It's Always Sumthin'

Note the drip within the circle. One of many.

As I was preparing to retire for the evening, Sunday last, I could hear the wind and rain increasing outside my window. Checking the weather forecast, I saw that very heavy rains and very high winds were expected during the overnight hours into Monday.

Oh joy.

I went to bed, but what with all the howling and driving rain 'gainst the side of Chez Sarge, sleep was long in coming. I started a countdown around midnight.

Midnight. [Groan] Well, I can get six hours of sleep before I have to get up. I can hack that.

One AM? Seriously? Five hours, I've got through work with less. Might as well read for a while.

Two AM. Guess I better try and sleep. Four hours will be rough, but I've done it before.

Then at 3 AM I am awakened by a frantic feline. Seems that Sasha wants me to get up for some reason.

What's wrong girl? Did Tuna fall in the well again? It's okay baby, it's not time to get up yet. Uh, why do I hear water running? Did I leave the water on in the bathroom sink? Sounds awfully loud for that.

I swear that cat followed me into the bathroom meowing all the way, I think what she was saying was -

No, you idiot! It's not in the bathroom, follow me!

So I did. Damn it.

Pissing through the lintel atop the closet opening (that first photo is what's called foreshadowing) was something like this -

(Source)

Yes, a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. Not when being awakened out of a sound sleep (finally, and doesn't that figure) and finding that the floor in the computer room in front of the closet is awash with more water pouring in from the overhead.

I half expected to hear this...

Followed by the sounds of depth charges splashing into the water overhead.

Well, not really. I was too busy yelling fire truck and mustering all of the trash cans and towels I could find. I may have uttered a few Germanic phrases as well. The progeny have noted in the past my ability to swear in multiple languages. (I know a couple of bad words in French and Russian as well. I tend to bring out the entire repertoire when stressed.)

Yeah, just like that. Without the strafing aircraft. Without the red lighting. Certainly there were no fireworks aloft.

Just me, and the cats watching, manning the bucket brigade.

As it was the middle of the night, I had no real hope of getting my guy to come out to fix the damage caused by the storm. But I called him anyway, left a message. He actually responded via text that he would call me in the morning. Well, yes, it was morning, going on 0400 as a matter of fact, but I assumed he meant "morning when the sun is up."

Now I wonder, as I write this, just how much this is going to cost. When the rain had let up, I could tell because the waterfall slowed down, I went outside with flashlight in hand (that would be a torch to my British and Commonwealth readers) to see what I could see.

Wasn't much, but a couple of shingles on the front of the house looked somewhat the worse for wear. I can imagine what the top might look like. We had gusts in the 60 mph range, so I don't know. Maybe the insurance will cover some of it.

My guy showed up around 0930, though we had swapped a number of texts beforehand as to the color of the shingles on the roof and the type. Dark gray, architectural (I think) and oh yeah, I have about ten left over from when the job was done 14 years ago. He likes to hit the ground running. While I was his first stop on the road to fixing leaking roofs, I wasn't his last.

Turns out that the winds in parts of Little Rhody were gusting to over 100 mph Sunday night into Monday morning. While I doubt we got that high, the winds were coming in at 60+ at times. Stripped off a section of shingles right down to the bare wood right above that closet door in the computer room.

My leftover shingles were enough to finish the job. Cost me 3 and a half C-Notes. Which hurts but isn't all that bad, so I'm told.

I informed The Missus Herself (who is forward deployed to Virginia for the nonce) and she was less than pleased. She is under the impression that roofs should last forever. While I am in agreement with her on that, I know that that isn't really realistic. Still and all, beats replacing the roof entirely.

For now.

As Buck was wont to say, "It's always sumthin'."