Sexism - Alive and Well at Home Depot

Most of my good friends have heard about my ceiling fan installation. I moved into my condo over three years ago to find that there was no ceiling fan in the living room. Instead of paying for an electrician to wire the room and another person for installation of a fan, I opted to sweat it out during these painfully hot Texas summers. That is, until Robin Leach agreed to do the dirty work....for free! The first obstacle was obtaining a 16 ft ladder to reach my ceiling.

I entered the tool rental portion of Home Depot, dressed in my usual weekend attire of capri pants, a tanktop, and flipflops. I was greeted by a gentleman who looked at me as if I was lost and needed directions to the appliance section or the carpet section where I might fit right in. I informed him that I was in need of the largest ladder he had, preferably a 14ft or taller one. "What might you want with a ladder like that?" he asked, with a look of confusion on his face. "Well, I would like to rent it" I replied. "What are you going to do with the ladder?" he asked, again looking confused. Now, I would like to bet that if I were a man and inquired about renting a ladder, I would not have to get into the details about what my purpose was for renting it. They would probably load it up and off I would go. This was clearly not the case with me. I informed him that I needed it to install a ceiling fan in my living room. "You are installing a ceiling fan?" was the response I got. "Yes, hence the need for the ladder." "Your ceiling are that tall?" he asked while pointing up to the ceiling above which happened to be 18 ft. "Why yes," I replied. I forget his response, but again it was a look of shock that a female would be doing such a job. The barrage of questions continued. "So, how will you be transporting the ladder....do you have a truck big enough for this." I again said yes, and that it would not be a problem. I told him to put it on hold and that I would be back momentarily to fill out the paperwork. How hard is it to rent a freakin' ladder?

I quickly found Robin and his contractor and told them of my ordeal with the ladder. They thought it was amusing that I kept getting the run-around, so I told him they could come with me to finish the paperwork. Again, I was met with the same multitude of questions by the man. "Will you be needing an outdoor or indoor 16ft ladder" he asked. I informed him that I was not aware of the distinction, but that an A-frame was what I was looking for. Robin, who had rented tools there numerous times, had never gotten the run-around like me and was finding this amusing.

Finally, the guy took me to the ladder. Robin and his contractor showed up to help me load it, and the salesman looked at me and said, "It appears you have this all under control." Of course I do you idiot! Ahh, the sexism at Home Depot. Admittedly, I don't look like one to partake in home improvement projects, but renting a ladder shouldn't entail 50 questions!

The fan took a good 4 hrs to install, complicated by having to pull the ladder up through the balcony as it wouldn't fit through the front door and secondly by the 120+ temps up in the attic. Luckily, I was able to sit back and relax while the installation was occurring, supervising the whole operation. I didn't have one drop of sweat on me nor did I have any sheet rock in my hair. Nah, I got to watch the events unfold, sitting on my sofa and drinking a beverage. It's a hard life that I lead, especially when it comes to home improvement projects.