Saturday, September 2, 2017

Day 2809

If I wind up in hell, I'll probably be fixing a leaking roof for eternity. This is the worst job. It's messy. You get stung by wasps and bitten by fire ants. It's almost impossible to tell if your repairs are any good until it rains again. Worst of all, if you get too tired, there is always the danger of falling off the roof. I'll really be glad when I'm finished with this little project. No matter how careful I am, I always wind up with the sticky silicon coating on my hands and clothing. I try to wear the oldest, most threadbare pants I can find, because if I spill the elastomer coating on them, I pretty much have to throw them away.

The area I patched a few days ago has cured and seems to have bonded well to the roof. Today it was time for round two. When I started this project, I thought I'd just need to re-coat the fairly small areas that had worn bare. Now I'm realizing that the damage extends much further, because water has gotten under the coating and caused it to delaminate. I'm going to have to go buy some more paint rollers. You can't clean the rollers after you use them to spread the material. Maybe the roofers have a way to clean their tools, but it probably involves some dangerous solvent that I don't want around the house. It's much easier to just throw the paint rollers away. I want to finish this project before the oak leaves start falling. Already some leaves are starting to fall off the elm tree and when they land in the wet elastomer, they are there permanently. On a more positive note, when the coating cures properly, it seems to be impervious to water. If they'd put this stuff on in the roof in the first place, I wouldn't be having the problems I'm having today.

The place I got gas yesterday was empty today. So was the Chevron station where I saw the gasoline tanker yesterday. Evidently it didn't take long to empty the place out again. A few stations actually are being replenished with gas. There just doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to the process. Most stations were still empty today, but I did see one station with a line of cars at the pumps. They say Quick Trip stations are more likely to have gas, since they get their supplies from Oklahoma instead of South Texas. I wonder how long this shortage will last? Contrary so what some in the media are saying, this isn't a one day event. I did learn something from all this. My car runs a lot better on regular gas than I thought. The owners manual says to never use regular gas, but so far I can't tell any difference.

It's time to mow the grass again. I usually only mow when my neighbors mow their grass. Yard shaming is actually fairly effective. If I mow the grass, I won't have the energy to go up on the roof again. That's just as well. It really takes two days for the patches to cure anyway. The only reason to hurry on the roof repairs is if there was rain on the horizon. I think we're looking good. The completely inaccurate weather app on my phone says there will be clear skies for at least a week.

I wonder why Dash is so moody in the evenings now. This is something new. He barks at me while I'm writing the blog and if I don't stop what I'm doing and pay attention to him, he starts knocking books off low shelves with his paws. I always get up and see if he needs to go outside and pee, but usually he heads straight for the kitchen. The little shit just wants more food.

I got another jury summons in the mail. I guess I'll postpone this one too. I just don't feel up to dealing with jury duty now.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day
Watch of the Day