Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention!!

You've heard that old saying, right??  Well during that glorious storm yesterday, filled with rain, hail and heavy winds, Necessity stepped right up to the plate!!  I was sitting on the couch relaxing, having turned the fireplace on to break the chill, when I heard that ominous sound of a waterfall.  As I wandered over to the kitchen, I SAW the waterfall outside my window.  YIKES!!!  The gutters were about to fall off the house!!

What to do ..... what to do!!!!  Obviously I can't reach that high ... I could stick my ladder under the edge ... what else??   YAY!!  The lightbulb went on .... all those poles from trees planted out front that I saved for no other reason than they wouldn't fit in the garbage can!!  I got soaked as I rummaged through the pile trying to find the longest one.

Too short!!!

What else have I got???  An upside down flower pot .... still too short.  I ran back inside and found a cake pan three inches high!!  YES, maybe ... STILL too short as I pushed up as hard as I could to relieve some of the water pressure!!  Finally I reached over to grab a rock wine coaster ...... and ...... YES -- PERFECT!!!  All the while I'm doing this, the waterfall is falling on my head, but I got the gutter supported (and raised) enough so the water would flow out the downspout, kinda sorta!!

You can see the drips all along the edge.  This is the exact section the roofers repaired two years ago ... and I again screwed to the facing last year ... none of which have worked!!  It's just low enough that all the water runs to this end, causing the gutter to pull away and leak.

My handiwork!!!  At least it didn't fall off the building.  Today when the rain stops, I will again crawl up the ladder and see if there is any way I can solve the problem!!  Unless I glue some branches and leaves on this pole, it isn't going to look pretty on my patio!!  

Another BIG storm is predicted for this morning, then it's sunshine for the next two weeks.  Too bad it hasn't been doing this every day.  I miss the whoosh of the wind, the patter of rain and the resulting mess to clean up!!

My succulents are happy in the rain however, as are my rose bushes in the top picture.  You know, the "carpet roses" my landscape gardner planted?  I've never seen carpet roses four feet tall, but they are kind of pretty and they bloom like crazy.  This little flower pot has lasted two months now ... even with my black thumb!!

There's not much time left to pay your taxes if you owe anything.  I can't see how I can owe the IRS when I spent $14,000 on a rental roof repair, but apparently I only get to write off $328 a year.  Now THAT'S ridiculous!!!  They also pulled the old trick ... we'll make you think you are getting more money in your check, by not collecting as much taxes every month.  Hehehe ..  they will spend more money, that way increasing the economy and WE (the government) will get the credit.  Then we'll stick it to them by charging the SAME amount of taxes at year end!!!  Hahahahahaha .... I can just HEAR their evil laughter!!!   SOOOOOOOOO irritating they pull these kind of tricks on an unsuspecting nation.

On a happier note, the Magic Kingdom went well with 145 happy campers, except Cinderella and the Castle Lawyer, neither of whom could balance with the flimsy plastic machine.  We finally decided I should take the Magic Book of Spells home with all the tapes and try to figure out what the bleep it was doing with the refunds ... our mistakes actually ... that we "think" is causing the problem!!!  So it's going to be a long night in the castle dungeon!!  Maybe Necessity will come visit me again and I can invent something to make the evil machine work correctly!!