While taking a short break from a woodworking project out in the detached garage this afternoon, I happened to look up at the roof of our two-and-a-half story, hundred-year-old house. I did not like what I saw!
Just to the right of the southwest valley and a few feet below the lower ridge, a six-foot by ten-foot section of shingles had been ripped away by our recent fifty mile-an-hour winds. In one small spot, the black tar paper had been ripped away, too, exposing the plywood decking. I could see the dislodged shingles—most of them in mats of several shingles—caught in the valley just above the flat roof over the back porch.
Being the sharp fellow that I am and not wanting to interrupt my wood project with an asphalt shingle project, I checked the weather forecast. "40% chance of thunderstorms tonight." Sometimes it takes a whole speech to get me motivated to get up on top of a house. In this case, a single phrase was sufficient. I'd rather spend an hour or two doing an unplanned roof repair than spend a week or two doing an unplanned ceiling replacement.
I didn't finish fabricating the porch column bases but I did get the roof repaired. I was able to re-use nearly all of the dislodged shingles. Only needed a couple of more to replace the broken ones and I happened to have two in the garage. A few hours later, when the sound of thunder and the pounding of rain on the roof roused me from my nightly slumber, I was glad I'd remembered Clint Eastwood: "A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."
Life has a way of reshuffling our agendas without prior notice and a key part of adulting is being able to switch over from what we want to do in order to take care of what we need to do. Usually, we'll have a chance to get back to the want to.
After the storm has passed.
H. Arnett
5/13/22
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