Gone Fishing!

Ellie is a pack rat. She collects the most useless and trashy things from the sidewalks and streets and insists on keeping them. We have a small bag with her current "stuff." Above is a sample.

Yesterday, her obsession came in handy. The unthinkable happened. I was hanging laundry on the outside line and I dropped a towel! It landed on the clothesline of the apartment one floor below us.

These are not our towels, and I didn't want to be charged $2 for a towel replacement--not to mention the embarrassment of someone finding out towel on their line! I spent a good hour or two trying different solutions. We have a roll-up bamboo shade on the terrace that rolls up and down with a rope. I pulled the shade as far as it would go and the end of the rope barely reached the towel below. I tried "fishing" for it with a safety pin--no luck, the safety pin was too light-weight. I tried tying a long kitchen tool to the end of the rope. I thought if I swung it back and forth it would knock the towel onto the ground and I could run down and get it--no luck with that either. Ellie asked what I was doing and I explained my dilemma. She said, "I can find something that will work as a fish hook." My little engineer pack rat fixed up this hook from an old key ring.

It worked! She fished up the towel and we were saved! Never underestimate the power of junk!