September 2, 2002

• Schpeedy Trackbawl, my antique alcoholic laptop computer, is in denial.  He’s sick and he won’t admit it.  He still starts up with Hal’s voice:  “I’m completely operational and all my circuits are functioning perfectly.”  But first we have to run through a couple of courses of “abort, retry, fail?”  It’s fixable, I know, but not top priority.  The roof is on top of the list.

  
  

  We were on top of the house today (Sunday, Sept.1).  Doug and I got a little bit of work done before the thunderstorm.  We even got things more or less tied down and got inside before the rain came.  Greyfox arrived ahead of the rain, too, just in time to help us get the chair and broom and the like down from the roof.  He wasn’t rained out in Talkeetna today; it was a hailstorm.

  
  

  We’re doing this roof cheap and easy.  After years of sealing and patching over the patches and sealer that previous occupants have applied, and having it leak within a few months each time, were doing it differently.  One tarp is down, nailed by its grommets to the west end of the trailer and stuck to the roof along the free edge with roof sealer (black goo). 

  
  

  That edge, before sealing down, was laced to the grommets of the edge of the second tarp.  I was spreading the goo when I heard the first thunder.  Doug had already called my attention to the clouds… the CLOUD.  A huge mass of gray shading to white at the southern edge, wrapping the whole eastern horizon and as far north as I could see between trees.

  
  

  So I stopped taking pictures and got down to work and got down from the roof as soon as I could.  A couple of years ago, I got caught up there in a rain shower and had my worst fibromyalgia flare to date.  I was simply incapable of undressing myself and had to be helped out of my wet things and into a robe.  Not again.

  
  

  Four rainy days last week delayed the start of work up there after Wednesday’s trip to the hardware store.  We got started after noon because Doug is on a somewhat later sleep schedule than I now.  For a while we were almost in sync with sleeping hours, but now he’s cycling back out, staying up later each day, as always, on a personal day an hour or two longer than the planet’s.  Late start, and early stop because of rain, but the task is under way.   Yay!

  
  

  I took this shot from the ladder as I went down.  The far end is covered; we’re approximately a quarter of the way done with the job.  The next day without rain, if it’s not too windy, we will get more done.

  • 11:19 pm
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