Science Monkey

Okay, let’s get this story out of the way.

As I alluded to the other day, Emma and I came home to a slightly damp house, not just because we live in Florida. We came home to a damp house because we live in Florida where the roofers sometimes forget to cover an open roof with a tarp for the daily rainstorm. Grr.

The reason behind the new roof is somewhat complex, but I’ll try to simplify it. As many of you know, we rent our house from Emma’s folks in a situation that works well for all interested parties. Unfortunately, due to the recent hurricanes and such, many insurance companies are not writing policies for rental properties, meaning that Emma’s dad had to find a new company to cover his mortgage insurance. Not a huge deal, but a pain. The new insurance company’s inspector seemed to be overall pleased with the condition of the house, other than the age of the roof. The roof — the solid, intact roof — was greater than 18 years old, so to get the insurance coverage it had to be replaced. In a way that seemed clever at the time, the re-roofing was scheduled for the week that we would be out of town.

So, while we’re enjoying ourselves with the llamas and the lack of oxygen up in the mountains, the old roof is torn off and the new roof was put on. Unfortunately — and I honestly don’t completely understand how this happened — the roofers left on Tuesday with the roof incomplete and uncovered. This being Florida, there was a torrential rainstorm that afternoon and the water poured into the house, drenching our kitchen and our bedroom. There are water stains on the ceiling, the tiles on the kitchen floor are peeling up and bubbling, and our mattress was completely soaked. Water also came into our bedroom closet, soaking most of Emma’s clothes and about half of mine.

Let me interject at this point that we have some amazing friends, including Angela, who was feeding the cats and chickens while we were away. She must have spent a full day’s work being our intermediary with the roofers, cleaning, and doing laundry at the house. She did such an amazing job that I can hardly even believe it. By the time we got home our mattress was dry and the bedsheets had been cleaned, so we could sleep in our own bed, and the vast, vast majority of the water was gone. Just amazing. I don’t think we can thank her enough.

Emma and I met with the roofing company’s owner and the project manager this morning, who have been really helpful in getting this resolved. We went through and showed him the damage and he promised to do whatever we needed to get it fixed. I think we want to replace the mattress — although it’s dry, it just feels odd — and we’re having a painting company come look at the ceiling. All in all, the damage wasn’t quite as bad as we had feared.

The next story will be more fun, I promise. Maybe some mountain climbing adventures?

Most of my pictures are now online for the Colorado Reunionfest. I’m still working on the descriptions and such, but they’re at least viewable. Hope you enjoy!

If you’re reading this, I suspect you know Emma and myself. I’ll try to simplify everybody’s relationships, but it’s a bit of a muddle, to be honest. Hold on tight.

Abby: Emma’s mom and essentially the nucleus around which this reunion formed.

Mike G.: Abby’s first husband.

Larry G.: Abby and Mike’s older son. His son, Max, wasn’t able to come.

Deborah G.: Abby and Mike’s older daughter. Her son, Ben Z., was there, but her husband, Mike Z., couldn’t come.

Jenny K.: Abby and Mike’s younger daughter. Arranged the entire event (Yay, Jenny!) and attended with her husband, Brad K., and son, Sam K.

David G.: Abby and Mike’s younger son. Was there with his wife, Lorrie G., and children, Joseph G. and Sarah G.

Vince L.: Abby’s current husband and Emma’s dad.

Teresa S.: Mike’s second wife. Attended with her wife, Susan J., and their twin children, Isabelle (Izzy) and James.

Billy and Eli D.. Two of Abby’s cousins.

Susan S.: Another of Abby’s cousins. Attended with her s.o., Stuart.

Priscilla C.: Abby’s sister. Attended with her daughter, (”the older”) Sarah.

Ellen: Mike’s sister.

Judy: Mike’s current wife.

Ben: David G.’s friend, who came to join us for the last few days. His partner, Bruce, came up for the last evening (with his tuba).

Barb: Jenny K.’s friend, who also came up for the last few days.

Is that it? I’m sure I’m forgetting somebody. Hmmm. At any rate, counting friends and children, that’s 30 people at the reunion, at varying times. I think we averaged about 25 at the llama ranch over any given night.

We’re home, to a slightly damp house. (Story to come later)

Pictures and adventurous tales to come later, but for now, bed.

At one point late Sunday morning I found myself literally shivering as stress and anxiety washed over my body.

Friday night: the backup air conditioner died. After a few fruitless calls to friends and family in search of a couch for the night and the realization that a motel would cost at least $50 each night, we drove to Lowe’s at 8:30 PM and bought a new wall unit for the converted garage. We took out the old, dead unit, installed the new one, and insulated with rolled-up blankets. Not ideal, but sufficient, and enough to allow us to sleep comfortably, even if it was for less time than we might have chosen.

Saturday morning: After breakfast, Emma and I went back to Lowe’s to buy new molding and insulation to finish the a/c installation. We had just started to figure out how we wanted to do it when Emma’s cell phone went off, saying she was late to work. Work she didn’t know she was scheduled for. Work that took away her first day off in two weeks.

Saturday afternoon: High point of the weekend. I did a little work and played a little WoW. Emma got some sleep, before having to work the overnight shift.

Saturday night: Nightmares. Recurring dreams of being paralyzed and unable to speak, presumably linked to anxiety over my looming committee meeting.

Sunday morning: Lowest point. Tiger dies. Racking pangs of shock and sorrow and grief. Much of the rest of the morning is a blur. I know we eventually took her cage outside — having the empty cage was clearly going to be too heart-wrenching — and had to find some food before Emma collapsed. In an attempt to keep ourselves moving (I would have chosen to lie down on the couch and done nothing), we went back to Lowe’s and bought the materials to close up the hole around the a/c. By Sunday afternoon we found ourselves out at my folks’ house, who have been wonderfully helpful and supportive. Emma had a good nap and I floated in the pool for an hour, doing and thinking about nothing.

Sunday evening: We buried Tiger under a Korean dogwood, next to the garden. We gave her lots of treats, her favorite chew toy, and a lot of sand, which she loved to play in.

My committee meeting went decently on Monday, which was a huge relief. They seemed pleased with the progress I’ve made in the last month and want to see me again in another month. Work harder, work harder.

The air conditioner installers were out at the house this morning to replace the main unit. Naturally, we won’t be able to replace just the outside unit — codes, you know — so at the moment I’m waiting to hear from the credit union about financing. If approved, they’ve offered us an 11.5% interest rate, which seems like a decent sign that we’ll be approved, but we’re still waiting. Once the financing is approved, it will take about three days to get the unit ordered, delivered, and installed. In fact, if I can get this ordered by 2 PM tomorrow, we can have the air conditioner installed on Friday. I can live with that.

Emma:

Emma had carpal tunnel release on her left wrist on Thursday. She’s doing well, but before the surgery she had to get just one more row done. Hahaha.

Dear Rain,

Thank you for coming again, at long last. I think it’s been about three weeks since we last saw each other. It’s been awfully hot around these parts for the past week, so you bring a much-appreciated breath of cool air. Plus, it’s not so muggy now, which is totally awesome.

Also I’d like to thank you for waiting to arrive until the afternoon, so Emma and I could go to the Spring Arts Festival. It was fantastic, as always, and we bought some nice new objets d’artre. One of my favorite local painters, Peter Carolin, designed the poster this year, so I was very excited to be able to afford a piece of his art. Some day, when I have more money than I know what to do with, I’m going to buy actual paintings, but for now I’m very happy with the poster. I’ll want to get it framed, I suppose, but that can probably wait until my TA money comes in.

We also got some new pieces of jewelry. Emma got a new pair of earrings and a matching ear cuff, then convinced me to get an ear cuff myself. It’s blue rather than purple, and I think it looks okay. It’ll take some getting used to, but should stave off my desire for knuckle tattoos for a little longer. Heh.

Time to get a little more work done before the guild tries to knock off the last few bosses in Karahan tonight. Type to you tomorrow.

Torrentially,

A.

Emma and I spent some time Sunday morning refreshing our fish tank. We have a 29-high in our living room which has been largely neglected over the past few months, causing it to be covered in algae. Sunday morning we cleaned the glass, siphoned out as much of the crud as we could from the gravel, replaced much of the water, and bought some new fish.

We bought a whole mess of “tropical community” fish which should play together nicely. Although the quality of the above picture isn’t great (clearly my cellphone camera needs better lighting than what we have in the house), you can see some of the new lovelies. We got a few different kinds of mollies (the ones with the oversized bellies, red swordtails and white lyretails), tuxedo guppies, red platys, a half dozen zebra danios, and about six neon tetras. And two black snails. And some live plants. And…

I’m really happy that we did this. I spent about an hour on Sunday afternoon sitting in the recliner, just watching the fish swim around. It was wonderfully peaceful and relaxing.

For reals! So it’s been a while since I’ve rapped at ya, for which I’m sorry. I hope you had a nice long weekend, with perhaps a little marching yesterday? I did not march, for I am not much of an activist, mostly because I’m lazy. I don’t have anything exciting to share, but I’d like to ramble a little and let you know I’m not dead.

Emma had a couple of days off (in a row!) this weekend, so we got to spend some nice time together. Much of the time was spent sleeping, as we were both bitten by a tsetse fly, I guess, but at least it was time together. We also dragged her mom bowling on Sunday morning which was hella-fun. I bowled remarkably well, too, which always makes the time more fun. Well, maybe not remarkably well, but certainly above average. For me. Yay. If you ever want to go bowling with us, let me know. We tend to go Sunday mornings after breakfast, when it’s both cheap and empty. Good times.

I worked some more on my scarf, too, finishing another dozen rows or so. It’ll get done, eventually, but not anytime soon. That’s okay. I’ve got the bag sitting on by the couch, so whenever I sit to watch more than five minutes of TV I make myself do a row or two, which I’m hoping will get me in the habit. I’m supposed to get my camera back from my folks tonight, so I’ll try to get a few pictures up before I go to bed. I’ve made a few mistakes but am pleased with how it’s going. Early in the knitting I somehow added a stitch…I think I went through a particularly thick bit of yarn but can’t figure out where. And yesterday I noticed a screwy edge — it had a little indentation in it — and found a loop that I had evidently dropped. Hee hee. Oh well. These little things give it character, right?

Speaking of character, I wore my hat for my walk to work today. I’ve got this really nice, leather hat that I wish I wore more often (visible in my Happy New Year picture a few posts down), but am too much of a chicken to wear outside. Consequently, I wear it while playing WoW on the computer. It was cold this morning, though, and I couldn’t find my knit hat, so what else is a boy to do? I wore my favorite navy sweater, a scarf that Emma made me a few years ago, and my hat and I think I cut a rather dapper profile, if I do say so myself. I caught a few people smiling at me as I walked, but it was smiling in a friendly manner, not a OMG-what-a-tool manner. Or so I choose to believe.

Back to work. Type to you later.