Water Water Everywhere
After two weeks of constant rain with no end in sight I decided to go ahead and put up the roof on my little pitch located on the back of my garage.
Now Sat. would have been the perfect day to have done it. It was bright and sunny. Not too hot or too cold. But I got caught up playing Sammy Pope Jr. at the final Pope Estate settlement. Since my dad found out about it on late notice there was no way he could make it down for the event. So I was there in his absence.
Now I am not that personable when it comes to family. My Dad has 8 brothers and sisters with each one of them (except one) having kids and most having grandkids and some having great grandkids. Needless to say there was a lot of people there some of which I hardly have anything in common with other than the bloodline. The problem with family is you can't really say "go to hell" or any other youthisims if they treat you like an inferior. So I was worried from the start. I had to act like an adult, play Sammy Pope Jr., and not really say anything cause I was just a grandkid; let me tell you it was not fun.
With an estate settlement it could have been very nerve racking dealing with all of these individuals at once, but my Uncle Joe did a great job explaining everything and it was very civil. I knew I had a few task at hand that my father told me I need to take care of for him. I had to remove the rest of my fathers stuff from inside the house and a few things from outside. Little did I know that since I "had a truck" (I guess that is all the qualifications it takes -- or maybe it was the fact I was a grandkid and could be told what to do?) that I got to take things off to the dump, drop stuff off at other peoples houses and elected to come back at a later date to remove other unwanted items. Luckily it wasn't that bad thanks to my cousin Robby and two other cousins from Argentina.
But needless to say it ended up consuming my entire day.
So Sunday it was for putting up the little roof.
But in small town American nothing really opens till noon on Sundays and by that time it had begun to sprinkle. I knew I had to get it done cause the rain was to continue the entire week. So I picked up a few shingles and preceded home. By the time I actually started working it was pouring down rain. I am not sure if any of you have tried putting up shingles in the rain but let me tell you it is not that much fun.
Since I am no carpenter my little pitch wasn't that sturdy which meant no possible way to actually climb on it. This wasn't that big of a problem due to the small size of the area to be covered by shingles. I reached most of the area by standing on a ladder with the other part I had planned on laying on the garage roof and nailing backwards. The first part went pretty well in the rain. Other than me getting a little wet I had no major hiccups. That was until I got on the roof to nail up the shingles backwards. I got a little disoriented b doing it upside down and one row of shingles about half way down got a little skewed. I also found out I could hammer with my left hand better than I originally thought. I got really scrapped up from laying on the shingles. My knees and elbows have strawberries on them. Ohh yea and did I mention by this time is was really pouring? But any-who I got it done and looks good enough. It will keep rain off the back wall and give me a little more storage space for my junk.
Later that night Heidi and I got to eat dinner with our friends Glenn & Valerie and got to hear about there extended family problems. I guess its good to know that most everybody has a pretty messed up families.
