No end to crazy - yet
The owner of a big, absolutely sweet puppy I’ve been boarding for a few days just picked him up. The experience reminded me that my specialty is older dogs; nobody in my household really wants to play - or chew on things - all the time. His name is Bulleit, which happens to be a favorite bourbon of mine and his owner. Bulleit hasn’t been neutered yet, but thankfully he does understand “Sit” and “Crate”. He likes smoked duck feet - a dog snack I did not know existed until my niece TJ and her husband Steve brought it up from Atlanta with their blind dog RooRoo. Bulleit absolutely loved the duck feet, but Sadie and Fang, after having one each, are turning up their noses. Bulleit’s owner is a professional firefighter, and more - he’s actually in a management position with the Asheville Fire Department, but I couldn’t tell you exactly what. I need to get the rest of those duck feet to him; his mom lives on the corner, so I think that’s within my range of capability.
The roofing guy came back with an estimate well above the amount the insurance company paid me for the Helene damage. TJ and I had gone to Lowe’s to get a tarp for the chimney (which is really just a flue that years ago vented for a cast iron wood cook stove and heater, both probably original to the house, which was built 124 years ago). While there, we saw 3×3×4’ tarp-material bags - probably intended for collecting fallen leaves, so we bought one, thinking that it may be easier to cover the chimney with that than a 6×8 tarp. It was. Steve bungie’d it to the chimney and it looks pretty good, considering.
Until it rains again, I won’t know if I have any leaking due to the missing shingles. The only leak evidence now is water stains at the flue - seen on the kitchen and front room walls. I can paint over that. I forgot to tell Roofing Guy that I have stacks of the original shingles in the crawlspace; I’m thinking maybe just using those to replace the missing ones would suffice - and that’s just aesthetics. We shall see, if it ever really rains here again. So far, it’s just been some heavy misting - not even sprinkles, really.
My roof is not steep, and easily accessed by ladder at the carport. I’m not afraid of heights, and with my naturally low center of gravity and propensity for taking care of simple things, am perfectly capable of nailing down replacement shingles, if that’s all that is needed. Being a tool junkie, I already have shingle nails, believe it or not! I found one out in the front yard yesterday.
TJ and Steve also brought me a battery-operated chainsaw, and Steve cut up a bunch of branches with it. It’s light enough that I should be able to handle it to cut up the rest, once I’ve read the owner’s manual.
Before TJ and Steve got here, the volunteers from Samaritan’s Purse were here, to cut up and pull to the curb downed limbs from the Helene storm. They would not go to the back acre, which sustained the most damage, but did cut up and haul to the street the limbs in the “dog yard”. (My friends Kem and Mark had already cut up the black walnut that fell onto the deck, and artist friends who can make bowls and sculptures from black walnut had picked those pieces up.)
The Samaritan’s Purse (a Franklin Graham enterprise) is still in town to help people. This is a wonderful service, but it did require that I pray with them (for some reason, I got to pray with them twice within half an hour), and they did present me with a King James bible, which includes at the back the 50 most-asked-of-Billy-Graham questions and his answers. Printed in China (I always look). It is signed by all the volunteers and inscribed to me. They said they couldn’t do the cleanup on the back acre because they had 500 more jobs to get at while they were here. Understandable.
I was quizzed about my devotion to Jesus. I did not admit I wasn’t a believer. I said that I understood that Jesus was a great man, but that I am a recovered Catholic, and we didn’t use bibles; we only had missals, which were approved by the Pope. I said that I have been a Unitarian, but am married to a born-and-raised Baptist (Jim). Jim pulled up while they were there, and of course they started quizzing him. He told them how it works. It was great. I just stood there enjoying it. Then he said, “I’m done” and took off.
One of the Samaritan guys noticed my license plate, which says IRESIST. He asked what that meant. I said it meant “government interference” - which they thought was great. Of course, it means one thing to me and another thing to them. Thankfully, they approved without further discussion.
I think I had other things to tell you all, but I just realized it’s almost 1:00 a.m.
I’m so happy it’s just me, Sadie, and Fang tonight!
More later…zzzzzzz
xox
Lucy