THE HOLE

Good morning from the wet patio in not-so-sunny California.  This picture pretty much sums up my neighborhood.  It was taken not too far from my place.  Amazingly, it has looked like this for at least 70 years.   

It didn't look like that yesterday however.  It was a reasonably nice morning until the winds began to pick up and the trees began to dance.  I could sit and watch them all day, but then the rains came.  Good grief ... it was a downpour for about three hours.  That's a LOT of water!!  It finally let up just a tad, but kept raining steadily all day long.

Surely we got tons of snow in the mountains because it just didn't quit.

I ran outside to check the gutters (all was well) before working on that black and white quilt for awhile.  It's difficult to do while the KID is underfoot trying to get you to kick the ball.  

It was a nice day ... and time to catch the last round of the National Finals Rodeo.  You just never know who is going to win what.  If you win the most money in your category, you get the gold buckle.  Then you can win the Average by having the highest average score of all your rides together.  Then you can win the World Championship by winning the most money overall.  

Stetson Wright ... he won over $920,000 in his ten day run.  That's yet another world record he set.  

While watching that, I decided to roast these two pork loins.  I'm testing out the marinade for the RV rally, since I've never had to make it before.  I wanted to use the barbecue, but by now there are TWO waterfalls on the back of my house from apparently plugged gutters.  I thought we fixed that!  

The pork was ok, but not quite the flavor I wanted.  I think it needs more garlic.  I also whipped up some Red Lobster biscuits.  I don't know what they put in that little garlic packet, but boy is it ever GOOD!!

Nice day .... the rodeo is almost over as I made a quick trip to turn on my electric blanket in the bedroom.  I opened the door and instantly spotted a dark spot on the rug.  It's wet.  No way it was Cooper ... the door has been closed all day.  What the heck?

I look up to get a big SPLAT right on my forehead.  NOOOOOOOOO ... NO NO NO ... water is coming from around the light fixture.  Big sigh ... just what I need ... MORE repairs.  I bought a new(er) house so this kind of thing would not happen.

I threw down a towel and grabbed a bowl to put underneath the drips.  It didn't seem too bad and I couldn't see any waterlogged sheetrock.  My first thought was of course to call the painters/roofers/gutter guys.  It's Saturday night, only 7:30 ... so maybe he can tell me what to do.  If nothing else, I can crawl up into the attic and see where it's coming from.  Seriously, I need to get a permanent ladder built into the crawl space!!

Such a nice man ... he insisted on coming over to at least put a bucket in the attic to save the sheetrock.

It was rather comical ... I would tap on the wall in the bedroom while he clamored over AC ducts, plumbing and electrical wiring until he finally got to the spot.  It turns out it was a vent next to the fireplace chimney (which is completely fake by the way because it's a gas fireplace).  Who knew? 

THE HOLE is small, but big enough to let water in which drips down the pipe halfway then falls directly into my light fixture.  How lucky can I be ... although that's probably a good thing because otherwise I would not know until the ceiling fell in.  

He plunked down my bathroom wastebasket and came back down.  While putting the ladder away, I mentioned "just leave it outside because I have to check Niagara Falls in the back yard".  I should have kept my mouth shut.  

So here we out outside at 9:00 trying to unclog the downspout of a long section.  He didn't bring tools and all I could come up with was a coat hangar.  After twenty minutes of poking while holding a garden hose running full blast, it FINALLY came loose.  

I kept saying I could do it tomorrow, but he insisted on fixing the second one too.  Yup it was really dark by now and I'm soaking wet from holding the flashlight so he can see.  That's the moon up top.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate him.  He will be back over Monday to fix it for me.  You don't find guys like that in my neighborhood any more.  For all you men out there that help other people with their repair problems, you are a Godsend and that definitely includes Mr. Chance who helps me at every turn in Arizona.  

And so at long last Cooper and I headed to bed after drying the carpet ... three hours later than my normal time, but at least it was a quiet night.  It's supposed to keep raining all day today, so you will find me on the ladder this morning cleaning out the rest of the gutters once again.  Home ownership ... SO much fun!!