Fry me to the moon

I have two potentially risky chores ahead of me this week:

• A tree limb has fallen on the electrical line in my back yard.
• The toilet keeps running and needs fixing.

Usually toilets are not risky repairs, but my predecessor had one of those 7-feet tall Victorian toilets installed. Like a lot of other stuff he did, it makes no sense. Why put a Victorian-era appliance in a 1920s bungalow?

But the reason it's risky to work on is that I can't get a ladder in position to reach the tank. Instead, I have to stand on a thin tile wall between the bathtub and toilet, with very little to hold on to. Getting on and off the wall is a bit nerve-racking as well; I have to go from floor to bathtub to wall.

Usually I have someone around to call 911 if I fall, but all my friends are busy today, and I'm tired of hearing the toilet running nonstop. 

The problem with the tree limb on the power line isn't that big a deal, except for one thing: I have to call the power company to do a "temporary disconnect" before I saw the limb. This will take me about 30 seconds, but I'm afraid the temporary disconnect will end up being an all day-disconnect. And I do not want to be without air conditioning for longer than about 30 seconds.

Since it's such a small limb, I'm tempted to just cut it without having the power cut off first. But it's kind of like skydiving: get it wrong once and you don't get a second chance.