Blessings?

Nancy has been asking for a deck on the back of her house for over a year now. My reply was always no. No one else in this cul-de-sac we own has a deck.

She finally got my attention by saying "the step is too high I can't get in the back door." Nancy has a bad hip and she won the argument. Although the day after I put the deck on, when she asked me when I was going to put the railing around it, she just about got it taken back off.

We have a policy of no dogs on chains. It is written into our leases. I have looked the other way on the dog tied part of the time to this tree. This week I saw the dog had gotten the chain to spin around the tree. Another couple of weeks and I think the tree will be cut down. The tree will die now anyway. It has been rung.

I started putting a new roof on a house this week. I usually put up scaffolding now. I am getting old and Micah wasn't around to help. Sharon asked how long it would take for me to get it done. I said, "well Micah and Matthew would finish in about 4 hours. I figure about 4 days should be about right for me to get it done." 

When Micah and Matthew were putting on roofs professionally a man once asked if the bill would be less if he carried the bundles of shingles to them. 4 young guys, 2 with nail guns and 2 feeding them shingles. The man told me, "every 90 seconds I had to have a bundle on the roof to keep up. Every 90 seconds!" I'm not that fast.

I hate moving the scaffolding. I am not that fond of setting it up, but I really hate moving it. Yes there are wheels, but they always seem to be setting sideways and working as brakes. Did I mention I hate moving scaffolding. 

I was hoping to get the North side finished on Thursday. Started our air compressor and climbed up on the roof. The compressor just kept running. I looked over the edge of the roof and I could see the gauge. It read 100 pounds. That is barely enough to drive the nails and it should have been at 150 pounds with 125 in the air line. I went down and shut it off and restarted it (I know that is a vain hope but it works with computers and compressor is sort of a similar word) Nope still only 100 pounds of pressure. I shut it off and blew the tanks empty (twin tank compressor) and tapped on the regulator and lines. Then I restarted it and it went all the way up to 15 pounds. Wow that really fixed the problem. So my solution was buy a new compressor. Couldn't get into the first store I tried. Had to call them and they had to call me back (they did call back 6 hours later). Went to another store and choices were a small one that would not feed a roof nailer or one so big it was meant to be stationary. As I was looking at the lousy choices a man sidled up to me and said, "go to Walmart, they carry them in the store and I have had mine from there for years and it runs all my air tools". So I did what I never thought I would do, bought a tool at Walmart. Look at what covid 19 has driven me to. Sad!

As I was dropping one of the last bundles of shingles on the roof, I did not get my hand out from under it quick enough. The bundle slid down the roof a couple of inches. I pulled my hand out and thought, wow that hurts and I don't see any damage. Then I noticed that even though it looked normal the shingles had sanded a couple of layers of skin off. Right then was when the blood just started to seep through the remaining skin.

Left a few trails of blood on the roof but I finished the north side on schedule.

Friday I finished the large section of the south side and tore down the scaffolding. All I had left for Saturday was that small 6 foot section to the right.

Then Micah told me he wanted to work on his house on Saturday.

Friday late afternoon we went to Home Depot in Des Moines to pick up flooring. We waited 45 minutes for them to bring it out and load it. Then I thought, I am not driving back through Des Moines the way google maps sent us to Home depot. I am going to drop down to the bypass. Was merrily driving along when we saw the sign. Off ramp closed at University. So we were blessed and got to drive 10 more miles through Altoona. Lucky us. 

Micah wanted a wall removed before we laid the flooring. See all the electrical wires in the wall? I had told him I was going to be on vacation when he removed that wall. Well that didn't work out for me. We had to trace all the wires, disconnect and rerun them today. 

I am getting smarter. I take a picture of 3 way switches before disconnecting them. Too many ways to not put them back together correctly and then it becomes a game of trial and error. We had all the wires reconnected and Micah turned the breaker back on. All the lights worked first time out. Now that is close to a miracle. 

Where we took out the wall and a built in book case, we need to fill in some sub flooring. I told Micah I would see what we had in storage. I found this piece of 3/4 in wood. That is not a piece of plywood. It is a board that is 22 1/4 inches wide sawn out of a log. I do not remember what house we pulled it out of, but I would like to know when the last time was you could by a board over 20 inches wide. Seems a shame to cut it down to the 16 inches we need.

It was a week of progress and pain. Deck built, roof almost on, wall removed , that's progress. Tree killed, air compressor replaced, finger sanded down, that's pain. Life is filled with good and bad. How you respond to the pain and joys of life will dictate your attitude and emotional and mental state. I know many are stressed now because life is not normal. Take a deep breath and look for the blessings in your life. Maybe, ask God to open your eyes to see the blessings he is giving you right now. Maybe, after you talk to God, start making a list of all the good things in your life. If you are at all like me, the blessings far out weigh any pain.