I Clean Gutters

I have cleaned the rain gutters. I feel good about it. A chore I have been putting off for two years, at least.

Last year for Christmas, my ex got me a 20' extension ladder. Yes, I liked it. It has been unused till now.
 
On Sunday, I got the ladder from the garage. It was more cumbersome, and heavier than I thought it might be. Laid it down on the lawn, to see how it works.
 
Eyeing up the wires that extend from some tall pole in the alley to where I need to place the ladder, and trusting that the wires are for telephone and cable, rather than electrical wires, I drag/carry the ladder to the first length of rain gutter. I have a thing about spiders and crawly critters, enough to power me off a high ladder if one should happen to skitter suddenly up my arm or whatever, so I am trying to be wary, and also nonchalant at the same time. If you show fear to a spider, it knows it has the upper hand. The ladder seems steady on it's corrugated feet, and the first gutter goes just fine.
 
There are also more rain gutters than I thought - I had not earlier noticed the ones under the shake-out, nor the extra ones on the front of the house, which intersect with the long ones. Hmmm.
 
And the ladder does not want to cooperate as well in the next spot. There is a good one inch gap under one of the ladder feet, and no way to position it to avoid this. It slides easily to one side of the gutter, and I picture myself falling from that height, ladder landing on me. What to do... I need a block of wood, I think, to shim up the gap. There is no magic piece of wood in the garage, to accomplish this, but I do have books sitting out there, (that remain unpacked since I moved in). A book would be the perfect size to wedge under the ladder. (I know, I know - but I have to work with what I have at hand...)
 
On the top stack of books: Steinbeck - The Winter of Our Discontent. I can't do it. I love Steinbeck. Next book: Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath. No can do. Then: Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure. Although those two are both paperbacks, I still cannot bring myself to use them in such a way. Below them, a book called Flaming Tree by Phyllis A Whitney. I will never read this again, if I ever did. Phyllis becomes my partner in the business of gutter cleaning. She looks like a nice woman, I think, as I set the leg of the ladder on her smiling face on the back dust jacket, and I really think she would be eager to help me. The book works like a charm.
 
The bugs and spiders are almost nonexistent, and all I have to do - since I have let the leaves and all sit in here composting for a couple years - is grab the weeds (yes, there are weeds growing in the gutters) and with the weeds comes this whole section of cake-like dirt/decaying vegetation/whatever, and then, the gutter is clean.
 
I did the back, and along the garage, and the front of the house. The ladder is now back in the garage, Phyllis is quietly awaiting next years cleaning, near the ladder. She is happily anticipating getting out again, I believe.