More Rain and Disappointment...

It's starting to look like winter in So. Cal.
The rain hit about midnight on Thursday night and didn't let up until Sunday. The wind was minimal so I didn't loose any of my tarps.

I did spring a new leak. I am thinking it leaked through the plastic that I fastened down during the middle of last summer - screw holes through the battens. Luckily it dripped through my whole-house fan and missed the drywall on the ceiling (at least from what I can tell).

No other leaks and it looks like I have tarp placement down to an art.

On a more depressing note:
This month Men's Health reported that Crunch Berries, http://www.capncrunch.com, aren't a real fruit. Needless to say I am greatly disappointed. As a child my mom would not buy these "unhealthy" breakfast cereals for me. When I started to purchase my own groceries somehow the Captain Crunch would find its way into my grocery cart. It was always the type with the Berry's from the mysterious tree. 100 pounds later....

Not that I suspected that the berries were real, but it was so much more easier for me to rationalize the eating of Captain Crunch if it had real fruit. Considering how dumb some people can be, I suspected that there were people who thought that the crunch berries were real and it was confirmed when I found out that someone filed a lawsuit against Quaker for "fooling them" into thinking the fruity little red balls were real.

The lawyer should be disbarred and the women who filed the case should be sent back to elementary school.

They still taste good even if they are fake.

Now I need to know what flavor the Orange colored Hostess cupcakes really are.

Thanksgiving Weekend - no rest for the weary.

Saturday morning our chance of rain was predicted at 20% but by 7:00 A.M. it turned into 100%.

The thunder and lightening woke me up just before 6:00 A.M. I had covered part of the roof the night before with the intention of keeping off the morning dew. Unfortunately the partial cover-up forced the buckets of rain into the valley formed by the intersection of my garage and the house. The water then poured into a 3" by 3" triangle not yet covered by sheeting and felt.

All is ok in the house though (sarcasm). My couch caught most of the water!

As soon as the lightening let up I ran up onto the roof and covered everything with tarps. If I had known that it was going to hail I would have worn my hard hat too.

By mid-afternoon most of the rain had stopped but I had to wait for the roof to dry out to start shingling. I only got the first course put down and needed to adjust the exposure to match up with the main body of the roof. My son help heft 3 bags of shingles onto the roof.

I still haven't figured out how to seal that intersection. The whole thing was rotted out, prior to me working on it, with only a cover of tarpaper and eave blocking to protect the roof underneath the eave. That area is completely sealed off once I install the sheeting from the garage roof. I will be planting a time capsule inside just before I close it up. I will have to think of something witty to put inside the bottle. If anybody has some hints let me know.

First day of shingling - approximately 130 sf of shingles put down. I was able to heft 5 bundles of shingles on to the roof, for Monday night's shingle party, before my back begged me to quit.

No No No --- No Rain Please

I peered through the darkness trying to see the ka-thunk I was hearing.
Am I dreaming?
I looked over and the alarm clock was dimly whispering 4:30.
Where was I?
Damn- It's raining. I ratcheted myself out of bed, ignoring the snapping sound of too tired joints and threw on my shorts and raincoat and hobbled outside.

All day, and all year, the rains never came, the rancho was forever dry even when communities within a 15 minute drive from my house were getting drenched and even touched by itty bitty tornadoes. My rancho is located in geographic trough. Surrounded by hills the rain clouds are pressed dry between the surrounding hills and smoggy skies, never making it to my part of town.

The last time I checked for rain was at 1:30 am, standing outside I could see the stars peeking through the patchwork of fluffy clouds.

I was gambling and I was winning until I fell asleep.

I think the rainclouds were playing hide and seek behind my orange trees.

There is nothing as invigorating as standing on your roof in shorts before dawn trying to unfurl 1500 square feet of plastic sheeting. Southeast I could see the dark clouds hovering so low it looked like I could throw rocks into them.

The roof over the front portion of my house is covered with wafer board, slowing water leaking into the attic, but the garage is wide open. The huge gaps between the 1950's roof boards allowed the rain to stream into the garage like water through a giant ribbed colander. The dirt previously on the top of the roof washed over everything, leaving behind a puddles filled with itty bitty tar chunks from the old roof. Now the garage smells like the loads of old roofing, removed a while back, and there are oily looking blotches on the concrete floor.

What a mess.

I Hate Acoustic Ceilings

Good Good Weekend.

I stripped the carpeting out of the master bedroom on Saturday morning
and prepped the room for paint. I used strips of carpeting to
temporarily lay in my hallway / gang way (hallways are wide - this is
more like a walkway on a ship). Like the other bedroom, all of the paint
that had been on the trim around the door frames had to come off. It was
practically pealing itself off. Used a scraper and a two inch putty
knife to remove the majority of the paint. The rest was removed using a
medium grit sanding block. The problem-- there are 4 doorways in my
bedroom ---- what dope designed this room? The initial plan was to
remove one of the closets and turn it into an alcove - not any more.

After the stripping was done I had to go to the city dump for my weekly
dump run. The load was light but bulky because it has carpeting and
padding mixed in with the roofing material. Only 8 bucks for this trip.

The dump run got a little scary. For some reason after I picked up my
son the Jeep started running hot. The engine temperature gage would
start to climb when the Jeep got moving - starting to move, for this
vehicle, is a major feat. When you step on the gas the Jeep makes a kind
of moaning noise, as if it trying to tell you to let it die. If we
idled at anyone spot the temperature would start to drop, but never
enough to say it was in normal operating temperature.

After we dumped the load the engine must have gotten a good rest because
she never went beyond operating temperature - even on the long hill
climb out of the dump.

By the time we got back Jane had the room walls painted a nice buttery
cream color. Glad I am not living there. She left the ceilings for me...
aren't' t I lucky?

Didn't quite finish the ceilings. Had about 9 square feet when the paint
can ran dry. These acoustic schtuff sucks paint.

Speaking of acoustic. Last Thursday I had a section of acoustic to
repair that was damaged by a water leak from the old roof. So I went and
bought a can of Homax, instant acoustic ceiling. Thinking this would be
an easy fix I masked off the wall next to the repair area, read the
warnings on the can and proceeded to spray. This stuff is like
projectile vomit in a can. I should have figured it out after reading
the warning when it said do not depress spray for more than a second -
but I didn't. I shook the can vigorously and aimed it at the ceiling. In
about 2 seconds the toothpaste colored vomit hit the ceiling and bounced
back. It splatted all over me, in my hair, in my face, in my eyes and in
the closet full of clothes about 5 feet behind me. And I still hadn't
cover the spot that I was trying to repair. Two cans later, and lots of
spattered toothpaste, I was done. So it cost over 30 dollars to fix what
I figured would cost me about 5 and lots of clean up time.

I hate accoustic ceilings.

Sunday -

I finally found someone to help with the roof. My ex-nephew. Between the
two of us and in about 7 hours we got the about 250 square feet of
roofing removed from garage. The trailer was full- otherwise we could
have finished the roof in one day. Darn.

My son also came along so we finished moving the walkway between the
sidewalk and the street. Several weeks earlier I had the city remove the
tree from the front of the house because I found, what I called, a
Hobbit Hole. The whole under side of the tree was rotting out and I
noticed the bark buckling in the same area. One good Santa Ana wind and
the whole mess would go over. Turns out the tree was planted over my
sewer and water lines so I decided to move my walkway over it. Mission
complete except for transplanting some of the plants.

The last thing we did as a team was pickup a load of sheathing for the
roof and lunch. My son and Lenny moved the sheathing up to the roof so
that is staged for the next step. Cool.

Dead Tired.....

My Mom's Birthday was Wednesday so I decided to make a quick run up to
Modesto that morning. Left the house at 5 AM arrived at lunch time. The
new truck beat the hell out of my back and the gas bill for the trip has
doubled. But my mom was glad to see me, especially when I handed here a
slice of triple chocolate cheesecake from Marie Callendars. She lives in
a nursing home North of Modesto.

I had to remind her about my move to Ohio. She cried.

I left about 10:30 that same night and headed home. Had to catch some
sleep twice on the side of the road. I cannot drive at night. No amount
of Red Bull, Flying J coffee or sugary snacks will keep me awake. I made
it home in time to get 30 minutes or so of sleep and head back to work,
Thursday morning. How refreshing.... (sarcasm).

I kept falling asleep on the 91 Freeway parking lot. I hate that. So do
all the people behind me too.

When I got home Thursday I had to catch a little more shut-eye.

I crashed on the couch in front of my half eaten Del Taco bean burrito.
When I woke up at 8:30 pm it was too late to work on the roof so I ate
the rest of my burrito and drank the remaining bit of warm beer.
Then I went to prepping my now stripped Study.

Did you know that 50 year old paint just slides off the base boards when
you hit it with a scraper? So now my study, which looks like a snow
storm hit it because of the hole patching, has nekid base boards.

Should be able to start painting this weekend. And start stripping the
roof over the garage. And dump the trailer load of old carpet and tile
at the dump and do some yard work.

I am beat. Alcoholism is looking much better as a life goal.

7-13-2009 - The Heat is Staggering

The screams, like finger nails on a chalk board, were tearing my brain
into sinewy pieces. I stood up and threatened them with my tape measure,
yelling at my neighbors to quit having so much fun in their swimming
pool. They looked at me like I was a wet sasquatch and then continued to
ignore me while they played in the pool.

The new plywood deck is about 3/4's complete. The temperature in the
shade of my patio reached 115 degrees on Saturday and on Sunday it
exceeded 110. I have a new sunburn on half my chest and the top of my
Buddha Belly. Not even the hair will cover the glowing red patches up.
Maybe I should start applying Rogain to my chest.

James helped me load the plywood onto the roof - thank God. The
reflection off of the plywood made it hard to see the deck so I was
forced to wear my safety sunglasses which would fill up with sweat. What
a pain. I felt like a wet rag. If I left my hammer or my tape measure in
the sun they quickly became too hot to pickup so I chase the shade from
my Silver Maple to sit down, drink, rest and park my tools.

I fixed the gaping hole left by the roof rot and bug damage. I had to
replace/sister three of the rafters tails and replace about 12 square
feet of deck. The repairs take longer than doing the normal roof work
which really sets me behind. This is because I am constantly going from
the roof to the chop saw and back to the roof again. The rafter tails
are 1/2" thinner than a standard 2X6 so all the replacement wood had to
be ripped and then when it came time to matching the new tails to the
old tails I found that the wood from 1959 was a little over 1/8th inch
thicker. This meant that I had to not only rip the new wood but plane
the old wood to match. Never mind.... I can keep going on and on about
what a pain this is.

Having the new chop saw really saves time though. I finally had to break
down and purchase a new cordless drill. The batteries for my 12V Ryobi
refused to take a charge - even after spending $16.00 for a new charger
- the old one had no power. Sears came to the rescue with a 19.2V,
3/8ths drill driver, the $59.00 sale price was better than anything Home
Depot or Lowes was charging plus I get the Craftsman warranty.

Next Job--- complete the last 6 sheets of deck and do a complete nailing
(6 -12).... The boring part.

My New Way to Post....

This post is testing my ability to post my email to my blog so I can
update faster. I hate logging on to post.

Here is how I did it, for those of you who have never tried it:

http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=41452

My Leg is Missing

I barely heard the cracking noise and the next thing I see is my wheel barrel bouncing across the roof and no one is pushing.

It took me a second to get my wits. I looked down and both my gloved hands are on the shingle strewn deck and my left leg is missing from the top of my thigh down.

Looks like I just had my first accident. Fell right through the roof. At least it was just one leg. No blood and only a little bruising.

The good news is that I did clear off almost 300 square feet in about 2 hours, the bad news I was too tired to extricate myself out of the roof. I hate being stranded in the roof after dark. It sucks.

Here is the tool of the day. My Roof Bully. Which, as of tomorrow, will have another brother. I am buying a tool with a larger handle at a higher angle. I need to trade off a little to ease the pain on my back.

Dragon Fruit

Today's picture: My Dragon Fruit has bloomed.

Big as my hand and a plant covered with spikes.

It will be gone by the time I get back home from work.

My Eyes are Burning

My eyes are burning.

My back is giant knot and the Motrin stopped working hours ago.

No matter what I do the rotting road kill stench keeps penetrating every pore in my body.
The winds shift and the stench and grit are attacking my very being.
I want to dive in the nearest body of water to scrub and sterilize everything.

I hate the dump.

Load two of my second weekend of tearing off my roof. The Jeep is covered in filth, the trailer is filled with the black talcum dirt and I feel like I am living in my own private “Dirty Jobs” episode.

My roof is covered with three layers of material. The top two layers are the standard 3 tab shingles which have curled and lost most of their ability to withstand the hot California sun. The bottom layer is the stuff you find built up in far corners of industrial dumps. It’s a mix of glassy tar bits, dried bits of tar paper, razory shards of colored rock and fine silt.

The remains of the old rock roof blow all over. It falls between the cracks on the boards of my attic. It blows into the gaps in my screens and window and it move drifts into my neighbors’ yards like disintegrating dust devils.
It gets in your hair, down the back of your neck and likes to stick the my skin which is covered in sweat because my roof is about 15 degrees hotter than the 75 degree weather down under the shade tree in my front yard.

My redneck rig is loaded with about 900 lbs of the waste. You can’t pull it out with shovels, the stuff stacks like newspaper tossed into a pile. The only way to get is out is have my son stand at the end of the trailer yanking it off the tailgate by hand while I stand behind and push it in small heaps toward him.

Eight more loads to go. I need to pick up pace.

Someone needs to find a way to make dumps cleaner!

Ghost's of Cats Past

Good news:

Another male cat has taken the place of the gray one found dead under my Hibiscus.
A much smaller, all black male with a collar and a tag.
Woke me up about midnight with his loud caterwalling....

Good thing. I was getting nervous I would not be able to swear and use up my supply of Out on the smelly stains around my property.

Look at the Kitty Sleeping

What a great night. (sarcasm)

I get home late and get to finish mowing the lawn just as the sun begins to set. I move to the backyard and start sweeping up the remains of my weeding expedition in my side yard started the previous Sunday.

I turn to yank some weeds from the garden on my right and I spot the cat that has been spraying my garage, my car, my windows, and pretty much anything within firing range of a large male cat.

So I freeze and get ready to scare him off and realize he appears to be sleeping. So I give him a "hey" and he don't move. So I look closer into his Hibiscus and the Jasmine shelter. He is stretched out on his side just as confortable looking as can be.

Except for that line of ant walking across his matted gray fur and into his slightly agape mouth.

Kitty done died.

Looks like I have another mess to clean up. I was kind of wondering why my cats weren't doing their normal leg rubbing while I was working in that corner.

The Countdown Begins

I started this blog as a rant site about my neighborhood. Yes, I know, the title doesn't match the subject; like my life, change is inevitable and the subject is "a changing".

The new subject: New beginnings.

In the last 3 months I had two major changes in my life.
Number 1: I have finished a long and what seemed neverending task to complete my Bachelor's degree.
Number 2: I have accepted a new / old job and as a result I will be starting my life again in a new location.

Since No 1 is a done deal - almost (I will probably will be starting my Master's in the future) Number 2 will be the new subject.

The blog will chronicle the countdown to the big move which will take place in September of this year. Hopefully I can shut down, pack up and say good by to California with no regrets and as little anguish as possible.

So here I go...