Roofing

My GOD, I'm not 23 anymore. Our sunroom roof has been leaking apparently since we first put it on 2 years ago. I listened to a bunch of men tell me that there was enough pitch to put shingles on when I knew good and darn well there wasn't. Being as I'm broke I decided to do the job myself. Wm and I crawled up there Sunday and did the tear-off. I took Tuesday off to put it back on before the weather moves in on Wednesday and let my just give a HUGE thank you to my friends who came over and helped me. I couldn't have done this without her or my two sons.

Let me tell you something. I'm already sore as crap. I was sore Monday so what made me think I could get up there and do the hardest part today without getting sore all over again? Stupidity, that's what. Over confidence in my own abilities. Ego?

My legs are eaten up from moving around on the gritty roofing material. My hands are eaten up. I was COVERED in tar. That stuff is insidious. Once it got on my body I SWEAR it multiplied on its own. The nails stuck to my hands. My hands stuck to the trowel. I couldn't have slide off that roof if my life depended on it because all I would have had to do was put my hands down and I'd would have stuck to the roof. I had it on my ass, legs, hands, arms and somehow on the back of my neck.

But....we did it. We replaced 200 sq ft of rolled roofing. We cut and fit it like pros. The test will come Wednesday and Thursday when it rains. It sure feels good though. It feels good to know that I can still take these projects on. That I can do these things for myself. That I'm still capable. At 48, I might be a little slower but I can still do it.

Sick on the weekend

Just a word of advice. Don't get sick on the weekend or at least don't wait until the weekend to try and get anything diagnosed.

This started Wednesday night. Stomach pains. I figured it was something that would go away all by itself so I didn't pay it much attention. Thursday, about 9:30AM, while at work, I doubled over. I knew then that it wasn't something that was just going to go away. I had to leave work. I went home and went to sleep thinking that if I could just have a good poop I'd feel better.

That didn't work either. So, I get up Friday morning and start looking for a GP because up until this point I really didn't need one. I never got really sick. A cold here and there. Sometimes a respiratory thing but nothing that really needed a dedicated GP. Until Friday. And I was stuck. I called two and there were either not in the office or booked.

So, I head off to the minor med. First I go to Baptist. Our new insurance doesn't cover Baptist so my next choice is either Methodist minor at Hacks Cross and Winchester or Germantown Pkwy and Club Pkwy. I opt for the closest which is Gtown. I drive there without packing a lunch and guess what? CLOSED FOR REMODELING. I climb back in the truck and head off to Hacks Cross and Winchester via Poplar and Fayette County. I had no idea Poplar and Hacks Cross didn't intersect. Anywhere in the state. I know where Piperton is now.

And so, I finally get to Methodist minor med only to wait 2 hours and finally be told that they can't definitively diagnose my fault gall bladder without an ultrasound. They don't have a machine. I could either go to the ER or try and find a GP that would take me. I call the one family physician's group that I've been to. Luckily, they can take me Saturday morning at 8.

Great.

I get there and quess where it is? Just one block from where I'd been Friday morning. Winchester just a block down from the Methodist minor med. And guess what else?? THEY DON'T HAVE AN ULTRASOUND EITHER!! Holy crap. So now, my choice is hold out until they can schedule me one on Monday or go to the ER.

I should have gone to the ER in the beginning but now, I'm trying to follow the rules. Be a good doobie. And what does it get me? A weekend of pain, some nausea and the inability to get a good night's sleep.

I'm cranky. I have a gallbladder that feels like someone is trying to ring itself out. They put me on the bland diet. Rice, toast, tea, bananas. Like a good doobie I eat it and I still feel like shit. So you know what? If it doesn't matter what I eat, and according to my gut it doesn't matter, then I want a great big goddamned hamburger. Stomach pains be damned.

Lortab works.

And my youngest doesn't understand why I don't feel like driving him all over town. I feel more like running him over several times with the truck.

I'm going to go lay down and later I'm going to have the cheeseburger. Gallbladder my ass. Ultrasound my ass.

And one wonders why healthcare has skyrocketed. There is no such thing as one stop shopping anymore. OH OH OH....and after the ultrasound my GP will have to refer me to a surgeon so there ONE MORE BLOODY VISIT TO THE BLOODY DOCTOR.

I'm hungry and everything I eat hurts. I'm cranky.

Storms

Whew...what an afternoon and evening. Midtown was spared the brunt of the damage. I feel for those in Hickory Hill....well not the freaks that looted the destroyed Sears store.

But now I have something I want all of you to ponder. It's about 5:30, I'm on the elliptical, it's raining and lightening something fierce outside and then I hear this loud, odd noise outside. We can't figure out what it is then it dawns on me--

MY NEIGHBOR IS OUTSIDE USING POWER TOOLS!!!

WTF?? Why don't we just grab a metal rod and go stand in the street?? He could have done us all a favor and take himself out of the gene pool. Some things never cease to amaze me. Like looters who come out right after a disaster.

I wonder if he finished the bookcase he was working on.

My youngest

Holy jeez, I had a go-'round with my youngest last night. He decided it was a good idea to take on some attitude with me when I told him to do something. Bad idea. But let me tell you what I learned from that.

PARENTHOOD AIN'T FOR WIMPS

We have to be smarter, faster, quicker, stronger and have more stamina so that we can stay at least one step ahead of them. By the time it was over--and I won, by the way--I was exhausted but I never let him see any signs of weakness and showed no fear. After he left it was a different matter. And then I started thinking about how grateful I am that I'm not a single parent. My hat is off to you. I don't see how you do it and am beginning to see how a single parent can just give up. It's exhausting. And it's the child that ends up suffering. I firmly believe that all children want boundaries and will push until they find them even if it means they test the law. Nobody wants chaos. I think the human nature tends towards order and so do children. It's why you see natural leaders float to the top. I remember in school when the teacher would have to step and not put someone in charge you would still see someone in the classroom tend to rise up and bring order. Happens over and over. You see it in playgroups and groups of friends. There is one that tends to become the leader. I believe it's because we need that order, those boundaries. Kids push and we have to be strong enough and brave enough to push back.

He did.

I did.

But damn...when one decides to push it can often feel like an elephant trying to find a place to sit down. This won't be the last time either. Swell.

UGH....home repairs.

You know we've been doing some work on the house. If you own a home in Midtown then you know that it never ends. Yesterday, I went up on the roof to try and find out why the sunroom keeps leaking. I'm beginning to think that the pitch on that part of the roof isn't high enough. I'm not looking forward to that tear-off and rebuild though. It's not that it's much to tear off it's just that we did it 2 summers ago.

Then, I went around to the back and was looking at where the paint is peeling down around the foundation. And I discovered ROT. ROT DAMMIT. ROT. Now, I have to have some folks come take a look and give me an estimate on what it will cost to replace. I can do a lot of my own work but there are some things that are just out of my knowledge zone. Foundation construction is one of them.

The next big question is how are we going to pay for it. I have no idea. I'm praying to all the gods I know to provide. They will. They always have in the past. When we least expected it, some little windfall would appear. It will this time. It's just that this windfall isn't so little and it feels daunting and overwhelming. It may mean that we postpone the overhaul of the sunroom and the install of the second bathroom.

Overwhelming I tell you. If any of you have any suggestions as to how to fix this I could sure use them. I'll even post pictures if I need to.

Where do I start??

So much to post. We bought a counter-top deep fryer over the weekend. Found it on Craig's list which I've just fallen in love with. We've sold several pieces of furniture on that list. I like it much better than ebay because it's local which means you can sell large pieces. Anyway. We used the fryer last night to make hot wings and let me tell you what. They were so good that they would have made you jump up and slap a swat team member. They were marinated in hot sauce, balsamic vinegar, onion and garlic powder then fried for about 12 minutes per batch. Holy cow. They were delicious. And fast. Much faster than doing them in the oven, which we've done before. Gotta give my missus credit for this one. She prepared the wings last night. Yum.

We've also been doing some renovating. I'm sitting in my newly rearranged living room admiring my newly installed and refurbished french doors that lead into our sun room. Wow. I'm not sure where this productivity is coming from. Maybe being stuck inside the house while it's cold outside is driving us to make these repairs. We've patched spots in the ceiling, removed a mirror and will put some pictures rails in the living room. It's as if we're making a new house. Shedding the old and putting on the new. Kinda comes with the new year.

Things are changing around the house. We're beginning to think about college for the oldest. Coming to terms with an alternative career path for the youngest. The memory loss of my partner. Perhaps this is a way to either cope or we're somehow riding the wave caused by all of the other change. Who knows? All I DO know is that it feels pretty good.

I think that today we will finish up little niggling projects throughout the rest of the house then tackle the picture rail. After that is finished we will tackle the sun room probably the next long weekend.

Right now I have to go get a second cup of coffee for the missus

Today, I hung french doors.

In a midtown home. Built in 1920. Ask me, go ahead, ask me if any of the frame was square. HELL NO. Took me all damn day to do it. I know, I know, I should have just gotten prehung doors and put them in but that's wasteful considering I had old doors in the garage. And I just couldn't do it because on one side of the opening we have been tracking the boys' height since they were old enough to stand on their own. There's history on that door frame and I couldn't cover it. I couldn't forget it that easily. I couldn't just throw it away so I decided to work around it. Took me longer and caused me to cuss.......a LOT.......but I saved that history.

I also learned to work around the imperfections. Takes time and ingenuity but it's worth it. I had to cut part off the tops and the bottoms of both doors. I had to cut some off the sides then use a hand plane to finesse it into place. They're hung. They work like they should. They're not perfect yet but that's OK. I'm more about function than flash.

I cut. I sanded. I planed. I filed. I cussed. I swallowed sawdust and tracked wood shavings all over house. Even my son hollered at me for making a mess in the house. Freak. I reset the threshold and now all that's left is putting the hardware on. If this house has taught me anything it's taught me that something is going to go wrong or need to be repaired and that with some patience and research I can fix just about everything.

Except where I work. What a fubar. That may be a project I don't have the talent to take on. Or maybe I do. We'll see.