in the dark

So I'm washing my hands in the bathroom the other day and I hear a pop and flash down the hall. It took a second to register what happened, but there was glass on the floor amongst a red hot glow. It's not common for light bulbs to go exploding now is it? Remember how happy I was about the tulip shades I installed in the upstairs hall fixture? I'll be much happier when I know they won't randomly explode. Suffice to say, this little bad boy is getting rewired. A burned down house wouldn't make for an interesting house blog now would it? One look at the frayed wiring and it's pretty obvious why this thing never worked quite right.

I always wondered whether the fixture was original to the house. It certainly looked old and without anything else to go by I figured nobody would go through the trouble to put a fixture with missing shades that was old, but not 1914 old. Judging by the tag on the inside, it's plausible. After a little research, I found that Underwriters Laboratories has been around since 1894 so I can't dismiss the possibility. Certainly after getting these awesome shades I will treat it that way -- I love this fixture.