Miscellaneous
3 Comments:
:( /cry...
ugh this is awful. I'm so sorry :(
dude, that totally sucks donkey
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