Good old lamp makeover

Last weekend, Mom found this old oil lamp in the attic that her grandmother, Lydia, had wired as a lamp. The wires and socket were hanging out of the top of the lamp and it was in need of some serious polish. Here it is after I cut out all of the old wires.

The old wiring...

After a few hours and severe cramping in my right hand I had her mostly polished up. I installed my "Make a lamp" kit from Ace Hardware (just like I did here) and as my Monday brain would have it I was electrocuted two times when checking to see that I had wired it correctly. You'd think I would wizen up, eh? The second time really, really hurt (did I ever tell y'all about the time I was really electrocuted while swimming in the lake during lightening? Seriously. You really should get out when it starts to thunder...listen to your parents). With only a few tears shed I wrapped up the project and rushed to steal a shade from another lamp to see what it would look like.

And, now, in the interest of showing you my busts as well as my successes, the truth: the lamp is very, very crooked. After a couple of decades it seems to have gone Pisa. I had to turn the lamp around several times to get a shot that wasn't terribly lopsided. My thoughts: 1) this is an oil lamp, not a real 21st century lamp...it can be crooked if it wants, 2) if the lamp goes strategically into the corner and is operated by a wall switch, and no one ever touches it....then no one (besides you) will ever know, 3) I hope that when I am almost a 100 years old, no one will fault me for being crooked, or slightly tarnished for that matter, 4) did you know that a synonym for the word crooked when used in the "crooked cop" context is "hinky"? (have I said the word "crooked" yet? It's beginning to look misspelled to me...)