I wish you'd meet my Uncle Bill. He was a tall man—so tall that he could change the bulbs in light sockets while hardly reaching above his head. He said that he wasn't supposed to reach up—it was something to do with a heart condition—and that being tall made life much easier. {{U}}(64) {{/U}} Those accessible bulbs were an easy target for that lofty, blundering head of his.
I realized from the start that his problem was not so much tallness as clumsiness. He blundered into anything and everything and often had injuries (though not in fact burns) to prove how accident-prone he was.
A miserly man, my uncle always stuck replacement soles on his shoes as the old ones wore through, no matter how shabby the uppers became—or bow badly he injured himself in the process. {{U}}(65) {{/U}} Well, strictly it wasn't the sticking that did it but the razor blade adjustments that followed. In his clumsiness, he nearly always stuck the soles slightly out of position. Once firmly glued they couldn't be moved but at least the protruding parts could be neatly trimmed away {{U}}(66) {{/U}}.
I can see him now in my mind's eye! There was the sole, slightly out of position, and there was my uncle, his fingers encrusted with firmly set glue. {{U}}(67) {{/U}} Then he'd blunder round his house in search of lint and sticking plasters. Vases would topple, ornaments would get knocked off walls. He lived alone but his frequent visitors were used to the commotion my uncle made as he hurried round his untidy house. {{U}}(68) {{/U}} Even going to answer the phone could cause calamities and a nail of damage. {{U}}(69) {{/U}} No, they were due to injured fingers, banged heads and falls down stairs. As a matter of fact he survived so many serious injuries that in the end I came to doubt that there was anything wrong with his heart at all. {{U}}(70) {{/U}}
Sentences:
A. I think he preferred to claim a bad heart than admit to bad eyesight or total and utter clumsiness!
B. He would set to work with his razor blade. And a minute later we'd hear his cry of pain and frustration.
C. My uncle's visits to hospital never resulted from that famous heart condition of his.
D. But how could even a clumsy man suffer injuries sticking soles on his shoes?
E. And that's where the razor blades come in, and all the consequent injuries to fingers and thumbs.
F. However, it also created problems for him.
G. The slightest haste was enough to cause an accident.
H. You should have seen him when he really got going!