What is this a picture of? Read on to find out. I've been exploring the palace...

Remember several blogs ago when I detailed the excruciating process I had to go through to lay the coaxial cable down the passageway and out the window to the satellite dish on the palace roof? Well, it turns out that dish doesn't capture all the local channels we need, so we have to get a second dish. That bit of news really had me down in the dumps for a while, because I SOOOO didn't want to have to run a second cable down the passageway.

Well, I was resigned to have to do that today, and I got the key to the secret door that has access to the roof. Kristy and I went up with the cable to drop it down to the window, and on our way back, I decided to do a little exploring. As we were exiting the secret doorway, Kristy saw a ladder leading up through a tiny hatch in the ceiling. I poked my head up there and could hear New Guy talking to Babs. COOL! We had discovered the entrance to the crawl space above our office! Maybe we could drop the cable down through there!

I got the cable all strewn our between the roof and the ladder well, but it didn't quite leave us with enough to reach through to the office. I spent 15 minutes taking up some slack in the line, and there still wasn't enough cable. It was in a moment of desperation that I discovered yet another secret door leading to a dirty little crawl space with a light at the end of it. Hmmm. A light! It must lead outside!

Sure enough, there was a hole knocked in the wall, and through that hole I could see the roof and a bit of scaffolding. I pushed a brick through to mark the spot, and Kristy and I ventured back out to the roof to see if we could find the hole. Voila! Success! I had to gather up the 91 yards of cable, roll it up, and poke it through the hole in the crawlspace while Kristy waited to receive it on the roof. We got it through, left some slack on the roof where the satellite will go, and threaded the long end down the ladderwell to the third deck, up through the roof hatch, and down through the grate in ceiling above our tv. By the time I was finally finished, I had sweat soaking through my shirt and trousers. (Eeeew!)

Considering the enormous obstacles I had to surmount to accomplish this task, it's amazing I didn't get injured... Actually, at the very end, I was trying to tie the cable to a wire in the office to make it a little bit neater when I was "shocked" to find out that the wire was live. A bolt of electricity went in through my left ring finger and gave me quite a start. I'm just glad I was able to let go before it really got me good. I had a tingly sensation in that finger for about half an hour afterward. But, HEY! Mission accomplished! Now all I have to do is have the sat. tv guy install the dish and the box, and we'll be in business! Flippin' sweet if you ask me!