Monday, December 17, 2012

ups and downs

Someone asked me the other day how I'm doing, really, since I sounded down whereas the last communication I'd had with this person sounded more up.  Well, this is how it is - it goes up and down.  I'm thinking not of the yo-yo variety, more like a carousel horse. 

One of the ups right now is, the roofer is ready to do the roof.  The associated down is, it has to stop raining for a couple of days for him to do it. 

I've got someone lined up to de-mold the attic where the roof was leaking.  But the roof has to get done first.  See above.

The same person suggested putting plastic over the missing ceiling to cut the draft, until the ceiling is ready to be replaced.  See two items above.

My Christmas lights look neat on the back deck.  They make me smile.

The small tree I had cut down a couple of weeks ago so it wouldn't be in the way of workers needing to use the crawlspace access hatch is still here, the trash people refused to pick it up.  They also refused to take my can of regular household trash, because it is near the tree pieces.  Ups and downs.

Pablo and I went for a walk on the beach Saturday afternoon, and met a man who was walking with a German Shepherd and a wolf.  Yes, a real wolf.  We got to meet her face to face, she liked me, she also liked Pablo, and he actually didn't try anything frisky with her.  Those blue eyes are amazing, I could feel her soul touching mine.

As we left the beach, I noticed smoke coming from a house where I knew noone has been since the storm.  We went over there, hoping it wasn't a fire.  It wasn't, thank goodness, but we stopped to talk to the owner of the house, who has been staying with friends somewhere else.  My mother knows her, they talk a lot about plants and stuff.  She knows Pablo.  While her house wasn't on fire, it got washed thru by the storm, several feet of water inside (it's a one-story, so it destroyed everything), and it looks as though it's been knocked slightly off the foundation.  Maybe a few inches.  Enough to present a serious problem.  So aside from losing the contents, and the new kitchen and bathroom she'd had done last summer, and the garage (which had a guest suite and a lot of stuff in it), the whole house, which is a lovely cedar bungalow, is in danger.  Probably fixable, but definitely expensive. 

So yes, my mood does tend to swing just a bit, now and then. 

Another issue has to do with my garage door.  It no longer opens.  There's no other way to get into the garage.  So far none of the contractors I've spoken with on other issues does garage doors.  The people I had do the garage door across the street, when I owned that house, too, were so bad I hope I never even see them again, much less want to hire them. 

Not a crisis, per se, but if it snows I'm in trouble, my snow shovel is inside there.  I hear it's supposed to snow next week.  If anyone is listening, please, we do not need a white Christmas this year.  Please cancel the snow, or even better, donate it to someone with a ski slope, so they can have a better season.

The post office is now delivering mail here.  So I don't have to go once or twice a week to pick things up.  That's a good thing, but I think I'll miss seeing people who live here but can't right now, because their houses are wrecked, who I would run into on line at the post office.  It was a good community type thing, picking up the mail.  We don't have too many of those opportunities anymore, to just meet up with and talk to people who live nearby.  You'd get a sense of being in this together with a lot of other folk, which you don't have when you're alone and trying to put your house back together.

Ups and downs.  Yeah.  Lots of those.

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